Mark Twain made what the New York Sun called a "startling" announcement. "I am an anti-imperialist," he declared. "I am opposed to having the eagle put its talons on any other land." What did he mean by this statement? What was the organization that Mark Twain participated in? What did they speak against? Why?

By this statement Mark Twain wanted to say that expansion of other lands was a cruel and unnatural process. Twain was vice-president of the American Anti-Imperialist League and he wrote many political pamphlets for the organization. This organization opposed the annexation of the Philippines by the United States.