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The Mighty Oregon and the Little Yankee Schooner met on the high seas. “Let us keep together for mutual protection.” Mexico the first republic to join our union. The Central and South American Republics all stampede for the shelter of the great American Eagle. Peru joins our union in 1921, Venezuela in 1925, Canada comes stumbling along in 1930.

Every American patriot recollects with feelings of pride and admiration the great voyage of the U. S. battleship Oregon, the noblest floating citadel of the nineteenth century, during the spring of the year 1898, from the Golden Gate to Jupiter, Florida, a distance of over 14,000 miles. With only five first-class battleships to its credit, it was of paramount importance for the U. S. government to secure the services of the Oregon to join in the volcanic welcome that awaited the arrival of Admiral Cervera’s squadron in the Caribbean sea.

The memory of that eventful voyage will remain vivid in the recollections of more than one generation. After the noble vessel had rounded the turbulent waters of Magellan and her stout prow pointed north, anxiety for her safety increased at every knot she covered. The Spanish phantom, at that critical period of the war, looked like a towering mountain, an elevation, however, which was designed to be soon transformed, by subsequent events, into a mole-hill.

One bright afternoon, while steaming in latitude 30° south and in longitude 40° A Saucy Little Yankee Craft. west, shortly before touching at Rio Janerio, the great Oregon spoke an insignificant, one-masted little schooner, a mere shell, tossing upon South Atlantic billows, with a crew of two men. The fact that the diminutive sail boat proudly unfurled at her masthead the glorious flag of America, was the sole feature, in her case, that saved her from utter insignificance. The Oregon displayed signals, asking the captain of the little vessel if he had spoken any Spanish war-vessels adding, as a matter of information, that war had been declared between Spain and the United States of America.

It happened that this was the first intimation the captain of the schooner had received that a state of war existed between the two countries above named. In reply he promptly signalled to the Oregon that he had not seen any Spanish men-of-war, and, being somewhat of a Yankee humorist, added, that if war had been declared, the best thing that they could do would be “to keep together for mutual protection.”

“LET US KEEP TOGETHER FOR MUTUAL PROTECTION.”

This anecdote of the recontre of the Oregon and the tiny schooner illustrates aptly the conditions that ruled in 1999 and during several preceding decades. In that year was witnessed a grand union of all the peoples of the Western Hemisphere under the starry banner of America. The little Republics of Central and South America were heartily glad to seek the protection of the Great Leviathan of the North, and, gathered into one great Republic, The United States of the Americas, they stood together one and indivisible, “for mutual protection.”

In 1999 the world beheld the imposing spectacle of a United America, a nation in magnitude and power that eclipsed any previously known confederation of States, invincible in war and unrivalled in arts, sciences and industry. The Americas were all under the protection of the same stars and stripes, employing the same legal tender and coinage and in 1999 the English tongue had been adopted officially by every Central and South American State.

The first Republic that knocked at our gates for admission into the grand union of Mexico makes the First Break. the Americas, was Mexico. In the year 1520, the Spaniards, under Cortes, that valiant and most intrepid of Castillian warriors, had already crushed that most dreaded of all barbarian monarchs, Montezuma, and had reduced the Aztec Empire into vassalage and slavery. In 1898, by a series of the most brilliant victories, American prowess and arms, coupled with dare-devil bravery and resolute fighting, had in turn driven out the Spanish hordes from the Americas. With this turn in the tide of history, nothing could be more fitting than the incorporation of Mexico as a State in our Federal Union. Could they have witnessed our brilliant American victories against Spain in 1898, Montezuma and his Aztec warriors would have arisen from their graves and shouted for joy at the knowledge that at last their wrongs at the hands of Spain had been avenged by the sword of America and their Spanish oppressors of 1520 had at last been hurled back to the Castillian haunts from whence they had emerged under Columbus and Cortes.

Mexico added a new star to our flag in 1912, just one hundred years after England and America crossed swords. These swords have been sheathed in their scabbards, never again in the world’s history to be unsheathed against one another.

As early as the year 1899 the desire to join our American Union began to manifest Awakening of the Americas. itself. In that year the little island of Jamaica already had under advisement the question of joining the American Union, and the people of Jamaica were seriously agitating the matter. They regarded this step as one that would benefit their material prosperity. This belief was shared by the inhabitants of the other West Indian islands and gained strength with every year, culminating in 1912 in the action taken by Mexico.

The incorporation of Mexico into our grand American Union created a profound sensation, not only in the Americas, but, also, throughout the world. It was a purely voluntary act on the part of Mexico, one which could not be fondly ascribed by the ever-jealous nations of Europe to “Yankee greed.” It brought about a distinctive turn in the tide and the conviction became firm in the minds of all that the example of Mexico would be followed, sooner or later, by every Republic in Central and South America.

In 1920 public opinion in Peru became ripe for a change. The affairs of that Republic had been unsuccessfully administered and the land of the Incas seemed likely in that year to be devastated by Chile, that active and more or less prosperous people, sometimes called the “Yankees of South America.” The prospect of another disastrous war with Chile crystalized public opinion in Peru and hastened action on her part. In the following year of 1921, Peru became a State in our Union. Venezuela came next in 1925, then followed in rapid succession the entire group of Central American States, Guatemala, Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Honduras.

In 1930 Canada at last joined the American Union. Canada had long occupied the position of an old maid in reference to the Union; she had been entirely willing for many years, but had withheld her consent; England, of course, had to be consulted, and with the utmost good nature was present at the wedding ceremonies, giving away the Canadian bride into our union in a most gracious manner.

Between 1930 and 1935, in rapid succession, the entire stretch of territory known as South America, and the eleven Republics occupying that continent, were incorporated into the United States of the Americas. The State of Brazil was recognized by Congress in 1931, and, on account of its large area, consisting of 3,209,878 square miles, the new State was styled the “Texas of the South.”

During the last half of the nineteenth century the burning issues caused by the Old Wounds are Healed Up. Civil War were generally and vaguely characterized as those which existed between the North and South. The question of State sovereignty, slavery and the resultant Civil War, divided the North and South into two vast, hostile camps. The fall of Richmond in 1865 terminated hostilities, it is true, but a bitter, relentless political and social war was waged between these sections for over a quarter of a century thereafter. The deep wounds caused by the Civil War began to slowly heal, but it required a foreign war to demonstrate to the world that time at last had conquered all animosity, all the anguish and bitterness of spirit that had existed between the North and South.

During our war with Spain from April 22, 1898, to October 26, of the same year, Confederate generals who had taken prominent parts in the Southern army, men who had led their hosts to help tear into tatters the great Constitution of the United States, unsheathed their swords once more, in 1898, and to their lasting honor, this time it was in defense of that very Constitution. In 1898 the men of the South eagerly followed the lead of Wheeler and Fitzhugh Lee and sprang to arms in the defence of a united country. It was a most impressive spectacle; one that filled the world with amazement and America with patriotic joy.

In 1999, that little strip of territory lying between Mason and Dixon’s line and the No more “South” in 1999. gulf of Mexico was no longer known or recognized as the South. The sceptre of the South had passed into the keeping of the South American continent, which territory in 1999 had been divided into ten States of our great American Union, namely the States of Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, Bolivia, Peru and, in the extreme South, the State of Patagonia.

The real and actual South of the United States of the Americas, in 1999, consisted of the States above named, a vast sweep of territory lying between the 10° North and 55° South of the equator, embracing 8,207,688 square miles in area, with a population of 127,000,000 souls. In 1999 the State of Brazil alone had a population of 42,000,000.

The Middle States of the great American Republic in 1999 were those of Central America, namely the States of Costa Rica, Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Mexico.

The Northern States of the great Republic in 1999 consisted of those states lying between Alaska and the Mexican gulf, including the newly acquired States of East and West Canada. The population of the Middle States in 1999 was estimated at 75,000,000, while the census of the Northern States figured at 329,000,000. The total population of the United States of the Americas in 1999, figured at 531,000,000 souls.