Missionary Positions: Evangelicalism and Empire in American Fiction

4. The Missionary Novel in Decline, Mark Twain, and America’s Second Manifest Destiny

4 The Missionary Novel in Decline, Mark Twain, and America’s Second Manifest Destiny Despite the fact that Melville and Cooper occupied completely different positions in respect to America’s civilizing role as a Christian nation, both authors were part of a heated debate in the 1840s on American expansionism . Two generations later, in the 1890s through World War I, a resurgent, more imperial Christianity arose as what is often called the New Manifest Destiny. And yet, contrary to expectation, no significant nationalist missionary novel was written during this period. This exceptional circumstance demands explanation. Similar as these two expansionist phases appear to be, they differed in several significant respects. For one thing, the value of the new project was not so self-evident to the American people. Consequently, it required greater theorizing and the mustering of popular support. Then too, whereas the earlier program of Manifest Destiny—to complete America’s continental expansion westward to California and Oregon—seemed selfevident , the revived call involved the acquisition of non-contiguous lands, intervention in the affairs of island peoples, and conflict with foreign powers . Intervention in these circumstances required a new mandate. The extent of America’s acquisitions of new territories from the 1890s through World War I is not well known, but it was substantial. Many features of it are very much with us today. For this reason it is worth recapitulating the results of the United States’ foreign policy initiatives during this period before attempting to answer the question of why a robust, imaginative national literature did not arise in the 1890s and early 1900s to celebrate, or critique, America’s Christian mission to the world.1 After examining this seeming cultural anomaly, I will discuss the kind of 90 • Part II. Mid-Nineteenth to Twentieth Century: Missionaries Abroad non-fiction that was written to meet the moment, referencing particularly Mark Twain’s travel narratives and essays on missions. As Melville’s Typee and Omoo make clear, Hawaii (the Sandwich Islands) became the object of British imperial aspirations throughout the nineteenth century following its rediscovery by Captain James Cook in 1778.2 In response to foreign contact and with the assistance of foreign advisors, the warrior Kamehameha united the major islands under his kingship before his death in 1819. But from the early to mid-eighteen hundreds, pioneer American missionaries, followed by traders and planters, established a strong presenceinthekingdomandgaveU.S.politicianshopesofacquiring the islands. These missionaries contested the hegemony of the European powers, particularly Britain’s, in the South Seas. From the middle of the century, Hawaii’s independence had been much weakened by the sons of American missionaries who had bought up much of the land for sugar plantations, with the result that the islands became a virtual dependency. American secretary of state James G. Blaine declared, “there are only three places that are of value enough to be taken; one is Hawaii and the others areCubaandPortoRico.”3 Nonetheless,Hawaiistillhadafunctioningparliamentary monarchy under Queen Lili῾uokalani, but it was overthrown in 1893 by white planters with the assistance of U.S. forces, whose action President Grover Cleveland denounced, refusing as well to annex the islands. However, by 1898 in the midst of the national delirium over the Spanish-American War, the reluctant Republican expansionist President WilliamMcKinley,withastrongvoteofsupportfrombothhousesofCongress , annexed the islands. Despite a vigorous anti-annexation campaign featuring thousands of petitions from the Hawaiian people, McKinley asserted , “‘We need Hawaii just as much and a good deal more than we did California. It is manifestdestiny.’”4 Itwasannexedforthwithandin1959accepted into the Union as the fiftieth state. Notably, the question put to the people did not offer the choice of “Independence,” only whether Hawaii should remain a territory or be incorporated into the United States. The spoils from the Spanish-American War in 1898 were more spectacular . An aggressive American foreign policy and the clamorous “yellow journalism” of William Randolph Hearst succeeded in sweeping the nation into the frenzy that led it to declare war on a much weakened Spain that still presided over a far-flung, failing empire. In four months the war Figure 4.1. “Uncle Sam’s New-Caught Anthropoids.” Literary Digest, August 20, 1898, p. 215. The cartoon shows John Bull beholding America’s new imperial role. The savage, non-white, island countries Uncle Sam smartly dangles include Porto Rico, Cuba, the Ladrones (the Marianas), Hawaii, and the Philippines. 92 • Part II. Mid-Nineteenth to Twentieth Century: Missionaries...