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destiny and duty and holding aloft a torch of gold to light the way,rose in the Senate and said:I could hear much calculated to excite the imagination of the youthcharmed by the dream of empire. ... I could think as this brave youngrepublic of ours listened to what the senator had to say of but one sentence:"And the Devil taketh Him up into an exceeding high mountain andshoweth him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them."And the Devil said unto Him, *AU these things will I give thee if thouwilt fall down and worship me.*"Then saith Jesus unto him: 'Get thee behind me, Satan.' "But, alas, the American people did not make the reply to SenatoiBeveridge that Jesus made to the devil. Indeed as Beveridge endedhis address he was greeted with "long and continued applause" ingood earnest and senators crowded around him to shake his hand.I have chosen the Beveridge statement because it was the clearest andmost eloquent of numerous speeches made in the House and Senateat the time. For instance, Representative Gibson of Tennessee saidwhat others were saying on the stump and in the pulpit:Our race has a mission. No devout student of history can misread it.We are the preachers of a new evangel of government; we are the missionariesof a new and higher civilization; we are the apostles of the NewWorld to the Old; and a part of our mission is to evangelize Asia andthe islands of the sea.But this was to be only a beginning, as the congressman made abundantlyclear. He continued:The progress of our race can never be stayed. You can never fix itsbounds. No one continent can suffice it. No one ocean can satisfy it. Noone zone can contain it. No one hemisphere can circumscribe its powersand activities.The world is its area and the lands of the world its only boundary. Itsdestiny is to dominate the entire face of the earth, to include all racesand all countries and all lands and all continents. 2The Springfield Republican lamented that the religious press ofthe country was almost a unit in support of the imperialism of whichthese gentlemen were the spokesmen. Dean Farrar said that "impe-*Congressional Record, February ¿, 1900, pp. i56$-66.219

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