The fact is clear that many of our people do not much want it; but if a way of relinquishing it is proposed, the one thing we are bound to insist on is that it shall be consistent with our attitude in the war, and with our honorable obligations to the islands we have conquered and to civilization.
Reid discusses the complexities of American territorial expansion and the responsibilities that come with it.
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Brushing aside, then, these bugbears, gentlemen, what are the obvious duties of the hour?
Give them order and justice, and trust to these to win them in other regards to our ways.
Something, however, must be done to disperse this unwholesome gathering at Newbern, or the tumor, thus neglected, may do serious injury.
But, in the main, they are surprisingly orderly, and cases of serious violence among them are quite rare.