What shall we now take in order to secure the Philippines?…We shall need to take China, Japan, and the East Indies, according to the doctrine, in order to ‘secure’ what we have. Of course this means that, on the doctrine, we must take the whole earth in order to be safe on any part of it. WILLIAM GRAHAM SUMNER, “On Empire and the Philippines,” 1898 In 1867, the Supreme Court was forced to confront one of the more mundane consequences of the war of the frontiers. The case concerned ownership of the $10 million due to Texas under the 1850 Douglas deal for giving up its claims to New Mexico. The whole sum had not yet been paid, and the court had to decide whether a new Texas had come into being when it seceded from the Union, or whether the old state remained in being and thus continued to be the legitimate recipient of the money. To decide the matter, the court had first to unravel the constitutional fuzziness at the heart of the United States of America—was it a compact of separate states or a consolidated nation?
What do You think about The Fabric Of America (2007)?
