It seems that “we have never gone to war for conquest, for
exploitation, nor for territory;” we have the word of a president for
that. Observe, now, how Providence overrules the intentions of the
truly good for their advantage. We went to war with Mexico for peace,
humanity and honor, yet emerged from the contest with an extension
of territory beyond the dreams of political avarice. We went to war
with Spain for relief of an oppressed people, and at the close found
ourselves in possession of vast and rich insular dependencies and with
a pretty tight grasp upon the country for relief of whose oppressed
people we took up arms. We could hardly have profited more had
“territorial aggrandizement” been the spirit of our purpose and the
heart of our hope.
The slightest acquaintance with history shows that powerful republics
are the most warlike and unscrupulous of nations. They insist upon
having their own way, and in dealing with vanquished enemies are
without conscience. If it were not for the restraints that powerful
European sovereigns are able to put upon their subjects, Europe would
be a theater of continuous war. We lack that element of restraint.
Happily we lack, also, many of the hereditary animosities that inflame
the jealous peoples of the Old World; but when the fire is kindled it
burns; there is nobody to quench it. We have always a hand upon the
sword, and if we do not more frequently strike, it is because, in the
first place, it is not much of a sword, and, in the second, the enemy
is commonly out of reach. In our navy we have now a sword that is a
trifle longer and stronger, but our army is still a dull and clumsy
weapon.
In the future, as in the past, we shall have wars and enough of
them—wars of honor, wars of conquest, wars of hatred and revenge. War
has never found us ready. War has never found any modern nation ready,
excepting Prussia, and her only once. If we will learn nothing by
experience, let us try observation. Let us cease our hypocritical cant,
rise from our dreams of peace and of the love of it, confess ourselves
the warlike people that we are, and become the military people that we
are not.