Unfettered: A NovelGriggs, Sutton E. (Sutton Elbert)
General
Unfettered: A Novel
Griggs, Sutton E. (Sutton Elbert)
African Americans -- Fiction; United States -- Race relations -- Fiction
"I am thoroughly displeased with the policy of the Republican party toward
the inhabitants of the Philippine Islands, and in spite of the endearing
relations of the past, I am moved to part company with the party on this
issue," remarked Dorlan.
"Oh, I am an enthusiastic expansionist, Mr.----."
"Warthell is my name," supplied Dorlan.
"Mr. Warthell," said Morlene, the glow of eloquence on her face, "I have a
dream. I dream that wars and revolutions shall one day cease. The
classification of mankind into groups called nations, affords a feeling of
estrangement which destroys or modifies the thought of universal
brotherhood, and gives rise to the needless bickerings which result in
wars. I delight in any movement that sweeps away these pseudo-national
boundaries. The more separate nations that are congealed under one head,
the less is the area where conflicts are probable. When the tendency to
consolidate finally merges all governments into one, wars shall cease. Our
territorial expansion is but the march of destiny toward the ultimate goal
of all things. I am delighted to see our nation thus move forward, because
we have such an elastic form of government, so responsive to the needs and
sentiments of the people that bloody revolutions become unnecessary
wherever our flag floats. Just think how much our expansion makes for
universal peace by erasing the thought of separateness existing between
peoples, and giving to the federated powers such an ideal form of
government.
"When our flag floats over the whole of the Western Hemisphere there will
be nobody over here to fight us; we shall not fight among ourselves and we
shall dare the European and Asiatic powers to go to war."
"You are indeed an expansionist," remarked Dorlan.
"Yes, yes," said Morlene, wrought up in the subject that was stirring the
American people.
"Some are expansionists for the sake of finding outlets for the
ever-increasing excess of our production. They hold that we are producing
far more than what we can consume, and must have outside buyers to avoid a
terrible congestion at home. Others are expansionists on the ground that
outlying possessions are a strategetical necessity in the time of war. Our
statesmen are expansionists, some of them, because our nation's becoming a
world power gives a broader scope for their intellects. Some are
expansionists because they desire to see weaker people have the benefits of
a higher civilization. While I admit the possible weight of these various
contentions, my interest in expansion is broadly humanitarian. England was
at one time a seething mass of warring tribes. The expansion of a central
power over the entire islands brought order out of chaos. Let the process
extend to the entire earth as fast as honorable opportunity presents
itself, and may the stars and stripes lead in the new evangel of universal
peace." Thus spoke Morlene.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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