While President William McKinley claimed he had no idea about the location of the Philippine Islands until the War of 1898, the US government was not ignorant of the strategic importance of this archipelago, as well as other islands in the Pacific and Caribbean. Nor was the country a newcomer to empire. As demonstrated by the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, the United States had long pursued Thomas Jefferson’s dream of an empire of liberty, meaning a vision of land access and acquisition for white males as key to the growth and strength of the country. White Americans went on to embrace the idea of manifest destiny, which implied a providential and moralistic duty to civilize non-Anglo-Americans and lands. The racial chauvinism, self-interest, and professions of benevolence that justified the expansion of US federal control across the continent also extended to the Pacific and the Caribbean during the nineteenth century.