The Continental Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 2, August, 1863: Devoted to Literature and National Policy — John Shaqi
The Continental Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 2, August, 1863: Devoted to Literature and National PolicyVarious
History
The Continental Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 2, August, 1863: Devoted to Literature and National Policy
Various
Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; United States -- Politics and government -- 19th century -- Periodicals
The development of those latent resources of which even ourselves were
ignorant, the display of wealth and power at which we are astonished no
less than foreign nations, the energetic prosecution of more than two
years of war on such a magnificently extended and expensive scale,
without even feeling the drain upon either our population or treasure,
have taught Great Britain a lesson which she will not soon forget, and
of which she will not fail to avail herself. What nation ever before,
without even the nucleus of a standing army, raised, equipped, and put
into the field, within a brief six months, an army of half a million of
men, and supported it for such a length of time, at the cost of a
million dollars per day, while scarcely increasing the burden of
taxation upon the people? And yet this was done by a portion only of our
country--the Northern States; and that, too, by a people totally of and
hitherto unaccustomed to warlike pursuits. If such are our strength and
resources when divided, what will they be united and against a foreign
foe? England cannot fail to see the question in this light, and in the
future she will find her interest in courting our friendship and
alliance, rather than in continual encroachment and exasperation. We
shall hear no more of Bay Islands or northwestern boundaries, of San
Juan or rights of search; and the Monroe doctrine will perforce receive
from her a recognition which she has never yet accorded to it. She will
recognize as the fiat of destiny our supremacy on the western
hemisphere. Foreign nations have respected us in the past; they must
fear us in the future. And while they will have no cause to dread our
interference with the affairs of the Old World, they will be cautious of
tampering with a power which has proved itself one of the first, if not
the very first, on the face of the earth.
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