The following publication of Albert J. Beveridge’s powerful speech, strongly advocates the annexation of the Philippines, which took a virtually major relationship between religion, race, and profit for imperial expansion. The most striking point about Albert J. Beveridge text, however is his five poorly thought out reasons justifiying Americas to colonize the Phillippines, which were religion, trade, keeping up with other countries, resources, and “barbarous” natives.
Albert J. Beveridge, a first-term Republican senator from Indiana, was one of the most ardent advocates of imperialism. Noted for his speaking abilities and fervent nationalism, Beveridge traveled to the Philippines in order to gather information. In Albert J. Beveridge’s 1900
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Especially with the Philippines being the closest trading port for the US. But nothing is so natural as trade with one's neighbors. The Philippines make us the nearest neighbors of the East. Nothing is more natural than to trade with those you know. This is the philosophy of all advertising. The Philippines bring us permanently face to face with the most sought-for customers of the world. National prestige, national propinquity, these and commercial activity are the elements of commercial success. The Philippines give the first; the characters of the American people supply the last. It is a providential conjunction of all the elements of trade, of duty, and of power. If we are willing to go to war rather than let England have a few feet of frozen Alaska, which affords no market and commands none, what should we not do rather than let England, Germany, Russia, or Japan have all the Philippines? And no man on the spot can fail to see that this would be their fate if we retired. Now with the profit of trading supplies, the wood of the Philippines can supply the furniture of the world for a century to come and the wood, hemp, copra, and other products of the Philippines supply what the U.S needs and cannot