Expansionists of 1898. The Acquisition of Hawaii and the Spanish Islands

200 Pages·1964·55.51 MB·English

by  Julius Pratt

• •
THE ACQUISITION OF HAWAII AND THE SPANISH ISLANDS
by
JULIUS W. PRATT
• -
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QUADRANGLE BOOKS
A New York T imes Company
I
PREFACE
It is the purpose of this study to trace the rise and de
velopment in the United States of the movement for over
seas expansion from hesitant beginnings under the Harrison
Administration at the opening of the last decade of the
nineteenth century to its surprising triumph in the ratifica
tion of the treaty with Spain in February, 1899. The .first
chapter analyzes the ideological background of the move
ment and surveys briefly the unsuccessful attempts of
Harrison, Blaine, and Foster to secure for the United States
a strategic foothold in the Caribbean. The next four chap
ters deal with the Hawaiian question the immediate origins
of the movement for annexation, the revolution of January,
1893, the Cleveland policy of refusal, and the repercussions
•
to these events on the part of the American public and the
American Congress. The heavy emphasis upon the Ha
•
waiian question is, I believe, justified, in part by the lack,
FOURTH PRINTING
hitherto, of any adequate treatment of this theme, in part
by the fact that the proposal to annex Hawaii focused pub
©
EXP~SIONISTS OF 1898. 1936 by The johns
lic opinion for the first time upon the issues involved in
~opkms Press. This book was originally published
the expansionist policy, produced a sharp cleavage between
Jn 1?36 by The johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore
the advocates and opponents of that policy, and opened a
and h · '
JS ece reprmred by arrangement
debate which continued almost uninterruptedly for seven
years. The sixth chapter traces the broadening program of
F.or information, address Quadrangle/The New York
T1mes Book Co 10 E the expansionist group from the temporary shelving of
., ast 53rd Street New York N y
•
10022 M ' ' · · Hawaiian annexation to the beginning of the war with
. anufacrured in the United Stares of America.
Spain. The seventh analyzes the attitude of American busi
ness toward the war with Spain and the opportunities for
PREFACE
•••
' 'Ill
.· whidl it presented. The eighth presents a sinu'J
cxpanston . . . ar
. of the attitude of reltgtous bodtes. The "; tl
ana ysts . . . ... . n
l 1
descnbes the triumph of the expanstontst pohcy in the
. t·on of Hawaii and the treaty of peace with Spain
annexa
1 •
It is a pleasure to make the following acknowledgments
of courtesies and assistance rendered: to Colonel Thomas
c. ..
M. Spaulding, of Washington, D. for valuable criticism
of certain chapters of the manuscnpt; also to Colonel
PAGE
••
vu
Spaulding and to Professor R. S. . Kuykendall .and Miss
CI-iAP'fER . . . . • • . ••••••.•••
PREFACE · · · · · · · · ..... . 1
~iaude Jones, of Honolulu, for tnvaluable asststance in
I.
THE NEW MANIFEST DESTINY .....•.....•..
34
securing photostatic copies of diplomatic documents from
II.
HARRISON AND HAWA ll. ...... - .........•.
the Hawaiian. Archives (copies now forming a part of the 74 "'
III.
REVOLUTION IN HAWAII ...•. ..........•..•
110
Stephen Spaulding Memorial Collection in the General
NNEXATION REJECTED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .•
146
A
L brary, Un1versity of Michigan) ; to Dr. William W.
IV.
1 A
VVAR OF PROPAGANDA ......... ····•···•
v .
Bishop and his staff for aid in using the materials in the 188
VI.
BROADENING HoRIZONS ................ - •
Spaulding Collection; to Mrs. Natalia Summers and her 230
VII.
THE BUSINESS POINT OF VIEW ......... :• ....
assistants in the archives of the Department of State for 279
VIII. " THE IMPERIALISM OF RIGHTEOUSNESS ....
generous and cheerful aid in using the n1anuscripts under 317
IX.
CoNsUMMATION .. · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · ·
their charge; to the Social Science Research Council for 361
BIBLIOGRAPHY · · · · · · · · · · · .... .. . ' ...• ...
two grants-in-aid in furtherance of this study; to three of
~--
J/1
.. . ........ .. • • • • • • • • •
N . . . . . . . . . . . . .
my former graduate students, Mrs. Bernice B. Shannon, Miss I DEX
Elizabeth Ahern, and Mrs. Bernice H. Lee, for certain of
the materials used in chapters VII and VIII; to the editors
of the Hispanic American Historical Review, the Mississippi
Valle) Historical Review, and the Paci fie Historical Review,
to republish in whole or in part material
fo~ ~ermission
ongmally printed in those journals; and finally to my wife
who gave indispens bl · · '
. a e ass1stance tn the preparation of the
manuscnpt.
JuLius W.
PRATT.
I
THE NEW MANIFEST DESTINY
On March 24, 1895, there died obscurely in New York a
one-time journalist and diplomat, John Louis O'Sullivan
by name. Fifty years before, he had enriched the national
vocabulary with the potent phrase, "manifest destiny;• and
had, as editor of the Democratic Review and as an acquain
tance of Presidents Polk, Pierce, and Buchanan, urged
energetically the policy of expansion which the phrase
embodied. 1 Thereafter, both he and his idea had fallen
•
upon evil times. O'Sullivan had been a Democrat and a
Southern sympathizer, and the idea for which he stood
had been too frequently connected with the cause of slavery
extension to escape a share of the discredit suffered by the
latter. The close of the Civil War found o·sullivan an exile
in Europe. The efforts of Seward as Secretary of State and
Grant as President to revive the expansionist policy of pre
war days met with little popular support. 2
But while the passing years only deepened the obscurity
surrounding the man, they brought a surprising resurrec
tion of the idea which he had advocated and even of the
Julius W . Pratt, "John L. O'Sullivan and Destiny,"
~fanifest
1
New York History XIV, 213-234. Dr Albert K. Weinberg in his
1
Manifest Destiny: A St11dy of NaJionaliJt Expansionism in Ameri
(an History, has made an elaborate study of the ideas ar
advanc~
various periods in justification of the acquisition of new territory
by the United States.
T. C. Smith, "Expansion after the Civil War, 1865-1871,"'
2
Politifal Scien(e Quarurly, XVI, 412-436.
1
,
1898
2 EXPANSIONISTS OF
THE NEW MANIFEST DESTINY
3
phrase which he bad coined. Before O'Sullivan's death,
pression of a half-blind faith the superior virility of. the
~n
" manifest destiny " was again in the air. There was new
American race and the supenor beneficence of .Amencan
talk of expansion, which now found its chief support not
political institutions. In the intervening' years, much had
as formerly among Democrats but in the other political
been done to provide this emotional concept with a philo
camp-in
what O'Sullivan had once described as the party
sophic backing. The expansionists of the 1890's were able
of " wicked and crazy Republicanism." It was the Republi
to cite the lessons of science and of history in support of
can party which in 1892 pledged its belief in " the achieve
their doctrine. Far-fetched and fallacious as their reasoning
ment of the manifest destiny of the republic in its broadest
may appear to us, it nevertheless carried conviction to some
sense." 8 It was a Republican administration which gave
of the best minds of the period.
most sympathetic support to the project of an American
Prominent among the conceptions which contributed to
controlled isthmian canal and which sought naval bases for
the new expansionist philosophy was the Darwinian hy
the United States in Hawaii and Samoa and in various
pothesis of evolution through natural selection. If the con
Caribbean islands. It was a Republican Senator who pro
tinuous struggle for existence among biological forms re
claimed, in an article which O'Sullivan may well have read
sulted in the elimination of the unfit and the emergence of
just before his death, that the United States should ex
higher types, why might not the same law hold good in
tend its limits from the Rio Grande to the Arctic Ocean, human society? If the survival of the .fittest was the law of
should build a Nicaraguan canal, control Hawaii, maintain
nature and the path of progress, surely the more gifted
its inBuence in Samoa, and own Cuba; that, since .. the
races need offer neither apologies nor regrets when they
great nations [were] rapidly absorbing for their future ex
suppressed, supplanted, or destroyed their less talented
pansion and their present defence all the waste places of
competitors. And who could doubt that the Anglo-Saxon
the earth," the United States, as one of the great nations,
race, especially in its American branch, possessed those
" must not fall out of the line of march." In fact, the
4 superior talents which entitled it to survive? Certainly not
United States was about to embark, under Republican
Charles Darwin, the founder of the creed. In his second
leadership, upon a new career of expansion, which was to
great work, The Descent of Aian, the English scientist in
be justilied if not motivated by new interpretations of
cluded a passage well calculated to flatter American self
"manifest destiny." '
esteem.
The manifest destiny of the 1840's had been largely a
There tS apparently much truth [he wrote] in the belief
matter of emotion. Much of it had been simply one ex-
that the wonderful progress of the United States, as well
as the character of the people, are the results of natural
a E. Stanwood, A HiJtory of Jhe PreJidency /rom 1788 lo 1897
p.496. selection· the more energetic, restless, and courageous men
I
4 from all 'parts of Europe having em1grated during the ~ast
H. C. Lodge, " Our Blundering Foreign Policy " The R
XIX, 8·17. ' or11m, ten or twelve generations to that great country, and havtng
EXPANSlONISTS OF 1898
4
THE. NEW MA."1F£ST DESTINY
there succeeded best. Looking to the distant future 1 d
not think that the R~. Mr. Zincke. takes an exaUerate~ surface that is not alread}~ the se2t of an old ch~IJnuon
view \\'hen he All other of events as that shall become English in its language, in its religion, in its
~ays: s~nes.
"·hich resulted .m the cul~re of nund Jn Greece, and that political habits and traditions, and to a predominant cxt.cnt
in the blood of its people. The day is at hand v.·ben foar
which resulted Jn the empue. of Ro~e only a~p ear to have
.6fths of the human race will rrace its pedigree to English
purpose and value when viewed Jn connectton with or
forefathers, as four-fifths of the white people of the United
rather as .s ub~i diary to, . . . , ~e great stream of Anglo
States trace their pedjgree to-day. The race thus spread 0\·a
SJxon emtgratiOn to the west.
both hemisr.heres, and from the rising to the sating ~
In thus hailing the American as " the heir of all the ages, will not fatl to keep that sovereignty of the sea and that
commercia) supremacy v.hich ic began to acquire v.•hen
in the foremost Jiles of time," D arwin was merely record
England .first stretched 1ts arm across the Atlantic to the
ing what seemed to him a scientific fact. He was not
shores of Virginia and Massachusetts.
preaching a message or advocating a policy. It was not dif
Even the English language, he believed, v.·ould " ultimatd}
ficulr, however, to derive a practical lesson from such a
become the language of mankind." •
premise, and this task was gladly undertaken by certain
Another widely read aulhor whose ideas dosely re
of Darwin's disciples in the United States. Among the
sembled Fiske's and whose indebtedness o Darv.;n
"'~ no
foremost of these was the historian, John Fiske. A convert
less obvious was the Congregational clergyman, Josiah
to the theory of evolution since his undergraduate days at
Strong. In 1885 he published a small \·olume entided
Harvard where he had been threatened with expulsion
OtJr Country: Its Pouibfe Future end lJS Pr 'Jmt Cris:s
for his unorthodox opinions-he became one of its chief
in which appeared a chapter on ·· The Anglo-Saxon and the
popularizers in the United States. 6 In an essay entitled
World's Future.. The Anglo-Suon, he :lSSerted. the
.. Manifest Destiny," which he published in H arpers Maga
chief representative of two great ideas-o\·il liberty md
zi1le in 1885, it is easy to detect the working of the evolu •• a pure s pintual Christjanity ·• was " divineJ • com.mi •
tiOnary theory. After stressing the sup erior character of sioned to be. in peculiar sense. hi brother's keeper. .Add
:1
.Anglo-Saxon institutions and the overwhelming growth of to this the fact of his rapidly increlSing strength in m em
.Anglo-Saxon numbers and power, Fiske remarked: times and we ha\'e well-nigh a demon tration o. his
desti~y.
·· God, it ppeucd to {r trong. \\ . trainin chi
It is enough to point to the general conclusion that the 1
work y.'hi0 the_ English race began when it colonized North favored race for the final competition of ra~ the Stru le
Arnenca destmed to go on until every land on the earth's
JS for c:\:istence ·hich would arise from the continued pres·
·ure of popul tion upon the means of ·u ·i en ·
:; Chule.s Darwin. Tht Dtscent of M4n 4nd Stlection in Relation
1
to Stx, 1, 179. The passage quoted and endorsed by Darwin is
john Fi~ke, " {anife~ t ~tin.... H#tp .'s : ·~
1
fro,.m Rev~ F. B Zrncke, U:rt Wmter in the U11ited Statu, p. 29.
· ' "X .. 7 S 90 Th· ~ h pu h
6- • ·15
Se~ 1f'~" sre1ch of Fi.;Jce by ]. T. Adams in Dictionary of Ameri i\faga:111e, '-" .. , ~ • • 1 •
•
Ametir. 11 Polilir.:/ Jd,·:zs Jfieu ~:!I o rbt ~~•
(an Biograph), VI, 420 423. Kl '
lli.riOt), pp. 101·1 ::.
1898
6 EXPANSIONISTS OF
7
THE NEW MANIFEST DESTINY
Then this race of unequaled energy, with all the majesty of
part
and later at Columbia, where in 1880 he took a leading
numbers and the might of wealth behind it the repre
in founding the School of Political Science.
sentat~ve,. let us ~ope, o! . t~e .largest l~berty, the purest
It is significant that the two German scholars to whom
Christianity, civilization pe
th~ highe~t ha~Ing dev~loped
culiarly aggressive traits calculated to Impress Its institu
Burgess acknowledged the heaviest debt were Gustav Dray
tions upon mankind, will spread itself over the earth. If
sen, historian of the rise of the Prussian state, and Rudolf
I read not amiss, this powerful race will move down upon
von Gneist, profound student of the development of English
Mexico, down upon Central and South America, out upon
the islands of the sea, over upon Africa and beyond. And constitutional law. 9 Whether the admiration for the po
can any one doubt that the result of competition of
tbi~ litical talents of the Teutonic race which Burgess must
races will be the ({survival of the fittest "?
have derived from study under these men was strengthened
The extinction of weaker races before the all-conquering by an acquaintance with Count Arthur Gobineau's work on
Anglo-Saxon might appear sad to some, but to Mr. Strong the superiority of the Nordic stock can only be conjec
it seemed almost inevitable. Only adverse climatic condi tured.lo In any event, his most ambitious work, Political
tions could bold the Anglo-Saxon in check, and the areas Science and Comparative Constit11tional Law, published in
where he could not thrive were not extensive. Is there 1890, contains a remarkable chapter on National Political
lC ct
room for reasonable doubt," he asked in conclusion, that Character," in which Burgess virtually assigned world do
cc
this race, unless devitalized by alcohol and tobacco, is des minion to Germans and Ang1o-Saxons.11
tined to dispossess many weaker races, assimilate others, and After analyzing the political character of Greek, Slav,
mold the remainder, until, in a very true and important Celt, Roman, and Teuton as exhibited in their political in
sense, it has Anglo-Saxonized mankind? "s stitutions, Burgess concluded that all but the last were de
The reader may be tempted to attribute the rather sopho ficient in the highest political talent. The successes of
moric generalizations and prophecies of Fiske and Strong Greek, Celt, and Slav had been confined to the organization
to their lack of broad and systematic scholarly training. Yet of local communities; the genius of the Roman ~·as for
•
one of their contemporaries who possessed these advantages world empire. Only Teutoos had developed the true
to a degree unusual among American scholars of his time national state, which was, in Burgess's opinion, the most
Cl
arrived by a different road at quite simila.r conclusions. modern and the most complete solution of the whole prob-
Professor J?hn W. Burgess, after completing his under
o John W. Burgess, ReminiJcencu of an Am"ican Scho/llr, PP·
graduate ~ork at Amherst, had spent two years in the
126, 131.
study of .history and political science at Gottingen, Leipzig,
Gobincau's Euai sur /'inegalile dn races h11mainn (4 vols.,
10
and Berlin. Thence he returned to teach, first at Amherst Paris, 1853-18.55) was translated into English with the title Afor:zl
and Intellectllal Dh,ersity of Races (Philadelphia. 18~6).
~ Str~ng,
!osihah Our Country: ltJ Poui61e Plltllre and ltJ PreJent u John W. Burgess, Poliliral Srinue a11d Comp u·aJir C,,:r;iu-
l
C
ap. pp. 208-227.
f/Jif, C XIV,
tiona/ Law, 1, 30-39.
•
1898
EXPANSIONISTS OF
8 THE NEW MANIFEST DESTINY 9
lem of political organization w~ich the world has as yet
rid into those parts of the world inhabited by unpolitical
d, The fact that the national state was a Teutonic
h h J . J J'
d
pro uce . . .. h a'WnOd barbaric races; • e., ey ave a co onta po rcy. n 15
t muJt
1.
. tamped the Teutonic nations as t e political
creatiOn s
North Americans, who were reluctant to undertake such
T
. " , -nxcellence and authorize[d ] them, in the 0
nations ra ' d . .. bl
ibility and inclined to regar Jt as unwarranta e
~.
respon S . ,, .
world to assume the leadership in the
econotrlf of the
interference in the affaus of other states, Burgess pomted
establishment and administration of states."
12
out that
to
Having thus assigned the Teutons their proper place
b far the larger pa~ of the surface of the gl~be is inh~bi~ed
in the hierarchy of races, Burgess proceeded, in the next
n~t
by topulations whtch have succeeded tn es_tabl1shing
r ·
chapter, to draw certain "conclusions of pra~ical poli
·zed stateS· which have, In fact, no capaaty to ac-
1 th f .
ClVI ' •
tics." It followed easily from what had been satd, lish such a work; and whtch must, ere ore, rematn
ts P
com · · b b · nl th
in a state of barbansm or semt- akr arftsm, u ess . e po-
that the Teutonic nations are particularly endowed with
.t. al nations undertake the wor o state organtzatiOn
1
espe f . th . h 1· ·ca1
the capacity for establishing national states, and are f I K them This condition o things au onzes t e po
ttl
cially called to that work; and, ther~fore, t~at they are n~~ions n.ot only to answer the call of the unpolitical_popu
intrusted, in the general ec?-?omy. o[. his~ory, With the mis lations for aid and direction, but also. to orgamz.atton
fo~ce
sion of conducting the politiCal avdizatton of the modern
upon them by any means necessary, tn _thetr honest
J~dg­
world. 14 ment to accomplish this result. There ts no human nght
' b b .
to the status of ar ansm. 17
This meant, among other things, 15 that the Teutonic nations
To
called to political justify such interference in the interests of civiliza
were .. carry the civilization of the modern
tion, it was not necessary that the inferior race be wholly
12 lbid., p. 39.
barbaric. In the case of populations "not wholly barbaric,
Ibid., pp. 40-48.
lS
which have made some progress in state organizations, but
u Ibid., p. 44.
Of some modern interest are Burgess's conclusions as to the
tts which manifest incapacity to solve the problem of political
proper attitude of the Teutonic rulers to alien elements within
civilization with any degree of completeness," interference
their own borders. In a state with heterogeneous population, he
by the political nations would be justifiable.
wrote, "the Teutonic element, when dominant, should never sur
render the balance of political power, either in general or local
No one can question that it is in the interest of ·world's
~he
organization, to the other elements. Under certain circumstances
civilization that law and order and the true hberty con
it should not even permit participation of the other elements in
sistent therewith shall reign everywhere upon the glo?e. A
political power ... the participation of other ethnical elements
permanent inability the part of sta_te or semt-Stlte
~n ~.Y.
in the exercise of political power has resulted, and will result, in
to secure this status ts a threat to avthzatton everywhere.
corruption and confusion most deleterious and dangerous to the
Both for the sake of the half-barbarous state and in the
rights of ali, and to the civilization of society." I bid., pp. 44-45.
interest of the rest of the world, a state or states, endowed
Burgess was likely thinking of the South during the carpet-bag
regime. The passage might, however, have been taken as a text
to Ibid., p. 45. Italics mine.
by the r:ulers of the Third Reich.
I bid., pp. 45-46.
11
189 8
EXPANSIONISTS OF THE NEW MANIFEST DESTINY 11
10
with the capacity for political organization, may righteously farther extension in Asia and Africa, if not elsewhere, as a
assume sovereignty over, and undertake to create state ord
erroanent world condition. The British publicists," he
for, such a politically incompetent population. er
;emarked naively, " understood me better and defended
To undertake such interference was not only a right but
this part of my book with distinct appreciation." Why,
20
an obligation. " Indifference on the part of Teutonic states one may ask, should they have done otherwise?
to the political civilization of the rest of the world is, then, It may be remarked here, parenthetically, as a curious
not only mistaken policy, but disregard of duty." fact, that when in 1898 the United States embarked upon a
1s
. Modern imperialism could ask for no more sweeping war which led directly to the assumption of a portion of
the " world-duty " which Burgess had held before its eyes,
justification than Professor Burgess gave it. To a reviewer
in the Nation this portion of Burgess's work seemed a he himself heatedly opposed that course. The war with
Spain was to him " the .first great shock " that he had
surprising endorsement of the political morality of Omar
cc
experienced since the founding of the School of Political
and Pizarro." The war-cry of the modern State," re
cc
Science, which he had looked upon as an agency for inter
marked this writer, " is not ' The sword of the Lord and
national peace. The atrocity stories which preceded the
of Gideon,' it is true, but it conquers in the name of its
war he set down as the insidious work of British statesmen,
' world-duty,' which is practically the same thing." 19 It is
who wished to embroil the United States in a war with
little wonder that, as Burgess complained later, his discus
Spain; and the extension of American authority over sub
sion of the colonial question was widely condemned in
ject peoples he regarded as " disastrous to American po
Continental Europe and in America "as a justification of
litical civilization " and as a fatal move . . . bound to
the existing system of British colonial empire and of its tt
reach farther and finally compromise the liberties of all
American citizens." Burgess apparently saw no incon
21
18 lbid., pp. 47-48. It is interesting to compare portions of the
above passage with language subsequently used by one of Burgess's
sistency between this attitude and his earlier advocacy of a
students at Columbia. In his annual message of December 6 1904
colonial policy. To the student any attempt to reconcile the
Domini~
President Theodore Roosevelt wrote, with reference to the
two seems hopeless.
can Republic " If a nation shows that it knows how to act with
:e~onable efficiency and decency in social and political matters, From Burgess, who planted the seed of an expansionist
Jf keeps order and pays its obligations, it need fear no interference
It policy only to abjure the ripened fruit, we may turn to a
fro~ the Uni.ted States. Chronic wrongdoing, or an impotence
philosopher whose thought on this subject was consistent
whic~ results ~n a general loosening of the ties of civilized society,
and who never shrank from the responsibilities which his
may 10 ~~enca, as elsewhere, ultimately require intervention by
•
5
°dme ClVlllzed nation, · · · " Congreuional Record 58th Cong
ideas entailed for his country. In the same year in which
3 sess 19Th' ' .,
G ., p. · 15 was, of course, part of the famous Roosevelt
11
>ro ary to the Monroe Doctrine
Burgess, Remi11iJcenceJ, p. 249.
2o
Nt~tifln, (Scptcmbc:~
1.1 II, 240 2/f, 1891).
1!1
1b id., pp. 312-316.
21
1898
12 EXPANSIONISTS OF
13
THE NEW MANIFEST DESTINY
Burgess's treatise on political science saw the light
also appeared The Inflllence of Sea Power th~ the sea or by the sea." 2a While it is " largely
• ·n . .
1111
. ron H/Jtor reat upon .
g
d T h M h . · t y " its fundamental stgm cance IS econocruc.
by Alfre ayer a an, at that hme a capt · . 1,
1
milttary 11S or , . .
aln th
10
a ··sts chiefly for the sake of commerce; It tn
United States Navy. The embodiment of a series of e
1 Sea power ext d
t:~ at goes to make sea-borne commerce secure an
on naval history which Mahan had been detailed
11 th
&:e dudes a b ·
l a merchant marine that trade may not e In
at the Naval War College at Newport, Rhode Island
b
ro.fita e ' . ch
P
volume put forth the thesis which Mahan was f rth' e . 1 ds. a navy capable of defendtng the mer ant
alten 1an ' . .
. u er to
· nd keeping the trade routes open 1n ttme of war;
Illustrate and defend through the remainder of his a .
manne a
1'£ e. Th' th e st·s was, m· sh oct, th at sea power was the ctJve • which may both serve the interests of commerce
1 IS co1 o n1es, .
· h ak · b · most
potent f actor 1n t e m mg or reakmg of natio h directly and also provide naval vessels wtth secure bases
ns, t at
without sea power no people, however gifted had att · and coaling stations the world over.
. )
a·n~
or could attam the fullest measure of well-being or f . These things, in Mahan's mind, were the essential foun
0 10-
Ruence and importance in world affairs. This vol dations of natiOnal prosperity and national greatness. How
um_e,
which told the story of the rise of British sea pon· desperate to him, in 1890, must have appeared the prospects
n-er
10
the )'ears from 1660 to 1783, was followed by others which of J is own country! There was, indeed, a growing foreign
1
carried the narrative to the dose of the Napoleonic wars trade, but it was carried in ships flying alien flags. There
with excursions into other periods and into the naval' was the beginning a very feeble beginning of a modern
history of the United States navy. A dozen light cruisers were built or being built as
22
But Mahan was always the pread1cr as well as the his well as the two second-class battleships, "Maine" and
torian. What he perhaps had most at heart, and what " Texas"; and in the year of the publication of The lnf/11-
certainly most concerns us here, was his indoctrination ence of Sea Po·UJer 11pon History, Congress authorized the
of ~is. own co~ntrymen with the gospel of sea power. A construction of three first-class battleships. These small
patnottc Amencan, he wished to see his nation profit b beginnings did not impress Mahan. Without a great mer
the lessons which he had discovered in history and whic:
chant marine, of which he saw little prospect, he doubted
he drove home at every opportunity, in his books and in
whether an adequate navy would or could be built.
the. n~merous articles which he contributed to American
penodtca1s. Even had the United States a great national shipping, it
may be doubted whether a sufficient navy would foflow; the
.~.ist~ry
The of sea power, wrote Mahan in 1890, em
distance which separates her from other great powers, in
braces m Its broad sweep all that tends to make a people one way a protection, is also a snare.
24
For a partial bibliograph f M h • ..
22
23
The life of Admiral At h yo a an~ wntrngs see C. C. Taylor, The Influence of Sea Power upon HiJJory, 1660-1783, p. 1.
a an, Naval PhrloJopher, pp. 336-338. 24 Ibid., pp. 87-88.