Page 92 - The Interest of America in Sea Power Present and Future

The Isthmus and Sea Power. 73

being of the race, to found self-governing colo-
nies which have developed into one of the
greatest of free states, they did not find, and
never have found, that the possession of and
rule over barbarous, or semi-civilized, or inert
tropical communities, were inconsistent with
the maintenance of political liberty in the
mother country. The sturdy vigor of the
broad principle of freedom in the national life
is attested sufficiently by centuries of steady
growth, that surest evidence of robust vitality.
But, while conforming in the long run to the
dictates of natural justice, no feeble scrupulos-
ity impeded the nation's advance to power, by
which alone its mission and the law of its
being could be fulfilled. No artificial fetters
were forged to cramp the action of the state,
nor was it drugged with political narcotics to
dwarf its growth.
In the region here immediately under con-
sideration, Great Britain entered the contest
under conditions of serious disadvantage. The
glorious burst of maritime and colonial enter-
prise which marked the reign of Elizabeth, as
the new era dawned when the country rec-
ognized the sphere of its true greatness, was