The Theodore Roosevelt Centennial CD-ROM

Every expansion of civilization makes for peace.

In other words, every expansion of a great civilized

power means a victory for law, order, and

righteousness. This has been the case in every instance

of expansion during the present century, whether the

expanding power were France or England, Russia or

America. In every instance the expansion has been of

benefit, not so much to the power nominally benefited,

as to the whole world. In every instance the result

proved that the expanding power was doing a duty to

civilization far greater and more important than could

have been done by any stationary power. (1900.) Mem.

Ed. XV, 286-287; Nat. Ed. XIII, 336.

can interest; and with these gentry there is no use

dealing at all. Whether from credulity, from timidity or

from sheer lack of patriotism, their attitude during the

war was as profoundly, un-American as was that of the

"Copperheads" in 1861. Starting from the position of

desiring to avoid war even when it had become

inevitable if our national honor was to be preserved,

they readily passed into a frame of mind which made

them really chagrined at every American triumph, while

they showed very poorly concealed satisfaction over

every American shortcoming; and now they permit

their hostility to the principle of expansion to lead them

into persistent effort to misrepresent what is being done

in the islands and parts of islands which we have

actually conquered. (Outlook , January 7, 1899.) Mem.

Ed. XII, 518-519; Nat. Ed. XI, 248-249.

IMPERIALISM, AMERICAN. The simple truth is

that there is nothing even remotely resembling

"imperialism" or "militarism" involved in the present

development of that policy of expansion which has

been part of the history of America from the day when

she became a nation. The words mean absolutely

nothing as applied to our present policy in the

Philippines; for this policy is only imperialistic in the

sense that Jefferson's policy in Louisiana was

imperialistic; only military in the sense that Jackson's

policy toward the Seminoles or Custer's toward the

Sioux embodied militarism. . . .

There is no more militarism or imperialism in

garrisoning Luzon until order is restored than there was

imperialism in sending soldiers to South Dakota in

1890 during the Ogillallah outbreak. The reasoning

which justifies our having made war against Sitting

Bull also justifies our having checked the outbreaks of

Aguinaldo and his followers, directed, as they were

against Filipino and American alike. (Letter accepting

nomination for Vice-Presidency, September 15, 1900.)

Mem. Ed. XVI, 556-557; Nat. Ed. XIV, 368-369.

IMPERIALISM AND PEACE. With a barbarous

nation peace is the exceptional condition. On the border

between civilization and barbarism war is generally

normal because it must be under the conditions of

barbarism. Whether the barbarian be the Red Indian on

the frontier of the United States, the Afghan on the

border of British India, or the Turkoman who confronts

the Siberian Cossack, the result is the same. In the long

run civilized man finds he can keep the peace only by

subduing his barbarian neighbor; for the barbarian will

yield only to force, save in instances so exceptional that

they may be disregarded. . . .

IMPERIALIST WAR. The very causes which render

this struggle between savagery and the rough front rank

of civilization so vast and elemental in its consequence

to the future of the world, also tend to render it in

certain ways peculiarly revolting and barbarous. It is

primeval warfare, and it is waged as war was waged in

the ages of bronze and of iron. All the merciful

humanity that even war has gained during the last two

thousand years is lost. It is a warfare where no pity is

shown to noncombatants, where the weak are harried

without ruth, and the vanquished maltreated with

merciless ferocity. A sad and evil feature of such

warfare is that the whites, the representatives of

civilization, speedily sink almost to the level of their

barbarous foes, in point of hideous brutality. (1894.)

Mem. Ed. XI, 276; Nat. Ed. IX, 58.

"IN GOD WE TRUST." When the question of the

new coinage came up we looked into the law and found

there was no warrant therein for Putting "IN GOD WE

TRUST" on the coins. As the custom, although without

legal warrant, had grown up, however, I might have felt

at liberty to keep the inscription had I approved of its

being on the coinage. But as I did not approve of it, I

did not direct that it should again be put on. Of course

the matter of the law is absolutely in the hands of

Congress, and any direction of Congress in the matter

will be immediately obeyed. At present, as I have said,

there is no warrant in law for the inscription.

My own feeling in the matter is due to my very

firm conviction that to put such a motto

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