Page 173 - The interest of America in sea power, present and future

154 The Future in Relation to
doctrine itself would logically carry us, or how
far it may be developed, now or hereafter, by
the recognition and statement of further na-
tional interests, thereby formulating another
and wider view of the necessary range of our
political influence. It is sufficient to quote its
enunciation as a fact, and to note that it was
the expression of a great national interest, not
merely of a popular sympathy with South Amer-
ican revolutionists; for, had it been the latter, it
w ould doubtless have proved as inoperative and
r
evanescent as declarations arising from such
emotions commonly are. From generation to
generation we have been much stirred by the
sufferings of Greeks, or Bulgarians, or Arme-
nians, at the hands of Turkey but, not being
;
ourselves injuriously affected, our feelings have
not passed into acts, and for that very reason
have been ephemeral. No more than other
nations are we exempt from the profound truth
enunciated by Washington — seared into his
own consciousness by the bitter futilities of the
French alliance in 1778 and the following years,
and by the extravagant demands based upon it
by the Directory during his Presidential term
— that it is absurd to expect governments to