blow of ignorance and ingratitude was struck at Manila, debate at Washington ceased, and little was said afterward about giving up the Philippines. The people were ready to meet the responsibilities, whatever they might be, and were not afraid of them. They were quite content with the outcome of the war, proud of the achievements of their armies, proud to be American citizens. Their country covered broad areas of earth, but it was none too large for the purposes of its high destiny. Larger tracts with populations as mixed were held by other nations not better able to control them than were the Americans to manage their islands, which, in comparison with other issues in due time to be met, were quite a simple affair. Their troubles in the future were more apt to spring from internal than external causes. The conduct of the American people during the war, their display of resources and genius for war, their unity and strength, their courage and moderation and love of right, all were such as to make any nation pause before seeking a quarrel with them, and until these people change materially they will not go to war without a just cause and due provocation.

The century closes upon a larger America, with a territorial area of three and a half millions of square miles, spanning 180 degrees of longitude, and containing a population of nearly eighty millions. Hitherto largely absorbed in domestic affairs, while the sinews of the commonwealth were knitting into strength, the people were roused by a great wrong committed at their door by one of the effete monarchies of Europe. They rose as one man, moved by a common impulse, and avenged that wrong, and in so doing left behind them forever their former provincialism, and took their place upon the higher plane of the world's civic life. Can any one doubt the ability of the American republic to maintain that position?

CHAPTER XI

ATTITUDE OF THE NATIONS

THE Continental powers, at the beginning of the war, were all hostile to the purposes and pretensions of the United States. First, an American republic dared dispute with European monarchy at the point of the sword. This new transatlantic nation dared question the honor, integrity, and humanity of a people of the Latin race, through whom had come to them their christianity and their civilization. Then if a new western power should arise, how would it affect the political equilibrium of the world? To disturb their quiet were race antipathy, political suspicion, and commercial jealousy; for if this new power should strike root on the coast of Asia, a dangerous element might be introduced to the already perplexing problems of the Far East. So strong became this feeling against the United States that there was serious thought of interference; and had England joined the others in answer to Spain's pathetic appeals, the war would not have been permitted. But Great Britain with us, the other powers did not care to interpose objections, as the people of the United States were clearly in the right, and to stir them up in opposition might bring war upon themselves. Hence while hating the Americans, and hating the war with its brilliant episodes, and filled with disgust over the barbarity and pusillanimity of Spain, the powers paused; and when by a humane and judicious course, in which courage was no less conspicuous than sagacity and mercy, the United States had achieved a phenomenal success, no opportunity having been meanwhile given to the continental nations to vent their spleen, protestations of friendship came pouring in, as hollow as they were loud. There had been talk of intervention between Germany and Austria, while Russia at this time professed indifference as to the fate of the Philippines. With a

victorious navy and a large army now at hand, it was clearly evident to the European powers that the United States government was taking up a position in the Far East from which it was not to be driven.

The old-time diplomats were irritated, not only by the disturbance of the traditional balance of power, but by the directness of speech and intensity of purpose which characterized international intercourse on the part of the United States throughout the war. This, with the spirit of humanity and desire to deal fairly and liberally with all, irrespective of class or nationality, and with no disposition to take advantage of superior strength or favoring fortune to do an injustice, was indeed trying to those who held that there could be no statesmanship without diplomacy, and no diplomacy without chicanery. In it all America was getting outside of what should be her natural sphere of influence; for if the entrance of Japan into the politics of the Far East was an impertinence how much more so was the intermeddling of the United States in the affairs of Asia and Europe.

Until the German merchants expressed a preference for American occupation, the tone of the continental press was hostile to the United States. The motives of the American people were impugned, and the president and congress insulted and ridiculed. This pretended sentiment of humanity, they said, is simply an excuse to wage war for territory. The presumption of a transatlantic republic to make war on one of the great empires of Europe was supreme,-which contemptuous sneers were soon to be silenced by a lesson from this same republic across the water which the kingdoms of Europe will never forget. Yet all this while, throughout the world there was a consensus of opinion that the Philippine islands should neither be turned back to Spain, nor transferred, to another power. Had the United States government refused to accept them, leaving them to Aguinaldo and anarchy, it would have served the cavillers right; but in that event the powers would have pounced down upon the islands and devoured them as an eagle devours its prey.

When at the request of the Spanish government the French ambassador at Washington, M. Cambon, asked the United States to name the terms on which peace could be secured. President McKinley promptly replied, after due consulta

tion with his cabinet, and the terms were transmitted by Cambon to Spain. At this time the Spanish government could have secured peace by the cession of Porto Rico, the independence of Cuba, and a coaling station, or perhaps the island of Luzon, in the Philippines.

Pending the negotiations preceding hostilities, in which President McKinley put forth every effort to avert war, the prevailing opinion abroad seemed to be that it was possible that a little European intimidation might tend to moderate the aggressiveness of the United States. As matters progressed, that sentiment became weaker, and entirely disappeared before its close. And it became fully apparent that henceforth the United States could not be treated as an inferior, but must be regarded as the equal of any nation, and with a voice, if not in European affairs, at least in the affairs of the world. Hence a change of tone in the European press, monarchs themselves not disdaining to disclaim ever having had any unfriendly feeling toward the American republic.

Europe had been astonished at the efficiency of American arms and the courage of our men, many of them raw recruits, but all of them born soldiers. At the rapidity with which the Spanish cruisers were hammered to pieces by accurate gun fire, all the world wondered. So thorough and scientific was the work of the American fleets that no criticism could be advanced, except, indeed, that the enemy was unworthy of our steel. Said the London Spectator, " Sampson and Dewey could destroy French ships of vastly superior power, and a naval struggle between the United States and Germany would be very short, and would surprise the emperor, who thinks himself invincible."

It was not a very noble spirit, that made manifest by these nations of Europe while we were attempting to clean away the moral filth which one of them had deposited at our door. They have never received aught but good from us. We have fed their poor and pampered their rich, and found homes for their surplus population; we have admired their art and patronized their tailors, and aped their manners, and furnished rich wives for their nobility. They should be pleased by our silly admiration, and our wasteful expenditures of money on their behalf. What has been the effect of America on Europe from the first? Setting aside geographical and

ethnological instructions, which opened the eyes of the blind and taught the dumb to speak, the lessons in liberty, in humanity, or it may be better to say the evolution of republican thought and institutions, and the free admission of Europeans to American domain and citizenship, has saved western Europe from the fate of Rome, of Turkey, of Egypt. We used to think it no small thing to feed Europe, and to receive the surplus population and make men of them. Now we not only feed Europeans but clothe them; we are not only supplying them with our products but are to an ever increasing extent inventing and manufacturing for them. And because the continental powers are able to tolerate Spain in Europe as a near neighbor, they seemed to think that the United States had become fastidious in being unable longer to tolerate Spain in Cuba as a near neighbor. But Americans have passed the time when ignorance, bigotry, and cruelty appear pleasing to them. They do not delight in cockfights and bullfights as national sports, nor indulge in the methods of medievalism in war; nor do they feel called upon to witness the workings of that same spirit in the treatment of inferiors that led to the invention of the Inquisition for the purification of politics and the salvation of souls. Spain's legend in the government of her colonies, if written over the portals of America would read, In peace, robbery; in war, murder.

And now as never before men of all nations began to concern themselves about the United States, the present and the future of the great republic. The American, the European, and the Asiatic; Englishmen Frenchmen Germans Russians and the rest, all pondered over propositions now for the first time considered, what this marvel would do, and how would its doings affect the others. The islanders of the sea wondered if more islands would be wanted, or would be taken; and the republics of the mainland, from Mexico to Chili, asked themselves if they would ever be called upon to join respectable republicanism. Will Central and South America be bought like Alaska or dismembered like China, and will the United States participate in the dismemberment of China or seek colonial fields in Greenland? Cecil Rhodes was sure that the Philippines were only the beginning, and that the United States would in due time conquer by force of arms all Spanish and Portuguese America, while the London Spectator re