Calderwood Writing Course: U.S. History
Imperialism and the Spanish–American War

Anti-Imperialist Sentiment

While the majority of Americans supported overseas expansion, a vocal minority opposed it.

Consider what this cartoon from the Boston Globe expresses about the new imperialist foreign policy. It depicts President McKinley as a waiter serving Uncle Sam (who symbolized the U.S.) from a menu that includes the territories the United States won from Spain. In what ways might the cartoonist be criticizing U.S. foreign policy?

Cartoon of McKinley as waiter serving Uncle Sam

This cartoon of Uncle Sam was published in the Boston Globe on May 28, 1898. (Click to enlarge.)

Offered various overseas islands (Cuba, Porto Rico, Philippines, and Hawaii), McKinley says "Well I hardly know which to take first."

In 1898, a group of wealthy anti-imperialists founded the American Anti-Imperialist League in order to campaign against this new expansionist foreign policy. Their reasons ranged from idealistic beliefs about the right to self-government to racist concerns about the peoples of the new territories.

Here is the first paragraph of their platform statement:

“We hold that the policy known as imperialism is hostile to liberty and tends toward militarism, an evil from which it has been our glory to be free. We regret that it has become necessary in the land of Washington and Lincoln to reaffirm that all men, of whatever race or color, are entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We maintain that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. We insist that the subjugation of any people is "criminal aggression" and open disloyalty to the distinctive principles of our Government.”

— Platform of the American Anti-Imperialist League

Take Notes

Summarize the arguments against imperialism articulated in the cartoon and in the excerpt from the League's platform. Why does the platform bring up Washington and Lincoln? Why does the League believe that imperialism is “disloyal” to the principles of the United States?

Calderwood Writing Course: U.S. History

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