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 American Unity, or 
 
 British Domination? 
 
 Memorial Address at Antrim, N. H., May 30, 1893. 
 
 BY HENRY B. ATHERTON OF NASHUA, N. H. 
 
 Price palil to Preserve the Union. 
 
 Comrades and Friends : 
 
 In the war for the Union New Hamp- 
 shire had 33,937 enlisted men, or, reduced 
 to a three years' standard 30,849. That 
 was more than 10 per cent, of our whole 
 population, and more than half of the 
 male population between the ages of 18 
 and 45. In other words one out of every 
 9.6 men, women and children, or one for 
 every two households in the state, en- 
 listed in defence of the Union. Of this 
 number 4,882 or 16.7 per cent, died in 
 the service. There were killed or mortally 
 wounded 1963 or 6.5 per cent, a percen- 
 tage of killed exceeded by only two 
 states, Vermont and Pennsylvania. 
 
 The total number enrolled in the Un- 
 ion army wa? 2,326,168 and of them 
 110,070, or 4.7 per cent, were killed or 
 died of their wounds. The deaths in the 
 service from all causes was 369,528 or 15.4 
 per cent. Thus it will be seen that when 
 a man volunteered for the suppression of 
 the rebellion he took one chance in 20 of 
 being killed in battle and one chance in 
 6 of dying in the service. 
 
 The average age of the men in the Un- 
 ion army was 25 years. Of those who 
 successfully passed their medical exam- 
 ination at enlistment the average expec- 
 tation of life was 40 years. Here was a 
 shortening of his life by 40 years of each 
 one of 359,528 men who died in the ser- 
 vice, or a loss, taken collectively, of 14,- 
 381,120 years of human life, to say noth- 
 ing of those who died of disease or 
 wounds after their discharge. 
 
 To each one of these life was as sweet 
 as to you or me. This was the price our 
 fallen comrades paid for the restoration 
 of the Union. By the side of this appall- 
 ing sacrifice of human life, the destruc- 
 tion of property and the waste of treas- 
 ure sink into insignificance. Even the 
 annual disbursement for pensions to the 
 survivors and to the widows and depen- 
 dent relatives of those who died, about 
 which there is now so much patriotic, 
 
 not to say political, concern and anxiety, 
 dwindles to nothing in comparison. 
 Nobody is conscious of any sacrifice in 
 making those payments. If anybody's 
 property or income is diminished by it, 
 the loss IS imperceptible to him. Our 
 comrades gave 14,391,120 years of their 
 lives that we might individually and 
 collectively as a people -have the pros- 
 perity we now enjoy. 
 
 I have spoken only of those who died 
 in the service. Others of our comrades 
 also made sacrifices; some in Impaired 
 health and shortened lives and the con- 
 sequent inabiliiy to provide for them- 
 selves and their families as they other- 
 wise might. Some left school and gave 
 up the hope of a higher education. Many 
 lost the opportunity to make for them- 
 selves fortunes, as those who remained at 
 home could do, in trade, maaufactures or 
 finance. They lost also in many caoes the 
 chance for political preferment. This 
 may be contrary to the general impres- 
 sion and seems a little singular in a state 
 where patriotism was never at a dis- 
 count. A glance at some of the state 
 offices filled since 1861 will I think 
 sustain the statement. Of 372 state 
 senators chosen in that period 
 I recognize the names of only about a 
 dozen who were in the service; of 17 
 speakers of the house only two; of 24 
 presidents of the senate, none; of six at- 
 torney generals, one; of ten railroad com- 
 missioners, none; of 45 councillors, only 
 three or four; of 19 appointments to the 
 bench of the supreme and supreme judi- 
 cial courts, one; and of 17 governors, only 
 two. And yet it will hardly be claimed 
 that the 46 per cent, of the men of a mil- 
 itary ago in New Hampshire who,through 
 physical infirmity or from prudential 
 reasons remained at home, had on an av- 
 erage more ability, character or 
 ism than the 64 per cent, who we;: 
 front. Thus in this state at/^st, Wo 
 seems that the (opportunity foi^olitical « 
 preferment was another sacrinee which « 
 the public spirited volunteer mm^ when,^ 
 I he enlisted. x.'' \^^^ 
 
AMKIUCAN UNITY OH URITISII DOMINATION? 
 
 There were many minor personal in- 
 conveniences and hardships also which he 
 was called upon to undergo. He relin- 
 quished the comforts of ho;ne, the com- 
 panionship of friends, the .'reedom of 
 civil life and voluntarily took upon him- 
 self the deprivations of a life in camp and 
 on the march, and a ready Hubmission to 
 the command of his superior officers. He 
 underwent exposure to heat and cold, to 
 rain and snow, miasma and disease under 
 conditions where he could do but little to 
 protect himself. 
 
 Was it Worth the CoBt ? 
 
 Looking back after the lapse of thirty 
 years, was it our duty to do whr.t in our 
 old time enthusiasm we then believed it 
 was? Was the preservation of the Amer- 
 ican Union worth all the sacrifice, all 
 the waste of treasure and human life 
 which it cost? Was that war for freedom 
 and humanity worth fighting? The gov- 
 ernment of tue United States could have 
 chosen the other alternative and permit- 
 ted state after state at the South to se- 
 cede. We could have recognized the in- 
 dependence of the new Confederacy, the 
 corner stone of which, according to Alex- 
 ander H. Stephens its vice president, was 
 human slavery. We could pusillani- 
 mously have abandoned the border states 
 and treachously have turned our backs 
 upon the Union men of the South. We 
 might have permitted the dismember- 
 ment of this Union and consented to the 
 peaceful establishment of a rival govern- 
 ment within its limits. If we had waited 
 until the new Confederacy was well or- 
 ganized, armed, and fortified, with a full 
 treasury and possibly a strong foreign 
 alliance, and it had then demanded the 
 territories and the Prcific slope for the 
 further extension of slavery, we should 
 have been still less able to resist these de- 
 mands of the Confederacy grown strong 
 and powerful. The aggressions of the 
 South would have become every day more 
 and more insolent and overbearing, until 
 the remaining fragment of the old Union 
 bad been either ingloriously subjugated, 
 or at last, when shorn of territory, treas- 
 ure and men, it would have been goRded 
 into armed resistance to these encroach- 
 ments. In the latter event it would have 
 been war at last with the odds against 
 the Union cause greatly increased by the 
 delay. 
 
 Even if this latter alternative had been 
 averted to the present time, and we, too 
 timid to assert our righrts and too cow- 
 ardly to do our duty, had deferred the 
 issue for a generation and left to our 
 children, with our tarnished honor, a 
 divided heritage and a war yet to be 
 waged, the situation would not be a 
 pleasant one for ub to contemplate. 
 
 The Other Alternative. 
 We should now behold one people of the' 
 same deBcent,Bpeuking the same language,! 
 
 possesEilng the same common law, the 
 same literature and history, broken into 
 two or more fragments with separate 
 governments and rival and con- 
 flicting interests, ready to fly at each 
 others throats on the slightest provoca- 
 tion and each always a prey to tl.e politi- 
 cal interference and intrigues of any 
 foreign power, which in order to divide 
 and conquer us might desire to make the 
 separation between the sections peima- 
 nent. We should see a row of cuBtora 
 houses and military posts along the 
 Chesapeake, the Ohio, the Missouri, across 
 the plains and over the mountains to the 
 Pacific along an imaginary line between 
 two rival and antagonistic states. 
 
 The inland commerce of the western 
 rivers would be passing through foreign 
 territory to reach the Gulf or the Atlan- 
 tic. The people would be supporting the 
 burden of two governments where now 
 but one exists. To this would be added 
 the expense of vast standing armies, as 
 in Europe, in which the mpn would serve 
 while the women tilled the fields. Two 
 navies would be needed each larger than 
 the one we now have. The car of prog- 
 ress would be halted. The hands on the 
 dial of time would move downward show- 
 ing that the mid day of the world's 
 civilization had passed. Retrogression 
 would be the order of the day. Liberty 
 would take flight, free institutions 
 would cease to exist and that state whose 
 corner stone was the hideous wrong of 
 chattel slavery would soon elevate to 
 power the despot and tyrant. 
 
 But this country could not be thus di- 
 vided and continue half free and half 
 pro-slavery, half on the pathway of mod- , 
 t rn civilization and half incorporating ,' 
 the barbarism of slavery and gradually 1 
 reverting to monarchy or some form of 1 
 absolute government. It is more than 
 probable that in the North, also, human 
 freedom and the rights of the individual 
 would at last be sacrificed, the 
 light of civilization become obscure and 
 the hopes of the oppressed and down- 
 trodden everywhere die out. 
 
 As this country could not remain half 
 slave and half free so it could not long 
 continue half Confederate and half Union. 
 The spirit of secession, let loose and given 
 free rein, all respect for written statutes 
 and constitutions would ctase. Selflsh 
 interest, unreasoning prejudice, momen- 
 tary impulse would rise superior to the 
 law. Personal differences would be per- 
 petuated in Corsican vendettas and Ken- 
 tucky feuds. Lynch law, illegal shooting 
 and hanging, torture and burning alive 
 as recently practiced in the South might 
 prevail and thus, imperceptibly perhaps 
 but none the less certainly, conduct so- 
 ciety backward to the horrid cruelties 
 and fiendish barbarism of the medieval 
 persecutions. 
 Instead of a comparatively short, sharp 
 
AMERICAN UNITY OR BRITISH DOMINATION? 
 
 and decisive conflict in the beginning, as 
 the war for the Union really was, we 
 should have entailed for ourselves and 
 our children after us an Interminable 
 struggle growing each year loore barbar- 
 ous in its c'laracter. Possibly In the 
 North, as already In the Souuh, the bal- 
 lot, as the expression of the v/ill of a sov- 
 ereign people would no Ioniser be held 
 sacred, and fraud and force, lalse counts 
 and the shot gun would usurp its place. 
 Elections would be carried by fear and 
 intimidation, until elections even in form 
 would be no longer held, and i score of 
 military tyrants, under the guise of seek- 
 ing to preserve order, would nold place 
 and power as the result of succetisful revo- 
 lution. 
 
 Our Present Prosperity. 
 
 Hold your gaze for a moment on this 
 dark picture of what might have been in 
 order that you may the more clearly real- 
 ize what our comrades did for the wel- 
 fare of this people — that by the contrast 
 you may the more distinctly see the bles- 
 sings secured to the inhabitants of this 
 country by the successful prosecution of 
 the war for the Union. 
 
 Look now on the American Union pre- 
 served— 65,000,000 of people at peace with 
 one another and all the world — each one 
 free to pursue his own honest calling in 
 his own way — peace and plenty within 
 our borders — the hand of this free gov- 
 ernment resting so lightly upon us that 
 wo cannot feel it — no honest man afraid 
 of the civil power — every branch of hu- 
 man industry multiplying ana extending 
 — education diffused and reaching further 
 and further every year — a broad belt of 
 fertile territory extending from ocean to 
 ocean through the temperate zone, with 
 every variety of climate and production 
 that civilized man can desire — separated 
 by thousands of miles of trackless ocean 
 from the great military powers of 
 Europe. 
 
 It would seem that here and now 
 the highest problems in self-government 
 and civilization are to be wrought out 
 to a successful issue. No where else and 
 at no other time from the very nature of 
 things can the conditions be so favorable. 
 A free country where every man has fair 
 play and equal opportunity. The love of 
 liberty has invited the best of all lands to 
 our shores. The dismal exception now 
 and again only proves the general rule. 
 They come educated by labor, instructeu 
 by travel, animated and impelled by a love 
 of free institutions, they expect here to 
 better their condition. When they reach 
 our shores the yoke is lifted from their 
 necks. They are no longer the personal 
 thralls of mercenary lords or lordlings. 
 They are no longer subjected to time- 
 honored abases or the tyranny of ancient 
 privilege. When their feet touch Ameri- 
 can soil the hideous nightmare which 
 
 1 
 
 tends to cramp body and soul in the old 
 world is dispelled. 
 
 The liook Ahead 
 
 Here on this continent we are building 
 up a mighty and masterful race, superior 
 to any the world has ever yet produced. 
 The American of the future we may be- 
 lieve, will unite in himself the best char- 
 acteristics of all the superior races — the 
 administrative power of the Norman — the 
 fidelity of the Teuton, the battle fury of 
 the Celt as well as his poetic imagination 
 — the love of fair play of the Englishman 
 united to the sturdy good sense of the 
 Scotsman, and a physique correspond- 
 ingly superior to all who have gone be- 
 fore — sound minds in sound bodies, 
 <<mens sana In corpore sano." 
 
 With a population thus composed, 
 which increases a hundred fold every 
 twenty- five years, some of you now liv- 
 ing may expect to see a hundred and fif- 
 ty millions of inhabitants in this country, 
 and the grandchildren of our grandchil- 
 dren, a population as great as that of the 
 whole world today — or reckoning safely 
 enough that this territory can sustain a 
 population one half as dense as that of 
 Belgium, our grandchildren will live to 
 see here a people numbering seven hun- 
 dred millions. 
 
 A recent brilliant French writer says of 
 America, <«in fifty years she will have 
 more than two hundred millions of in- 
 habitants. If during that time Europe 
 makes progress only in the arts and sci- 
 ences, while the social condition of its 
 nations does not improve, she will be to 
 America what barbarism is to civiliza- 
 tion." This is not the exaggeration of a 
 poet's vision nor the wild dream of an 
 optimist, but the sober conclusion of a 
 thoughtful observer. 
 
 Bo far as we can conjecture or the hu - 
 man mind can conceive, only those three 
 scourges of the human race, famine, pes- 
 tilence or war^ can prevent the fulfilment 
 of this forecast. 
 
 As to the danger of any widespread 
 famine, our fertile soil and the great va- 
 riety of its products, and our facili- 
 ties for their quick transportation, 
 coupled with our Individual intelligence, 
 prosperity and self control, make the 
 peril from that source remote indeed. 
 We have long since passed that utage in 
 oar development as a people when wc 
 could reasonably apprehend danger from 
 that source. 
 
 What the future has in store for us in 
 the nature of pestilence no human mind 
 can forsee. A comparatively harmless 
 appearing Infiuenza may become as fatal 
 as Asiatic cholera or threaten the distruc- 
 tion of the population of the whole globe. 
 We can imagine such a possibility. > But 
 with the spread of education and Its 
 thousand civilizing influences, with the 
 constant improvement both In sanitary 
 
6 
 
 AMRlllCAN UNITV OH nRITISM DOMINATION? 
 
 and hygienic conditionn, and in the 
 knowledge of diaenso and the healing art, 
 and with our remarl^ahly healthful cli- 
 mate, wf have little to fear from any 
 wide Hpread or long continued pestilence. 
 
 War ? 
 
 But of war who can say? Because to- 
 day the sun shines are we to believe the 
 storm will never come? The miilenwium 
 however much we may wish it, has not 
 yet dawned. The lamb cannot yet lie 
 down with the lion in any degree of 
 safety to the lamb. Europe does not 
 support the almost intolerable burden of 
 her vast standing armies for the pleasure 
 of it. When in the midst of that im- 
 mense powder magazine some sceptered 
 hand shall ruthlessly strilce the spark 
 that will spread desolation far and wide, 
 when Europe is again reeking with 
 carnage and slaughter, what guarranty 
 have we that our own country may not 
 become involved? 
 
 As often at least as once in a genera- 
 tion this peoQle thus far have engaged in 
 war, so that ;rom father to son each gen- 
 eration in turn has had the opportunity 
 to thus offer that supreme service to their 
 country. We helped to put down the Re- 
 bellion. Our fathers fought England in 
 1812. Their fathers again fought Eng- 
 land in the war of the Revolution to 
 establish an independent Continental 
 power in North America. Such a govern- 
 ment was established but it fell short of 
 the original design because it failed to 
 embrace the whole continent. The 
 French settlements on the St. Lawrence 
 under the control of their bishop de- 
 clined to unite their fortune^ with those 
 of the young Republic. The fathers of 
 the Revolutionary heroes fought for Con- 
 tinental unity in the French and Indian 
 wars. Frequently the same generation 
 has served in more than one war. Stark 
 learned something of the art of war as a 
 prisoner under his Indian captors in 
 Canada, later, as one of Rogers' Rangers in 
 the French war, before he commanded a 
 regiment of New Hampshire troops at 
 Bunker Hill or led the Green Mountain 
 Boys at Bennington. Scott fought in the 
 war of 1812, the Mexican war, and lived to 
 take a part in the opening scenes of the 
 war for the Union. 
 
 I remember meeting in the service at 
 Alexandria during the Rebellion an 
 artilleryman who had served In Ringold's 
 famous battery in the Mexican war. 
 His service, I recollect, in the land of the 
 Montezumas bad developed a peculiar 
 and rather startling kind of patriotism 
 as exhibited in his oaths. Unlike the 
 Greeks who swore "by all the gods at 
 once," his deities were exclusively 
 of this Continent. Apparently his 
 favorite oath was '>By the groat North ^ 
 American Jehovah." In his mind Jeho- ' 
 Tab was as much the peculiar deity of the , 
 
 northern portion of this continent at h« 
 had been originally of the HebrewH, md 
 evidently to him the whole United 8ltt(i 
 was "God's country" as was the loyii 
 section of it to the prisontr in Anderson- 
 ville or Salisbury. While I deprecated 
 his profanity I had a hearty reHpect (or 
 his continental patriotism. 
 
 In the UHual course of events sufficient 
 time has elapsed for this people to b« 
 again engaged in war. But for the valor 
 which you, my comrades, and others like 
 you dinplayeri on many a well fought 
 field this nation would have been again 
 engaged in war long before now. In- 
 deed it is not probable that the Alabama 
 claims would ever have been arhiirated 
 or paid by England had there not betn a 
 million or more disciplined soldiers in 
 this country at the time. Even as it was 
 a large section of the Tory party were 
 eager to flght. Wii have another arbitra- 
 tion on hand now but the situation is 
 changed. Grant and Sherman and Sheri- 
 dan are dead. We should not be worth 
 BO much in offensive military operations 
 as we were twenty-five years ago but I 
 think one or two hundred thousand dis- 
 ciplined men could still be found who 
 would volunteer to do the state some ser- 
 vice in case any v T the great powers 
 should attempt the invasion of this 
 country. 
 
 According to the statisticians the 
 United States has more wealth than Great 
 Britain, hitherto regarded the wealthiest 
 country in the world, and we have nearly 
 double her population. But undefended 
 wealth invites to attack and nobody 
 knows better than you who were in the 
 service that a thousand well drilled 
 soldiers are more than a match for a mob 
 of ten thousand untrained men. An 
 efficient army, modern fortifications, guns 
 and battle ships necessary for the nation- 
 al defense cannot be improvised in a day. 
 Uniiounded wealth will not do it; an im- 
 mense population is insufficient. It takes 
 the element of time to transform the raff 
 recruit into a soldier and to change 
 monf-y into ships and forts. Such guns 
 as Krupp makes and the English have on 
 some of their forts that will carry a pro- 
 jectile twelve or fourteen miles it takes a 
 year to build. It takes two or three years 
 to build a battle ship. We have a few 
 armed cruisers that compare favorably 
 with anything afioat. We shall have 
 more soon and a battle ship or two so 
 necessary for defence. We have none yet. 
 Our regular army is small, hardly suflS- 
 cient to keep in subjection a few hostile 
 Indians and anarchists, but answering 
 very well for police purpobcs. We have as 
 yet no coast defences worth mentioning. 
 A few old fashioned stone forts and tor- 
 pedo boats will hardly suffice to protect 
 our ten thousand miles of coast, and on 
 our four thousand miles of northern 
 frontier we have no defences at all. 
 
AMEIMCAN UNITY OR BUITISII DOMINATION? 
 
 The prosi)ect o( an offensive war on oir 
 part uiultT Bucb circumstances agaii st 
 gnv of the first -class powers o( 
 the earth is re note indeed — an renaote as 
 the prospect of pestilence or famine. As 
 yet we are in no condition to wage such a 
 war. We cannot in the words of Bis- 
 mark "strilie the striker" nor "insult the 
 insulter." Should Germany, for in- 
 stance, smite us on one cheek we may in 
 a spirit of Christian humility (making a 
 virtue of our necessity) turn the other 
 also. We can spare no vessels to send 
 against her shores, we have no coalini? 
 stations and no great lines of subsidized 
 steam ships as I he English have, which 
 we could take to transport troops across 
 the Atlantic. We could pocket the in- 
 sult no matter how great to our people 
 nr flag. If Germany had a foothold on 
 this continent we might possibly be able 
 to strike back, resent the injury. and 
 protect our honor, but with no such op- 
 portunity for reprisals, we should find 
 the ocean too wide for our guns and our 
 ships. On the other hand neither Ger- 
 many nor any other great power without 
 territory on this side of the Atlantic to 
 serve as a base of operations, will alone 
 be likely to break the peace. We shall 
 not be likely to give them provocation. 
 Our mercantile marine engaged in ocean 
 transportation is not, as yet, large enough 
 to tempt their fleets. They might de- 
 stroy our coasting trade and devastate 
 our seaports but without a secure base 
 of operations here, Germany alone could 
 not expe t to conquer and hold any of 
 our territory. 
 
 With France it might have been differ- 
 ent had the France of Louis Napoleon 
 Bucceeded in establishing a "Latin em- 
 pire" ill Mexico under the ill-fated Max- 
 imillian. Mexico might then have 
 proved a dangerous neighbor to our 
 southern border. But that scion of the 
 Hapsburgs found North America a cold 
 place for planting hostile Latin empires 
 and sacrificed his life to the chimerical 
 idea. The France of Lafayette and Carnot, 
 Republican France, has always been 
 friendly to the United States. It was 
 France under the son of the Dutch ad- 
 miral "Napoleon the Little" that was so 
 urgent to have England unite with her 
 in recognizing the Confederacy. 
 
 RuMsia a Friend in Need. 
 
 From Russia, with her immense army 
 and magnificent navy, our country has 
 nothing to fear. Russia has never made 
 war on the United States, and, although 
 we are neighbors in Behring's Sea, she 
 never will. True, Russia is not a repub- 
 lic and her populations are not yet pre- 
 pared for that, but what Csesar did for 
 the civilization of the world In pushing 
 back the frontier of barbarism to the 
 Rhine, what Charles the Great did in 
 still further carrying back that frontier 
 
 to the Vistula, that the descendants of 
 Ruric have done in subjugating the 
 Mongol hordes, which at one time 
 threatened the very existence- of 
 European civilization, and in forcing 
 back the frontier of barbarism 
 over the Urals and across Siberia tQ the 
 Pacific on one line, and beyond the Cas- 
 pian and across hostile Turkestan to 
 the borders of Afghanistan and India, on 
 another. Russia has more than once 
 been our friend in need. Do you remem- 
 ber one time during the war seeing a 
 Russian fleet in the Potomac? That was 
 when Louis Napoleon and the Tory min- 
 istry of England contemplated recogniz- 
 ing the Southern Confederacy and it was 
 believed that such recognition was in- 
 tended to lead to armed intervention 
 against the Union cause. We had enough 
 to do then to fight the rebels without 
 having France and England join them 
 against us. Then, if any cause ever 
 needed a strong and fearless friend, ours 
 did. Russia was that friend. It is now 
 an open secret that in case Louis Napo- 
 leon and Tory England should make a 
 hostile demonstration against us the ad- 
 miral of the Russian fleet was to report 
 for orders to Abraham Lincoln. By rea- 
 son of the ties of kindred, race, literature, 
 common history and all that, we love our 
 good cousin John Bull as we are in duty 
 and sentiment bound to do, but when we 
 know that he is seeking to crush the life 
 out of the republic, the armed Muscovite 
 at our elbow is a more "cheering sight to 
 see." 
 
 It is thought by some that Russia 
 ceded to us her vast American possessions 
 in Alaska and the waters and islands 
 of Behring's sea simply for the seven mil- 
 lions dollars which Mr. Seward paid her 
 but I hazard the opinion that the ces- 
 sion was made not for the paltry price we 
 paid but rather to serve notice on all the 
 world that in the view of the "White 
 Czar" all the territory of North America 
 from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic 
 Ocean should rightfully be controlled by 
 the United States. 
 
 This government sustains friendly re- 
 lations toward all the other 
 American states. By our main- 
 tainance of the Monroe doctrine 
 they well know that they obtain all the 
 advantages of a defensive alliance with us 
 with no corresponding risk to them- 
 selves. 
 
 Kngland Our onlv Probable Foe. 
 
 Apparently the only source of the dan- 
 gers which may come to us in the shape 
 of war to mar our eeneral prosperity and 
 retard the wheels of our national pro- 
 gress is England — England the mother 
 country — England our ancient foe, who 
 in two wars has tried to cripple us — Eng- 
 land, our rival in commerce and manu- 
 factures, who taking advantage of our 
 
s 
 
 AMKKICAN UNITY Oil liRITISIl DOMINATION: 
 
 dire dl8trei4fl while engaged in a life and 
 death Htruggle, helped with Confederate 
 ramH and cruisera to destroy our ocean 
 commerce, supplanting it with her own, 
 and now by her subsidiEed lines across 
 the continent and on the Pacific, is using 
 every effort to get control of 
 our internal trans-continental trafflc. 
 Has England the means, has she the 
 purpose, on ocoaiion, to make war on 
 this country? 
 
 In these days of modestly lowering the 
 American flag for fear of intrusion upon 
 the ancient domain of our great rival, 
 or through hesitation as to the ability of 
 this nation properly to rule a few thous- 
 and Hawaiians, or to bold on to the little 
 possession when once acquired, it is well 
 to consider for a moment the position 
 and attitude of Great Britain. 
 
 "There is no timid or incompetent 
 race," says a recent able writer, <<on 
 whom she has not rained a storm of 
 bullets in the name of liberty and 
 progress. In Asia, today, with her bay- 
 onets steadily pointed at the native and 
 rightful poBsesLors of the soil, she holds 
 India and Punjab, Burmab and the 
 B^ngoon, the Malayan Peninsula, Ceylon, 
 Singapore, Hong Kong and Rowloon, 
 while every day her intention to beir.e 
 Canton and to overrun Corea is manifested 
 in umistakable acts of aggression. At 
 Bombay, at Calcutta, at Ceylon, at Singa- 
 pore, at Labuan and at Hong Kong she 
 maintains naval and coaling stations 
 from which she keeps the half- civilized 
 natives of Southern Asia forever familiar 
 with the black muzzles of her guns and 
 the ominous odor of her powder. 
 
 In Africa, with Egypt curbed and 
 fettered, and both sides of the Arabian 
 Gulf garrisoned, with a dozen groups of 
 little islands in the Arabian sea and a 
 dozen more in the Indian Ocean protec- 
 ting her route to India and the South 
 Seas, she holds four times the territory of 
 the British Islands. By making con- 
 stant wars on the natives, she "protects" 
 the entire country drained by the 
 Nile, save only where it runs through the 
 desert. 
 
 There are souls to save and ignorant 
 minds to teach in the deserts as around 
 the water courses, but no ivory. British 
 civilizing processes keep closely to the re- 
 gion where ivory can be obtained ooinoi- 
 dentally with the progress of religious 
 and other reforms. In the south of 
 Africa English possessions include Bech- 
 uana Land, Natal and Cape Colony, a ter- 
 ritory three times as great as the thirteen 
 original states. Zanzibar and Mauritius 
 also owe allegiance to England, and on 
 the west coast, with outposts at Ascen- 
 sion, St. Helena and Ichabod Islands. 
 English dominion reaches over Canara 
 land, the gold ooast and Layos, Sierra 
 Leone and Bathnrst with vast interior 
 stretchea on both sides of the Niger. 
 
 Around this continent and including the 
 mighty defences at Olbralter, Malta tQd 
 Aden, the British flag files atjove eleven 
 naval and coaling stations where garii. 
 sons and stores are maintained. 
 
 In the South sean BritiHh empire spreidi 
 over immense oceans and holdss altnogt 
 every dot of land that rises above them, 
 With Australia, almost equal in area 
 and productive capacity to the Uuited 
 States, as the baee of power, it includeai 
 part of Borneo, a part of New Guinea, 
 Tasmania, New Zealand and no Ichb ttian 
 twenty-five groups of smaller islands to 
 the south and west of Hawaii, besides 
 Canada, Newfoundland and Labrador and 
 the Arctic lands. English dominion on 
 and near the American continent is ex- 
 erted over the Bermudas, the Batiamaa 
 Jamaica, the Belize, BritiBh Guiana 
 Trinidad, Barbadoes, San Lucia and 'the 
 Leeward Islands. 
 
 When Canada co.-ifederated in 1867. tlie 
 fortress of Halifax vas in a condition ol 
 decay and could net have resisted the 
 guns of a third-cltss gunboat. Today 
 Halifax is inpregnabls. It is an imperial 
 military and naval station. The nucleus 
 of an army is kept wiv.hin its fortresses. 
 which are mounted with the most formi- 
 dable batteries. Bermuda, three days 
 out from Charleston and New York, is 
 equipped with fortifications, which are 
 described in the 'Colonial Year Book' as 
 the 'most perfect and formidable inlhe 
 world.' A submarine cable connects the 
 fortress at Bermuda with Halifax. It 
 was laid only two years ago, and it cost 
 11,500,000, a sum ten times greater than 
 the exchanges between the group and 
 Canada. In the reef enclosed harbor ol 
 Bermuda Great Britain has a ship build- 
 ing plant, a dry dock that will lift her 
 heaviest seagoing battle ships, a coaling 
 station and a vast system of earth works, 
 mounted with the heaviest guns. Great 
 Britain, since 1867, has immensely 
 strengthened the garrison at Kingston 
 and created an entirely new one in the 
 harbor of Castries, San Lucia. Taking 
 Halifax, Bermuda, Kingston and Castries 
 together, a chain of offensive fortifica- 
 tions is constituted within three days 
 reach of every American Atlantic sea- 
 board city. Each is mounted with guns 
 of the most effective modern type. Each 
 is capable of equipping vessels for sea at 
 an instant's notice. A cable connects 
 them all with each other and with London. 
 A telegram from the British foreign of- 
 fice could send vessels of war from Hali- 
 fax to Boston in twenty- four hours, from 
 Halifax to New York in two days, from 
 Bermuda to New York, or Washington, 
 or Baltimore, or Charleston, or Philadel- 
 phia in three day, or from Jamaica to 
 New -Orleans in three days, or from 
 Jamaica to Greytown or Panama in two 
 days, and from St. Lucia to Panama or 
 Greytown in four days. On one of the 
 
AMERICAN UNITY OR HIUTISII DOMINATION? 
 
 9 
 
 Falklund hlai '"- juHt north and eaHt of 
 Capo Horn, there Ib a British coaling sta- 
 tion. At Sydney AuHtralia there is an- 
 other. There is a third recently built 
 nrid equipped and splendidly armed at 
 the Fiji iHlands, and the great de- 
 fuiiBCH at Enquimault, from which at 
 an hour'H notice Huattie and Ta- 
 coma could be I'lid waste. 
 
 England has guns, forts, coast defences, 
 naval Htations, the largest navy In tne 
 world, which she intends to keep equal to 
 that of France and RuMsia combined, or 
 of Hny other two nations. She has a 
 uriat many swift steamers for the trans- 
 portation of troops and munitions of war, 
 on her suhjidized commercial lines, which 
 vesHul* she can call for at any moment; 
 more than all this, she has a foothold on 
 this continent such as no other nation 
 haH, a prDvince extending along our un- 
 protected northern frontier for three or 
 lour thousand miles. She has a military 
 railway from Halifnx on the Atlantic to 
 Port Moody on the Pacific, intended to he 
 UHed in military operations against this 
 country, and on that account built in a 
 (freat meflsure from the imperial treasury. 
 She has free entry for her fleets to the St. 
 Lawrence, through which flow the waters 
 of the gnat lakes. From her fortress at 
 Halifax she could let slip a swarm of ar- 
 mored cruisers that in forty-eight hours 
 might ruin our coasting trade, devastate 
 our Atlantic coast and lay our unprotect- 
 ed sea coast under contribution. She 
 has a siniilur coign of vantage on the Pa- 
 cific at Fsquimault. 
 
 As for men there once were English 
 yeomen; they no longer exist, and the 
 toilers in her mines and mills, or the "ag- 
 ricultural laborer " cannot make good 
 their place in war, neither can she rely 
 for recruits upon such a popula- 
 tion as that of the east end of London. 
 She will call upon Scotland and Ireland 
 and her colonies for men. She has been 
 known to hire Hessians in an emergency. 
 Disraeli once threatened Europe with the 
 8t;poy. 
 
 When our ships rode the ocean, she 
 has even been known to look longingly 
 to us for help. In 1852 when war men- 
 aced England, her great poet laureate 
 Bung: 
 
 "QiRantic daughter of the West, 
 
 We drink to thee across the flood, 
 We know thee, and we love thee bes' 
 
 For art thou not of British blood? 
 Should War's m»d blast again be blown, 
 
 Permit not thou the tyrant powers 
 To fight thy mother here alone. 
 
 But let thy broadsides roiir with ours. 
 
 Hands all round! 
 God the tyrant's cause confound: 
 T^o our dear kinsmen of the West, my friends, 
 vnd the great name of England, round and 
 round. 
 
 Oh rise, our strong Atlantic sons, 
 When war against our freedom springs. 
 
 Oh speak to Eng:laud' through your guns 
 They can lie understood by kings." 
 
 I like the sound of that, a noble senti- 
 ment. In her extremity and apparently 
 without friends the British lion <<roar8 
 you as gently as a sucking dove." But 
 when the hour of our peril came, bow 
 different the tune which the British 
 Tories sung. 
 
 Then it was the England that met our 
 fathers at Bunker Hill and Bennington, 
 at Hubbardton and Bemis Heights, at 
 Trenton and Yorktown, at Lundy's Lane 
 and New Orleans. 
 
 Whether the rulers of England have 
 the inclinations to go to war with the 
 United States or not they have not an- 
 nounced. They have the means and their 
 acts speak. What England does is ap- 
 parent. With her fortified harbors, her 
 military railways and her armored ships 
 all in such uninvited proximity, she de- 
 liberately prepares for war. The ruling 
 party in Canada have appeared anxious to 
 precipitate such a contest, first by an- 
 noying and needlessly harrassing our 
 fishermen on the coast of the maritime 
 provinces, and later by invading Behring 
 sea with an apparently deliberate purpose 
 of extermi'' ng our fur-bearing seals. 
 Russia ga\ .s a warranty deed of that 
 section and according to Mr. Lothrop, 
 late minister to that country, in the 
 event of a trial by wager of battle 
 is quite willing to be vouched in to 
 maintain her covenant of warranty. 
 Another Russian fleet in the Potomac 
 would be more reassuring than to behold 
 the Englihh there again burning the 
 Capitol as they did in the war of 1812. 
 
 Canadian Annexation Necessary to the Na- 
 tional Unfonce. 
 
 If the gentlemen who manage the public 
 affairs of the Dominion succeed in bring- 
 ing about war between England and the 
 United States it may not prove an un- 
 mixed evil. It might result in securing 
 the independence of Canada from Great 
 Britain. However lightly English states- 
 men speak of tbe subject of Canadian in- 
 dependence or annexation to this coun- 
 try as a thing wholly indifferent to the 
 mother country, they are hardly sin- 
 cere. Nobodv now believes England 
 will allow Canada to go in peace. Should 
 Canada make the attempt the batteries 
 aimed at us would be turned against her. 
 
 Then again such a war might result in 
 the annexation of Canada to the United 
 States. As a measure of permanent na- 
 tional defence such a result would be de- 
 sirable for us. 
 
 From the time of the French and In- 
 dian wars, through the wars of the Revo- 
 lution and of 1812 even down to the St. 
 Alban's raid,Canada has always furnished 
 the enemy a base of operations against 
 us. England or any other great power in 
 possession of Canada can always strike us 
 in flank. "Esquimault," says a 
 British officer, <<holds a loaded pistol at 
 the head of San Fraocisco." The thing is 
 
10 
 
 AMKKICAN UNITY «)H HIMI ISM DOMINATION 
 
 IrkHomo and wo have endured It too long. 
 If we bad only been in a condition to nH- 
 Hert our rights wo Hbould long ago hitve 
 dttmandod of Urcat Britain to ceaBO ber 
 offenuive military preparationB upon. our 
 borders and if she refused we could then 
 have precipitated the war and captured 
 the country before her prepHrntions were 
 completed. It is obvious that those offen- 
 sive armaments are meant for us and that 
 no other country is their object. Eng- 
 land, by the possession of Canada, threat- 
 ens the United States, as by the posses- 
 sion of Oibrnltur sh« dominates the shores 
 of the Mediterranean and becomes a 
 standing menace to all southern Europe. 
 
 As wo fought for the preservation of 
 the Union, so, in such a war, our sons 
 would tight for American unity. To par- 
 aphrase the words of Abraham Lincoln, 
 when, as yet the country was but dimly 
 conscious of the nearness of the impend- 
 ing crisis, North America cannot remain 
 halt American and half British, either it 
 will become all American or all British. 
 We inhabit one country. The line of 
 separation is an imaginary one — a fool's 
 line, as Mr. Murray calls it. Th> 3t. 
 Lawrence and the grpat/ak-^-i sbould itt 
 only be used by one people, iney shoulo 
 also be owned by one power >pe cannot 
 expect the sixty-five millioii», . , r.-.v L>in- 
 try to go over to the five m^ilicub of '_ i- 
 ada and with them become tributary to 
 the thirty-eight millions of Great Britain. 
 There was a time in 1760 wheu these two 
 countries and all English speaking peo. 
 pie owed allegiance to Qreat Britain alone. 
 For years before that, during the long 
 wars between England and her colonies 
 on one side, and France and her colonies 
 on the other, France hHd continually 
 threatened these English settlements on 
 the Atlantic coast, and sent down bersol- 
 diera and ber Indians to make war on us, 
 to burn our dwellings and tomahawk our 
 women and children. We captured the 
 great French strongholds Louisbourg, 
 Quebec and Montreal, and terminated the 
 power of France on this continent. In 
 doing this work we were assisted by Eng- 
 land to be sure, but our fathers furnished 
 twenty -five thousand men, by far the 
 heaviest contingent. By their action we 
 gained some righ*; to a voice in the dis- 
 posal of the territory of North America. 
 
 In 1760 there were 60,000 French In 
 Canada. Their descendants now number 
 2,400,000. 
 
 The marquis of Lome, the late Governor 
 General, says they will not amalgamate 
 with us, that they, separated by a cen- 
 tury and a half from France, and never 
 having known England, will not become 
 American, but preferring the cold climate 
 and poor soil of the territory about Lake 
 St. John, will locate there and establish 
 a distinctly French Canadian state, speak- 
 ing only the French language, and at. 
 tached to the theorios in church and 
 
 state that prevailed in Franco under the 
 Bourbon kings. In effect my lord uvi 
 thoy are incapable of progrcHH, and in 
 this he Is mistaken. They do rcRdllt 
 amblgamatu with the AmurlcHn people 
 and become Industrious and thrifty clii. 
 rons. Those living here did tluiir duty 
 In the war for the Union flceonllng to 
 their numbers. They are fust arlftlng 
 into the current of American progress 
 and American civilieation. Like their 
 English. Scotch and Irish neighborg in 
 the Dominion, thoy like the wugos wtiich 
 they can cam under the star Hpnngled 
 banner; and of that 2,400,000 of Frencli 
 descent 800,000 or fully one- third have 
 already crossed the border and united 
 their individual f»)rtunes with thosw ol 
 the Great Republic, a method of Rnnexa- 
 tion thus far mutually aavanlHgeous. 
 Besides the French, Canado coniairiH in 
 round numbers a quarter of a million 
 Germans, as many more Scotch and a 
 million each of IriHh and EngliHb. 01 
 these many ore outwardly loyal to the 
 British connection becsuse they think it 
 will continue, but in their henrts their 
 ideal is to belong to the great American 
 commonwealth and partake of its pros- 
 perity. The ancestors of many of thera 
 U')W living in Nova dcotia. New Bruns- 
 v/lck and Ontario once lived in Massa- 
 rjhusetts and New York. They, too, are 
 coming every day to better their condi- 
 tion. These people make good citizeoB 
 and after annexation in half a generation 
 will b-jcome thoroughly Americanized. 
 Self perservation is the first law of na- 
 ture and of nations, and in obedience to 
 that law America cannot permit any 
 great and hostile military p^wer to be 
 erected in Canada. 
 
 Annexation must come and continental 
 unity will be achieved. ^ War, if Canada 
 or England choose to bring it on, will 
 hasten that result. I hd|ve no great con- 
 fidence in the BtateBmani|hip of the'<ripe 
 plum" theory of annexation, (Jiat Canada 
 when ripe will drop into the lap of the 
 Republic. I am inclined to believe that 
 only by war will it be brought about. 
 European states unite only as a result of 
 war, peaceful unions do not take place. 
 If it must be by war, the more sparse the 
 population the less the resistance. »We 
 want no conquored Polands" it is often 
 said. Senator Hoar says British Colum- 
 bia contains about 60,000 inhabitants or 
 less than two wards of the city of Bos- 
 ton, certainly not a very populous Po- 
 land. We want no people within the 
 Republic against their will; we want no 
 hostile territory adjoining us without, 
 upon which i^ngland or any other power 
 can hold pistols or point Krupp cannon 
 at our heads. 
 
 If in 1861 there was good reason wb:> 
 no rival nation should be built up in the 
 South, there is the same reason now why 
 no hostile power should threaten us on 
 
AMKHK'AN l'Nn\' Olt IIIMIISII DOMINATION? 
 
 11 
 
 the north. H it would hnvo loon n 
 htupiil llii"B for this KiiKliHh Hponklng 
 ptoplc to tHtal)llHh a now row of cuhtoni 
 houstH from the Potoninc to the Kooky 
 MountalnH, bo now it Ih unwiHo to con- 
 tinue the ono already cHtabliahid a fow 
 hundred miles further north. If it was 
 worth the price wo paid to preBorve the 
 Union of the people and states from at. 
 Paul to the Gulf of Mexico Ihon it is 
 of vital importance to secure American 
 unity from Dulutb to the Uulf of St. 
 Lawrence, from tho Oolden Gate to Bilka 
 and from the j)lHce where we are today to 
 the Arctic zone. 
 
 Between this country and Canada 
 separation leads to ignorance; ignorance 
 begetB hatred; hatred will in time breed 
 hoHtiliticB. Thus far circumstances have 
 prevented this rtsult. In spite of our 
 separation for over a century — In spite of 
 the recent fooling with edge tools on the 
 part of Canadian otBcials — in spite of the 
 thriata in the Canadian Senate that our 
 Atlantic cities would hear "the voice of 
 British cannon" and the intimation of 
 the London press that behind Canadian 
 cannon wo shall find British gun boats, 
 we have retained our good humor and the 
 people of both countries have remained 
 good friends. But we cannot expect this 
 state of things always to continue. 
 
 Whenever England' shall again attempt 
 to use Canada as twice before she has — in 
 the Revolution and in 1812 — as a base of 
 operations against this country and 
 force the issue of war upon us, our whole 
 people north and south, cast and west, 
 will strike for continental unity as the 
 only safe defence from such an attack. 
 Our sons, if worthy of their sires, will 
 continue our work. While we fought to 
 prevent the destruction and disintegra- 
 tion of the American Union, they will 
 fight to add to it and build it up — for 
 American unity — as did Robert Rofers 
 and Stark and Washington and our ■■•■a- 
 cestors before the Revolution. Our sons 
 
 will completu what tho Revolutionary he- 
 rots wore compelled to have unllnishod, 
 the total emancipation of the North 
 Amirican continent from BrllLsh domin- 
 ion. 
 
 Unlof'S, when tho supremo moment 
 comoH, wc are not better prepared for 
 defence than now, tho war wili be un- 
 neccHsarily prolonged and our loss of 
 life and trtaHurc ncfdloKsly greiit. Can- 
 ada would be cruHbed a^ain and a^'aln 
 between the upper and the nether mill- 
 stones, and, if in tho end 've won, as I be- 
 lieve we should, however dijupirato and 
 long-continued the fighting, England 
 would come out of the contest shorn of 
 her glory forever, Canada a part of tho 
 United States, her other colonies inde- 
 pendent, Ireland free and India trans- 
 ferred to the czar, whose "winter palace" 
 would then be found on the banks of the 
 Bosphorus. 
 
 Comrades, if I have spoken to you more 
 of tho future possible wars of the Repub- 
 lic, than of tho past, it is because I look 
 upon you, not as men whose work is fin- 
 ished, but as citizens alive to the welfare 
 of our country, who i.ave dearly earned 
 the right to a voice-in Its affairs. 
 
 Canada is necessary to our national de- 
 fence. If England would have tho moral 
 support and sympathy of her first born, 
 let hcT cease her display of military 
 strength upon our borders and terminate 
 the standing menace of her occupation of 
 Canada ; let her deal fairly by us on the 
 seas and, at least toward us, drop her old 
 time buccaneering swagger. Sometime, 
 sooner or later, England's hour of peril 
 may come. It would be safer for her to 
 trust the natural affection of a proud and 
 powerful people than blindly seek to 
 fetter and bind the great leviathan of the 
 west with her marine cables and her 
 military railways, her battle ships and 
 her fortified strongholds. 
 
 Tho manifest destiny of this country is 
 to control this continent.