According to his essay, "Professor William Sumner Spurns Empire" (1989), he states that it "is a good thing is that it means leaving people to live out their own lives in their own way, while we do the same". This means that if America can have its freedom to do what it wants, than other countries should not have to live under the burden of the US flag. This was the main basis of his views. Other countries "hate our ways", thus, conquering their land and forcing them to live under the US flag would just cause more problems, and in the worst case, start a world war. Sumner used Spain as an example of an imperialistic nation that "laughs at all the others [countries] when it observes these manifestations of national vanity". He then states that if America "takes out of the hands of Spain her mission", it will "shrivel up into the same vanity and self-conceit of which Spain now presents an example". He is trying to prevent the problems Spain encountered from happened to America. Although Sumner gives relevant evidence supporting his ideas, there is a sense of bias is his essay. He states that America needs to be "saved from egoism and materialism", whish categorizes all the American people to have high egos and be materialistic, which is not true. He also states that all other countries "hate our ways", which is also a false statement. .
In contrast to the anti-imperialistic views of Sumner, Albert Beveridge supported the expansion on America to other countries in his speech "The March of the Flag" (1898). Beveridge, was born into an imperialist family on October 6, 1862 in Highland County, Ohio. He was the republican senator from 1899 to 1911, and supported Theodore Roosevelt's policies. He helped organize the Progressive Party in 1912, which lead to the election of Roosevelt. Along with Roosevelt, Beveridge supported America conquering such foreign lands as Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines.
