When next I realized that the Philippines had dropped into our laps, I confess I did not know what to do
with them. I
sought counsel from all sides-Democrats as well as Republicans-but got little help. I thought
first we would take
only Manila; then Luzon; then other islands, perhaps, also.
I walked the floor of the White House night after night until midnight; and I am not ashamed to tell you.
gentlemen, that I went down on my knees and prayed to Almighty God for light and guidance more than
one night. And one night late it came to me this way-I don't know how it was, but it came:
(1) That we could not give them back to Spain-that would be cowardly and dishonorable;"
(2) That we could not turn them over to France or Germany, our commercial rivals in the Orient-that
would be bad business and discreditable:
(3) That we could not leave them to themselves-they were unfit for self-government, and they would
soon have anarchy and misrule worse then Spain's was; and
(4) That there was nothing left for us to do but to take them all, and to educate the Filipinos, and uplift
and civilize and Christianize them and by God's grace do the very best we could by them, as our fellow
men for whom Christ also died.
And then I went to bed and went to sleep, and slept soundly, and the next morning I sent for the chief
engineer of the War Department (our map-maker), and I told him to put the Philippines on the map of
the United States (pointing to a large map on the wall of his office), and there they are and there they will
stay while I am President!
Which event was the MOST LIKELY catalyst for the ideas expressed in the passage above?
American victory in the Spanish American War in 1898
Racial theories of white superiority that justified expansion overseas in the late 1800s
America's emergence as both an industrial and world power during the Gilded Age
Competition over natural resources around the globe created a need for American expansion overseas
into new markets, especially Asia
​