Excerpt from Josiah Strong’s Our Country (1885)
Mr. Darwin is not only disposed to see, in the superior vigor of our people, an illustration of his favorite theory of natural selection, but even intimates that the world’s history thus far has been simply preparatory for our future, and tributary to it. He says: “There is apparently much truth in the belief that the wonderful progress of the United States, as well as the character of the people, are the results of natural selection; for the more energetic, restless, and courageous men from all parts of Europe have emigrated during the last ten or twelve generations to that great country, and have there succeeded best.”
. . .
The time is coming when the pressure of population on the means of subsistence will be felt there as it is now felt in Europe and Asia. Then will the world enter upon a new stage of its history -the final competition of races, for which the Anglo-Saxon is being schooled. Long before the thousands millions are here, the mighty centrifugal tendency, inherent in this stock and strengthened in the United States, will assert itself. Then this race of unequaled energy, with all the majesty of numbers and the might of wealth behind it -the representative, let us hope, of the largest liberty, the purest Christianity, the highest civilization -having developed peculiarly aggressive traits calculated to impress its institutions upon mankind, will spread itself over the earth. If I read not amiss, this powerful race will move down upon Mexico, down upon Central and South America, out upon the islands of the sea, over upon Africa and beyond. And can anyone doubt that the result of this competition of races will be the “survival of the fittest”? . . .
Use the excerpt to answer the question.
Strong is marshaling the theories of Charles Darwin to argue for the
A.
global dominance of Anglo-Saxons.
B.
righteousness of Old Testament principles.
C.
preservation of the world’s diversity.
D.
utility of the old slave-holding South.