Albert J. Beveridge, THE MARCH OF THE FLAG September 1898 The Republican party won the presidential election of 1896 by running as the party of the gold standard, economic stability, and prosperity. With the help of massive campaign contributions from big business, William McKinley defeated the Democratic-Populist fusion candidate William Jennings Bryan and inaugurated a long period of Republican dominance. Responding to a humanitarian crisis in Cuba while also pursuing American economic interests, the McKinley administration went to war with Spain in April of 1898 and quickly acquired Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. (It took a long and brutal war, however, to subjugate a Filipino rebellion.) In late 1898, when Beveridge delivered this speech, the status of these recent acquisitions remained to be settled. Using the trope of the "march of the flag," Beveridge argued that the nation had a duty to extend civilization to the people of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines while simultaneously bolstering American economic strength. --D. Voelker

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