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Milwaukee professor holds talk on race issueBY NATHAN J. MOONAdvanee-Trtan ReporterDr. Reginald Horsman tied racialism and republicanism to the expansions of America in his speech at the Pollock House, | Thursday,H Horsman, a hi story professor at|| the University of Wisconsin-Mil-| waukee, said a prevailing thought Ifabout expansion was that supc-:i rior people were going out to jf supplant the inferior races of the f world. The idea of racial inferiority, he said, was reinforced with anthropological and medical writings of the time.This country has always been massively expansionist, he said. Territorial advances, military victories and the Louisiana Purchase,he said, were a few events that made American confidence soar. “Thereis a tendency” he said, “for nations who have temporary success to think it is God given.” Commercial expansion was highly praised, he said, whereas territorial expansion caused traumas with republican beliefs. To expand by generating colonies was against republican principles, he said, but the admission of inferior races into the union was also unacceptable.The force behind these ideas, he said, was the European thoughtthat“weareacertain sortof people. Republicanism takes a certain sort of people.”It was believed that a republic would fall if it expanded too far, Horsman said. The knowledge thatjust that happened lo the Roman Empire reaffirmed their fears.Expansion also created fears that an imperial government would arise, he said. The Louisiana Purchase, he said, seemed to give President Jefferson imperial powers. “The Federalists became bitter opponents of expansionism ” he said, because of events like this.People and party members, he said, often did not agree with the expansion measures. “If the president speaks up strongly [about an issue] ... you’ll get public support,” he said.The founders of America created a place where people wanted to come that, even with its misgivings, was more equal than the European states, Horsman said, as long as you were a white male.
Newspaper Details
Oshkosh Advance Titan
Oshkosh, Wisconsin, US
Fri, Apr 03, 1992
Page 8
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