The Louisiana Purchase and Our Title West of the Rocky Mountains

Justification for the United States to operate as an imperial power shortly after the annexation of Spanish territories.

“Of all distinguishing events in the glorious career of this country, aside from its triumphs for liberty and for union, none shine forth with such imperishable luster as the acquisition of that splendid empire west of the Mississippi River; and when the impartial historian shall write up the great men and the great measures of our nation he will place at the top of the rolls Thomas Jefferson and the Louisiana Purchase.”

These are the first words used by Binger Hermann to introduce his ‘review of annexation by the United States.’ He then makes a compelling case for expansionism, citing extensive historical precedent over the course of America’s development from the earliest colonial explorations up until the recent acquisition of Hawaii in 1898.

Hermann uses a variety of folding maps, tables of statistics, reproduced correspondence, and no shortage of hyperbole to support his claims. “What shall be the further destiny of this nation? Grand and unprecedented as has been our past, we are now emerging upon an era still more resplendent, and far superior to anything that has gone before in our history.” He presciently concludes the volume with speculation on using the Hawaiian Islands as a safeguard against incursions across the Pacific, and notes that U.S. interest in a transoceanic canal in Central America. Though France still owned rights to the venture in Panama, Hermann suggests that Nicaragua be explored so that “our Atlantic and Pacific seaboards will be brought nearer together by almost 11,000 miles.”

The volume was originally written in 1898. This example was republished by a Joint Resolution of Congress and issued in Washington by the Government Printing Office in 1900.