Democratic Party Quotes

The people of the Island of Cuba are, and of right ought to be, free and independent… it is the duty of the United States to demand, and the Government of the United States does hereby demand, that the Government of Spain at once relinquish its authority and government in the Island of Cuba and withdraw its land and naval forces from Cuba and Cuban waters.

We must have the Floridas and Cuba.

Let it be signified to me through any channel ... that the possession of Florida is desirable to the United States, and in sixty days it will be accomplished. [It was.]

We should never suffer Cuba to pass from the hands of Spain to any other European power.

American imperialism is often traced to the takeover of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii in 1898.

That our title to the whole of the Territory of Oregon is clear and unquestionable; that no portion of the same ought to be ceded to England or any other power, and that the re-occupation of Oregon and the re-annexation of Texas at the earliest and practicable period are great American measures, which this convention recommends to the cordial support of the Democracy of the Union.

The peace which we are pledged to leave to the Cuban people must carry with it the guaranties of permanence. We became sponsors for the pacification of the island, and we remain accountable to the Cubans, no less than to our own country and people, for the reconstruction of Cuba as a free commonwealth on abiding foundations of right, justice, liberty, and assured order.

[Referring to Cuba:] I speak not of forcible annexation, for that cannot be thought of. That by our code of morality would be criminal aggression.

William McKinley waged a war against Spain for no national interest except America's alleged "friendship" toward the Cuban rebels and our "traditional" anticolonialism. The only economic interest involved, namely Wall Street investors in Cuba, opposed the prospective war, since they preferred doing business with Cuba's Spanish overlords rather than with the insurgents. When McKinley started the war, however, the great "powers" of Wall Street promptly shut up and went along.

Mr. Tyler acquired Texas by voluntary compact, and Mr. Polk California and New Mexico by successful war.

We conceive the recovery of her colonies by Spain to be hopeless,,, We aim not at the possession of any portion of them ourselves. We could not see any portion of them transferred to any other power with indifference.

the avowed pretension of the United States, to put themselves at the head of the confederacy of all the Americas, and to sway that confederacy against Europe (Great Britain included), is not a pretension identified with our interests, or one that we can countenance or tolerate. It is, however, a pretension which there is no use in contesting in the abstract; but we must not say anything that seems to admit this principle.

this battle is going to decide the fate of all America and it is preferable to die on the field of honour than at the hands of our executioners.

You know that independence is purchased at the point of the bayonet. Know also that liberty is founded on good faith, and on the laws of honor, and that those who infringe upon these, are your only enemies, amongst whom you will never find Lord Cochrane

The war in the Pacific having been happily terminated by the total destruction of the Spanish naval force, I am, of course, free for the crusade of liberty in any other quarter of the globe.

It does not accord with the policy of the United States to acknowledge any monarchial Government erected on the ruins of any republican Government in America ...

The annexation of Cuba to our federal republic will be indispensable to the continuance and integrity of the Union itself.

Fifty-four Forty or Fight!

These claims [to then Spanish Florida] will be a subject of negotiation with Spain, and if, as soon as she is at war, we push them strongly with one hand, holding our a price in the other, we shall certainly obtain the Floridas, and all in good time.

The American continents ... are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers.... We should consider any attempt [by European countries] to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. With the existing colonies or dependencies of any European Power we have not interfered, and shall not interfere. But with the governments who have declared their independence, and maintained it ... we could not view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them, or controlling, in any other manner, their destiny, by any European Power, in any other light than as the manifestations of an unfriendly disposition towards the United States. [The "Monroe Doctrine."]

I never was much interested in the Texas question … I never could see much good to come of annexation...

Weyler the brute, the devastator of haciendas, the destroyer of families, and the outrage of women.

At the time the United States government acquired the territory of California from Mexico, slavery had been abolished there nearly twenty years

In certain portions of the South there are expeditions forming for the purpose of sailing to San Domingo, and of conquering that island; and in other parts, expeditions are forming for a descent on the Island of Cuba; and others are looking to the acquisition of Mexico, with the ultimate creation of a new republic, commencing with Virginia at the North, and embracing San Domingo, Cuba, and Mexico up to Central America. All these wild measures, to our certain knowledge, are embraced more or less by certain parties now in Washington, and scattered over the South.

When any territory outside the present territorial limits of the United States becomes necessary for our defense or essential for our commercial development, we ought to lose no time in acquiring it .