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Abstract
This article analyses the governance of the U.S. Virgin Islands from 1917 through 1936 to assess the relative value of economic factors in territorial governance. A review of key decision-makers' financial and political concerns reveals that the United States accepted responsibility for the islanders' economic welfare but not their civic well-being. The author contends that, recognizing the depth of the islanders' financial distress, the United States extended political rights to the territory's inhabitants, not out of democratic obligation, but in the hope of decreasing the burden the islands placed on the federal treasury. Thus, economic considerations largely dictated legislative decisions.
Introduction
The United States' sense of itself has not always coincided with its national borders. In the twentieth century, the United States acquired territories that have yet to be incorporated fully as "American", from enjoying rights due to American citizens to economic participation in the national market. The case of the U.S. Virgin Islands, acquired in 1917, is one such example.1 Defined as U.S. territory, Congress has only hesitatingly extended rights and privileges to the islanders. This situation resulted less from an unwillingness to accept the islands' inhabitants as equals, although this problem certainly existed, than from economic concerns arising between the mainland and this dependency.2 President Herbert Hoover noted this facet of the relationship in 1931 when he labelled the Virgin Islands "an effective poorhouse" of little value to the United States, except in "remote naval contingencies". Faced with the islands' weak economic condition and their lack of natural resources, President Hoover believed "it was unfortunate that we ever acquired these islands". However, "having assumed the responsibility, we must do our best to assist the inhabitants".3 President Hoover understood that the extension of the nation's borders entailed certain attendant obligations, but how Congress would construe those obligations had yet to be determined. Now, ninety years after the acquisition, the United States is still struggling to define its role with respect to this dependency.
President Hoover's expectations for the Virgin Islands were the result of more than three centuries of Anglo-American territorial expansion. The treaties documenting every acquisition from the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 to the Gadsden Purchase fifty years later promised citizenship to the inhabitants and future statehood for the polity....