This general willingness on the part of the American people to take far distant territory, with the responsibilities that accrue with it, is at the same time surprising and yet inevitable. Surprising, in that it laid down by Washington, the Founder of direst opposition to the principles this Republic, and adhered to through more than a century; inevitable, since the American manufacturer has just learned that he can compete with men of other nations in the markets of the world, and it is plain that to keep these markets open to him, the United States must take a place with other nations in dealing with the affairs of the world must be in a position to have its claims and demands given attention to.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.