William Graham Sumner’s essay The Conquest of the United States by Spain is a critique of U.S. involvement in the Spanish American War. Through his denunciation of imperialism as an inherently Spanish invention, it is apparent that he is against the Spanish American War.
He begins this short essay attacking imperialism on grounds that it is inherently un-American. It is the invention of colonizing countries like Spain. If America engages in imperialism for purposes of national vanity, it would in essence be a victory in Spanish ideology over American ideology. He goes further to write “[e]xpansion and imperialism are at war with the best traditions, principles, and interests of the American people ... and they will plunge us into a network of difficult problems and political perils.”
As an alternative to imperialism, Sumner stresses a new form of governance that looks inward instead of outward. He believes that the founding principles of the nation should be prioritized; the government should be small and the only military should be in the form of a militia for self-protection, not expansion.
http://www.fff.org/freedom/1101i.asp (shortened version)
http://praxeology.net/WGS-CUS.htm (full length version)
Your post on Sumner is fascinating and expands on what we covered in lecture. I think it is interesting that you focus on his anti-imperialism, which is important in understanding all of what Sumner believed. I think he was a -- not to use an unfortunately overused word - maverick of his time in his denunciation of imperialism at a time when holding colonies was a clear show of power and influence in world politics.
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