If the “best speakers and writers” could be stretched to include presidents, that was true. Though McKinley, like most of his predecessors, declined to use America in his public addresses, the reluctance ended there. His successor, Theodore Roosevelt, spoke of America in his first annual message and never looked back. In one two-week period, Roosevelt used the name more than all his predecessors combined had. Every president since has used America freely and frequently. The anthems changed, too: no longer “Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean,” but “America the Beautiful” and “God Bless America.”
linguistic shift from "United States" to "America" to imply a greater expanse
