p. 200 | A Unique Country

Pacific Press Publishing Company · New York · Mar 29, 1900

FromThe American Sentinel, Vol. 15, No. 13.

A Unique Country.

“Springfield Republican.”

THERE are difficulties ahead for the class in geography if the name of this country means only the forty-five States which send senators and representatives to Congress. The imperialists give that meaning to the term. The full official name of this country is “The United States of America.” The articles of Confederation said: “The style of this Confederacy shall be the United States of America.” And the Constitution says: “We, the people of the United States . . . do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” If the name refers only to the States no Territory outside of them is in the country proper. New Mexico belongs to the United States, but is not of it nor in it.

The results from the standpoint of the party in power may be very satisfactory, yet, from the standpoint of the class in geography to be found in every school in the land, they are somewhat confusing. The school children must be taught these facts:—

The District of Columbia is not in the United States.

The city of Washington is in the District of Columbia.

Hence the capital of the United States is not in the United States.

Extending the higher criticism of the Constitution, the children must be made to comprehend also these propositions:—

The United States is the only country in the world whose Congress does not meet in it.

The United States is the only country in the world whose President does not live in it.

The United States is the only country in the world whose Government is not in it.

This may seem paradoxical and absurd, yet the school children should be taught those things if the imperialists overthrow the opinion of the Supreme Court by John Marshall, when it said that the term United States embraces not only States, but the territory of the United States.