Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

little opposition. Before he could move on San Juan, word came that Spain had sued for peace.

13. On August 1 the Spanish government, through M. Cambon, the envoy of France to the United States, asked what terms of peace would be granted. There was an exchange of notes, and on August 12, M. Cambon, on the part of Spain, and Hon. William R. Day, Secretary of State, on the part of the United States, signed a protocol, which was to form the basis of a treaty of peace.

14. By one of the articles of this protocol, Spain yielded to the United States possession of the city and bay and port of Manila, pending the conclusion of a treaty of peace which should determine the control of all the Philippine Islands. Before this action was known in Manila, Admiral Dewey and General Merritt had made a combined attack on that city, and captured it.

15. The signing of the protocol with Spain was taken as equivalent to the ending of the war. By the terms of the document an armistice was agreed upon, and the United States at once began recalling its soldiers from Cuba and Porto Rico (except such as were required for garrison purposes), and reducing the navy more nearly to a peace footing. The President appointed five commissioners to meet a like number of commissioners from Spain, in the city of Paris, there to frame a treaty of peace between the two countries.

16. By this treaty Spain renounced all claims to Cuba; ceded Porto Rico and all her other possessions in the West Indies to the United States; ceded Guam, an island in the Ladrone archipelago, and finally ceded the Philippine Islands upon the payment by the United States to Spain of $20,000,000. The treaty was ratified, April 11, 1899, by President McKinley and Ambassador Cambon, who acted for Spain.

17. Another important event occurred during the progress of the war. In July, 1897, a bill was framed for the annexation of Hawaii, similar to that by which Texas was annexed. The Hawaiian republic desired annexation, and in July, 1898, the bill was passed, and Hawaii became a part of the United States

CHAPTER XXVI.

THE PRESENT NATION.

235. A survey of the United States at the present time shows it to be a very different country from that which took its place among the nations of the world near the close of the eighteenth century. Its boundaries are different; the people who occupy the land are twenty times as many in number and are different in life; the government, though the same in form, has grown more complex.

The United States now lies between the two great oceans of the world. The Atlantic is still the central sea, as the Mediterranean was before it; but the Pacific is also becoming a great highway for commerce and trade between America and the ancient peoples of Asia, as well as the rapidly growing British commonwealth in the continent of Australia. It is still bounded by Canada on the north, but in the extreme northwest it stretches so near the coast of Asia that San Francisco is on the middle meridian of longitude. On the southwest is the republic of Mexico, very much smaller than the Spanish possession of that name which was once the neighbor of the United States. It is at peace with its neighbors. From Canada it receives every year considerable additions to its population. A new invasion of Mexico has indeed begun, but it is the peaceful invasion of commerce. Railways are pushing down along the great plateau which reaches from the United States into the heart of the country, making thus a closer connection between the two peoples.

236. The States. There are now forty-five States in the Union, and six territories, including Alaska and the Dis

[blocks in formation]

trict of Columbia. A census of the United States is taken every ten years, and by the census of 1890 it was found that the entire population then numbered more than sixty-two millions. These States and territories constitute the political divisions of the country. The country is also divided into military divisions, and into divisions which follow the great physical features. These last divisions are used by the United States Weather Bureau, which has a central office at Washington, and more than two hundred stations throughout the country. By means of this service the approach of storms and changes in the weather can be announced several hours, and even days, in advance. The signals are of special value to sailors and farmers. Thus the general government makes use of science to benefit the people of the entire country.

Each State has its own government; each has its capital, where the governor resides and where the legislature meets. Each has a constitution which has been drafted and ratified by its own citizens, and it has laws which have been made by its own legislature. The constitution and laws of each State must, however, conform to the Constitution of the United States. The right to vote is conferred by the State. In a majority of the States a limited franchise has been conferred on women, and in Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and Idaho women have the same right of suffrage as men. At the same time the people of the whole country have a government which concerns itself with the affairs of the whole nation. It is administered by a President, two houses of Congress, and courts of law, with the capital at Washington.

237. The President and Congress. Every four years the people are called upon to choose a President and Vice President. They do not vote directly for these officers, but they

1 The District of Columbia is under the exclusive legislation of Congress, and its inhabitants do not vote for President or Vice President or have a voice in the affairs of the District. The government consists of three commissioners, two of whom are appointed from civil life by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate. The third is an officer of the corps of engineers of the army, detailed by the President for this duty.

[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed]
« AnteriorContinuar »