Page 130 - The interest of America in sea power, present and future

Anglo-American Reunion. in

States, despite the diversion arising from the
immense internal domain not yet fully occu-
pied, and the great body of home consumers
which has been secured by the protective sys-
tem. The geographical condition, in short, is
the same in kind, though differing in degree,
and must impel in the same direction. To
other states the land, with its privileges and its
glories, is the chief source of national prosperity
and distinction. To Great Britain and the
United States, if they rightly estimate the part
they may play in the great drama of human

progress, is intrusted a maritime interest, in the
broadest sense of the word, which demands, as
one of the conditions of its exercise and its
safety, the organized force adequate to control
the general course of events at sea; to main-
tain, if necessity arise, not arbitrarily, but as
those in whom interest and power alike justify
the claim to do so, the laws that shall regulate
maritime warfare. This is no mere specula-
tion, resting upon a course of specious reason-
ing, but is based on the teaching of the past.
By the exertion of such force, and by the main-
tenance of such laws, and by these means only,
Great Britain, in the beginning of this century,