unlocks the secrets of the Oriental heart. It was not a discovery. It was merely saying once again what most foreign students of Asiatic peoples have said since the very beginning of Oriental investigation by modern peoples."

That the work of the Germans in Asia, as in South America, is of untold worth to civilization, is indicated in the further remarks of the distinguished observer above quoted:

"No one in Shan-Tung province ever heard of a period of such prosperity, of a time of such good wages in that vicinity, as the inhabitants of Kiaochow and the surrounding country have enjoyed since the German came among them, for he came, not with his musket alone, not equipped with the bayonet, sword, and cannon only, but, as with the Russian in Manchuria, he came with spade and adze and plane and saw, and all the building implements of peace. He has promised himself that he will reproduce England's miracles at Hong Kong in Germany's miracle at Kiaochow. (In less than fifty years a barren rock, rising from the water, with a few huts of starving Chinese fishermen, clinging like crabs to its base, has been transformed into one of the greatest ports and one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Such has been the Englishman's work in Hong Kong; and be it remembered, too, that when the work began, and while it was in progress, it was denounced by English statesmen in Parliament and its failure predicted by economists of almost every other nation.)

"In her Kiaochow concessions Germany has erected modern buildings, modern storehouses, modern everything. Perhaps the best hotel (but two) in the Orient, the Prince Heinrich Hotel, stands where filthy hovels made of a paste of disease and mud, housed wretched Chinamen less than eight years ago. The railroad runs around the bay of Kiaochow itself. The sandy hills are being reclaimed with forests planted by the hands of scientific foresters from the Fatherland. A work of beauty, of cleanliness, of system, of industry, is being wrought by the determined Teuton at this forbidding and unwelcome gateway to a province whose twenty millions of inhabitants are yet to be told of the great world outside, and yet to be brought into human, civilizing, saving contact with their brother human beings. Meanwhile, slowly, and yet quite as rapidly as the yellow hands can do the work, the iron and steel nerves of the railway creep into the interior towards the mountains."

Such, in brief, are some of the practical results of the currents flowing through German national life. What is to be the future of this mighty, virile, intellectual people one not gifted with prophetic powers would hesitate to predict; but that the future holds promise of a career of imperial glory, rivalled only by that of the United States and Great Britain, seems certain. The solid, dogged stability and solidity of the German, his strict discipline, industrial as well as military, the practical and technical nature of his education, his daring, enterprise, and phlegmatic patience, and, above all, his freedom from the baneful influence of impractical theories regarding the alleged political rights of these semi-barbarous peoples, make him peculiarly fitted for carrying the banner of civilization into the countries where darkness now reigns.

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CHAPTER IV

GROWTH OF THE UNITED STATES

HE opinion is widely prevalent that in the annexation of Puerto Rico and the Philippines the United States had made a wide departure from its traditional policy. The acrimonious discussion to which this gave rise was calculated to cause the impression in the minds of the uninformed that an entirely new precedent had been established, a new policy adopted contrary to the spirit of our institutions, and that we were entering upon an experiment fraught with danger to the principles of democracy.

Mr. Bryan, with all his dramatic power, quoted from the Bible, "Thou shalt not forsake the landmarks of thy fathers." The cry was taken up by a great political party, and we might have supposed that the fathers had established definite bounds to the territory of the United States which should remain forever unalterable.

A very cursory investigation into the history of our country should have convinced these patriots that the fathers did nothing of the kind. Rather, the fathers instituted a policy of expansion which we have by no means kept up, and those who glory in the power of the United States, and hope to see it increase, may well accept in its literalness the text quoted by Mr. Bryan, and cite it as authority in favor of their desire to see the flag over South America as well as over North America.

The first great step in the enlargement of our territory was made at the termination of the War of Independence and before signing the treaty of peace with England. This may be regarded as a triumph of diplomacy for which the American Commission, consisting of John Jay, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Henry Laurens, deserve the lasting gratitude of their countrymen. In 1782, at the close of the Revolution, they were named to meet the representatives of England in Paris, and one of the first questions to be determined was the amount of territory which we should receive. As France had been our ally, the American Commissioners were instructed to consult with the French government and be guided by its wishes. Our Commissioners felt that the new States were entitled to all the territory granted to the colonies originally, extending west of the Alleghany Mountains. The French government was adverse to this claim, and its representative, Count de Vergennes, proposed that the western boundary should

follow the Alleghanies from Pennsylvania south to Florida. He proposed that the vast tract north of the Ohio from the Alleghanies to the Mississippi should remain under English jurisdiction; while south of the Ohio from the Alleghanies west to the Mississippi should be neutral ground, to be inhabited by the Indians under the joint protection of Spain and the United States.

The patriotism, foresight, and wisdom of John Jay were mainly instrumental in influencing the American Commission to reject this proposal, which it did with firmness; and notwithstanding its instructions, declined to consult further with France or to be guided by her wishes in the matter.

By the most determined insistence on its rights the Commission finally succeeded in carrying its point with the English representatives, and the boundaries of the United States were extended west to the Mississippi, north to the Great Lakes, and south to Florida. And thus was established one of the "landmarks of the fathers."

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The national domain was now 827,844 square miles, a very large territory when compared with most of the European countries. Indeed, in one sense of the term, that area was larger than the whole world is to-day. From the Atlantic to the Mississippi was more than a thousand miles through a trackless wilderness, to make a journey through which was a work of weeks and involved the most serious hardships. All transportation was effected in wagons or on muleback, and the territory west of the Alleghanies was almost impenetrable. We may legitimately estimate the size of a country as bearing relation to its facilities for communication. Judged by this standard, almost any of the original thirteen colonies was larger than the entire United States is to-day.

The apparent vastness of this territory did not dismay the "fathers," however, for one of their first acts was to more than double it, and this they did without any precedents to guide them, and in the face of as strong an opposition as the most orthodox modern antiimperialist could summon. By the purchase of the Louisiana territory in 1803, during the administration of President Jefferson, the United States acquired 883,072 square miles of additional territory, out of which have been developed 14 States and Territories, with a present population of more than 15,000,000. At the time the United States 'committed the atrocious wrong" of acquiring this territory, and governing the people therein "without their consent," thus wickedly stifling their aspirations for liberty," there was a miscellaneous population of about 100,000 negroes, mulattoes, Indians, and whites in the territory.

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The history of the Louisiana purchase reads like a romance. It is

enough to shake the scepticism of the stoutest agnostic, and make the coldest-blooded scientist admit the possibility that there is a "divinity which shapes our ends."

Prior to that time Spain held the mouth of the Mississippi, having jurisdiction of the land on both sides of it. This led to unending friction with our citizens in Kentucky and the West, to whom the free, untrammelled navigation of this great waterway was absolutely necessary. Hamilton, a statesman of uncommon breadth and foresight, insisted with all his power on the right of the United States to navigate the river to its mouth, - an opinion strenuously advocated by Jefferson and other great statesmen, but from different standpoints. Spain, with singular short-sightedness, adopted a policy of evasion and caprice, at one time granting to our people the right to deposit their merchandise in New Orleans and then arbitrarily rescinding it and seizing our boats, so that when one of our merchants started with merchandise for the Gulf he never knew whether he would succeed in completing his journey or not. So supine was the American administration at one time, and so urgent became the demands of our Western citizens for free and unlimited navigation, that there was serious danger of secession on the part of Kentucky, and revolutionary movements were actually inaugurated by Clark, Wilkinson, and others.

Owing to the exigencies of diplomacy in Europe, Spain secretly transferred the Louisiana territory to France, by the treaty of San Ildefonso, late in 1800. When the news of this transfer reached the United States, it caused intense excitement. At about the same time Morales, the Spanish Comandante at New Orleans, practically blocked up the mouth of the Mississippi, entirely destroying our commerce there. France was then in her heyday of glory, and Napoleon was intoxicated with military power. It was evidently his intention to establish a vast French empire in the new world, so that the United States would be hemmed in by the power of England on the north and France on the south, with Spain in Mexico ready to make common cause with France if necessary.

In this situation the greatness of President Jefferson made itself manifest. He threw his previous record to the winds and trampled consistency in the mud. A few days before and he had been a blind worshipper of France and a strong opponent of England. Immediately he became an enemy of France, and was ready to form an alliance with England, — he, who of all men hated entangling alliances. The traditional opponent of Hamilton and dreaming of continental power for the United States, Jefferson now became an expansionist of the most pronounced type. Forgetting for the moment all theories about the "consent of the governed" or about the "wickedness of aggression," it was determined to take New Orleans and Louisiana, peaceably if possible, by war if necessary; for it was recognized that

with Spain or France in possession of the mouth of the Mississippi war must come sooner or later, and the sooner the better.

Jefferson wrote, on April 18, 1802, to Livingston, the American minister at Paris:

"The cession of Louisiana by Spain to France works most sorely on the United States. It completely reverses all the political relations of the United States. There is on the globe one single spot the possessor of which is our natural and habitual enemy. It is New Orleans. It is impossible that France and the United States can continue long friends when they meet in such an irritable position. The day that France takes possession of New Orleans fixes the sentence which is to restrain her forever within her low-water mark. It seals the union of two nations which, in conjunction, can maintain exclusive possession of the ocean. From that moment we must marry ourselves to the British fleet and nation."

The people of the United States were behind Jefferson, and an army of 80,000 volunteers stood ready to transmute his words into

action.

Our Commissioners to France to treat for the securing of commercial rights on the lower Mississippi were Monroe and Livingston. Congress had authorized the President to spend $2,000,000 for the settlement of the Mississippi question, in a vague resolution, the general understanding being that they would purchase a small strip of land on both sides of the river sufficient to give the United States jurisdiction, and the President had only authorized the Commissioners to treat for that, a proposition which Napoleon laughed at immoderately.

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And then happened one of those strange things which make philosophers pause and contemplate in wonder the tracings of what appears to be the hand of destiny.

That master military mind, the Duke of Wellington, was even then, with the powers of England and Austria and Europe at his back, marshalling its resources for a campaign which should at its termination make one word forever memorable,- Waterloo !

Napoleon's quick ear heard the alarum; his fine nostrils scented the danger. He knew - the imperial, arrogant, domineering Master of War - that with England and Austria in front of him, with disaster written on his Haitian campaign, and with a volunteer army of 80,000 Americans, invincible dare-devils, menacing New Orleans, the power of France in North America was broken. In the twinkling of an eye he called the American Commissioners and offered to sell to the United States the whole vast empire of France in North America!

And the American Commissioners, without the slightest vestige of authority, without the knowledge of a single person in the United States, not even of the President, closed the treaty for the purchase of this territory, agreeing to pay for it $15,000,000, although Congress