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Published: 2015-07-09

Total Pages: 622

ISBN-13: 9781331668268

Excerpt from The International Review, Vol. 11: 1881 Some thirty years ago a European diplomatist, who expressed the hope that henceforth the ocean would forever remain free, received from an American statesman the proud answer, "Yes, with our leave!" Horace Greeley, in the "Tribune," sharply rebuked his countryman, not only because such a vainglorious boast would under all circumstances be in bad taste, but principally because it should never become the ambition of the United States, by powder and cannon, to gain and maintain a predominating position among the great powers of the earth. He lived to see the time when this., nation of farmers, artisans, shopkeepers, and merchants, who in the opinion of most Europeans knew no higher God than the almighty dollar, waged a war the like of which could not be found in the whole history of mankind; and the present generation witnesses the awakening of Europe to the dire fact that this young upstart among the civilized nations of the world is wielding arms in comparison with which all the swords, guns, and cannon of the Civil War were but harmless toys. After all, Greeley was right. The exploits of the United States in the art of destroying, systematically and on the grandest scale, have been so great that the most warlike nations of Europe would not hastily engage with them in a trial of strength, if by some miracle they could be transformed into next-door neighbors. But the strength they begin to manifest in the art of building up and creating is so huge, and develops at such a rate, that the eyes of all the powers of Europe - even Russia in some respects not excepted - are becoming riveted on them in a kind of awe-stricken bewilderment. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.