Page 152 - The interest of America in sea power, present and future

Anglo-American Reunion. 133

such an evil it must fight at whatever disad-
vantage. Well, is it not clear that maritime
commerce occupies, to the power of a mari-
time state, the precise nourishing function that
the communications of an army supply to the
army ? Blows at commerce are blows at the
communications of the state ; they intercept its
nourishment, they starve its life, they cut the
roots of its power, the sinews of its war. While
war remains a factor, a sad but inevitable fac-
tor, of our history, it is a fond hope that com-
merce can be exempt from its operations, be-
cause in very truth blows against commerce
are the most deadly that can be struck ; nor is
there any other among the proposed uses of
a navy, as for instance the bombardment of
seaport towns, which is not at once more cruel
and less scientific. Blockade such as that
enforced by the United States Navy during
the Civil War, is evidently only a special phase
; yet how immense —
of commerce-destroying
nay, decisive— its results !
It is only when effort is frittered away in the
feeble dissemination of the guerre-de-course, in-
stead of being concentrated in a great combina-
tion to control the sea, that commerce-destroying