Orville Hitchcock Platt Quotes
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 .
Orville Hitchcock Platt, 1827–1905, U. S. Senator (Republican, CT), Speech, 1894
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Adams was then Secretary of State. Although he had designs on Cuba, he did not favor annexation be force. He felt that the Spanish colonization of Cuba was 'unnatural' and when the Spanish were overthrown there would be a natural alliance between Cuba and the U. S.
His definition of Russian territory included any area that the Czars claimed which included Poland, the Baltic States, the Ukraine, the Caucuses, but at the time of the speech, Russia was fighting to keep its existing territory.
He was referring to the United States fighting against Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan to keep Al Qaeda from attacking the United States easily.
No male candidate had before or since been asked such a question.
Nkrumah was one of the great African democrats. Like George Washington, he voluntarily relinquished his Presidency when most would have had him as a “President for Life,” or even a king. His greater vision was one of pan-Africanism. In the defense arena he didn’t realize that the major purposes of most African military was to maintain the existing regime in power unlike his own example. He further assumed that military threats would come from outside the continent as they historically had. However, virtually all the conflict in Africa has been between contending groups within a country and nearby countries taking sides and thus being drawn into the conflict.
He had concluded that Spain, who then ruled the Philippines, was incompetent, cruel and immoral in its rule, but that the Filipinos were not educated or sophisticated enough to rule themselves. However, he felt that he had to protect our commercial interests in the islands and the region, and was worried that commercial interests of other countries would take over and control the area. Another reason that this is a very important quotation is that it indicates the anti-Catholic bias in America at the time. Note that the President stated that one objective was to “Christianize” them. However, Spain had been in the islands for over 300 years and most Filipinos were already Roman Catholic. However, Roman Catholics were then a much smaller proportion of the American population and many Protestants didn’t think Catholicism was a legitimate Christian Religion. When the majority of Americans thought of Christianizing other people, they thought of Protestant missionaries much like England. At the time there was very little criticism of the President for the “error” of stating that Filipinos should be Christianized when they were so already Spanish Colonial Policy and Practice was generally terrible and particularly so in the Philippines, See {629450}.
Spanish Colonial Policy and Practice was generally terrible and particularly so in the Philippines, See {629450}. So it was relatively easy for the President to document genuine improvements our imperialism had produced. However, the Filipinos would have preferred to make progress as an independent country.
He was referring to land where there were people already living. People included Indians and Mexicans. He was one of the few American Presidents who were not enthusiasts for Manifest Destiny and expansionism of America.
Orville Hitchcock Platt was a United States Senator from Connecticut. Platt was a prominent conservative Republican and by the 1890s he became one of the "big four" key Republicans who largely controlled the major decisions of the Senate, along with William B. Allison of Iowa, John Coit Spooner of Wisconsin and Nelson W. Aldrich of Rhode Island.
