In Their Own Words

Ever since Franklin, Jay, and John Adams gained the Mississippi as the western boundary of the newborn United States in 1782, Americans have talked republican ideals but behaved imperially. In a string of episodes, the nation soon pushed all the way to the Pacific. First came acquisition; then displacement of the previous occupants and American settlement. Continental empire-building created a national habit. A second, offshore empire followed and since 1945, a global one. Why are we imperial? Here is the history.