So that the war with Spain was not merely the checking of a bully, the act of a humane power, the safeguarding of cities from the descent of the plague, the assuring of security to Americans resident in Cuba and the protection to American trade with that island. It was, as well, the master magic which could banish strife at home; it was the building of a Vulcan forge to weld beyond the power of breaking the one bond “from the lakes to the gulf.” For the first stroke at Americans by Spaniards was a challenge that was answered by indignant manhood in every state from the everglades of Florida to the snow-crowned heights of Mount Tacoma. And OUR NATION sprang to arms! Sometimes there is internal strife in your family, in your circle of friends, in your party. That is a wise father who can deftly devise a situation which compels his household to make common cause. That is a shrewd citizen who can rally his friends by a stroke which menaces all of them. That politician is skillful who can swiftly sweep away dissension by a turn which menaces the whole organization. And that was a wise President who saw behind the rising war cloud the rainbow of a hope which nothing else could reveal. There was no need for them to blow up the Maine. Without that dastardly act, there would inevitably have come a change. Spanish oppression in Cuba would have ceased. The reforms demanded by the Republic would have been accomplished—every one. But, it would have been by the action of Spain, and without inflicting upon that nation the expense, the humiliation and the disaster of a war. Possibly, too, had those reforms been made, had the conscience and humanity of Americans been satisfied without striking a blow, the abolishing of the sectional line would not have occurred. But it is needless to speculate on what might have occurred. What did occur is known. It was definite. At the moment when Spain, had she rightly appreciated the situation, should have borne herself with all dignity and honor, the blow which hurled down her house was struck. In the middle of the night the darkness was rifted with a lance of flame, the world was rocked with the shock of explosion, and a battleship, on an errand of peace and courtesy, was crushed in the grip of a submarine mine—and all over the still surface of the starlit bay floated the mangled corpses of the slain. The darkest deed since St. Bartholomew night, the most savage act since Calcutta’s Black Hole had stained the page of history, and Christian civilization had seen a Christian nation sound the deepest deep of infamy. That bursting mine jolted the molecules of mankind into a new combination, and the Republic became a Union indeed. After all, blood is thicker than water; and he who uttered that— “—bubbling cry Of some strong swimmer in his agony—” was an American. Of course America was roused.