One topic, the emergence of the United States as a colonial power, dominates the correspondence on this reel. On December 5, 1897, Smith wrote Wendell P. Garrison that he feared the United States was going to annex Cuba and Hawaii. Smith was in Washington in the interval between the "Maine" disaster and the declaration of war, and he found no war spirit among his acquaintances. He felt that the sinking was being used by politicians to intensify American support of the revolutionists. He…