PREFACE It is my purpose to write a History of the Foreign Relations of the United States of America. I shall begin it with some consideration of what I may term the pre-natal influences of the nation, to wit, the relations which existed among the European powers which preceded this Republic in possession of the land, and which in an important measure were left as a legacy of good or evil to the United States; and I shall hope to complete it as a continuous and coherent narrative down to our own day. It will be a history for the reading and information of the average lay citizen. Therefore it will not be a technical treatise on diplomacy or international law, such as would appeal chiefly to the student, jurist or statesman. Neither will there be any effort-which it might be vain for me to maketo invest the narrative with such romantic charm or rhetorical art as would commend it to the dilettante or to the seeker after entertainment but would at the same time probably impair its value as a work of serious information. Nor yet shall I seek as a special pleader to depict our country as always wise and just in its dealings with others, or others as necessarily in the wrong in their controversies with America; but I shall sincerely strive to treat all with impartiality. In brief, I shall aim to make this a popular history in a worthy sense of that too often abused term, intended for popular perusal and accurate information upon topics which are among at once the most important and the most neglected or most misunderstood in all our national annals. The observations of a lifetime largely given to the study of these things have persuaded me that the foreign relations of this country are the least generally known part of its history. Our wars, our territorial growth, our material progress, our development as a people, our social and economic problems, have been the themes of innumerable writers and are reason ably assumed to be familiar to all who are entitled to be regarded as well informed. But of the origin and development of our international relationships, and of the great principles of our external policies of state, and indeed even of many of the conspicuous incidents and processes which have marked and directed that development, there is a lamentable lack of information. There seems to have prevailed too widely the spirit of a Senator of the United States who, a generation ago, while discussing a grave matter in which the international good repute of the United States was involved, scornfully demanded "What do we care for 'Abroad'?” The result is that we are of all important nations probably the most self-centered and circumscribed. Our citizens have been gathered from all the world, but very few of them belong to all the world. We are the most cosmopolitan in material substance, but the least cosmopolitan in sympathy and in genius. The British nation, from which we are chiefly sprung, is often spoken of as "insular"; but its insularity is vastly and generously comprehensive in contrast to the bigoted parochial egotism of its gigantic offspring. From this excess of adulatory introspection, this sometimes smug and sometimes hifalutin self-complacency, and this lack of appreciative perspective and proportion in viewing other nations and their affairs, have arisen many of our domestic and most of our external ills: It would be a grateful and beneficent achievement to inspire the American people with a more adequate and accurate conception of their real place in the world and of their true relationship with other nations. The result should be to ameliorate international sentiments; to moderate both excessive attachments and excessive animosities into a spirit of benevolent impartiality; to unify the sympathies, the policies and the action. of all domestic parties toward the external world; and to invest our popular attitude toward other peoples and their governments with a dignity and a benignity worthy of a nation that is well proportioned and judicious in all its greatness. If I shall succeed in doing this to a perceptible extent, the purpose of my labors in this book will be fulfilled. CONTENTS OF VOLUME I Types of International Relationship-Prenatal Influences-America the Offspring of England-The Colonies Founded in European Rivalries- British, Spanish, Swedish, Dutch, and French-American Interests Sacri- ficed by the Stuarts as Pawns in the European Game-Colonial Policy of the Commonwealth-Betrayal by Charles II-France Striking at England in America-The British Genius for Colonization-Queen Anne's War Anticipated in America-The Peace of Utrecht-American Aid to Eng- land-Fatuous Policy of Halifax-The Rise and Significance of Town Meetings-The Revolt against Class Privilege-The Tragedy of Acadia- The Beginning of American Expansion in the Ohio Valley-The French and Indian War-Purblind British Policy-Frederick the Great-The Treaty Rise of the American Spirit-Not Independence but Equal Rights with Englishmen in England Sought-The Royal Prerogative's Last Stand- British Democracy in America-Some Extravagant Vagaries-Taxation Without Representation-Formation of a League of the Colonies-Regarded in England as Treason-The Stamp Act-Imperial Federation Proposed by Otis and Franklin-Samuel Adams the Pioneer of Separation-Repeal of the Stamp Act-Its Vicious Principle Reaffirmed-Townshend's Legacy of Mischief to North-Oppression of Colonial Commerce-The Massachu- setts Circular Letter'-The Royal Prerogative Denied-Drifting Toward Separation-The Committee of Correspondence-Independence Proposed- French Incitements and Encouragement-American Expectations of For- CHAPTER III. INDEPENDENCE DECLARED The First Continental Congress "Independence" Still a Forbidden Word -Massachusetts and Virginia the Leaders-Jay's Address to the People of Great Britain-The Attitude of Parliament-Hearings and Petitions of English Cities Refused-Looking for Civil War but not Separation-The Second Continental Congress-Appeals to England-Address to Ireland— Fatal Policy of the British Government-Mercenary Troops Sought in Rus- sia-Catherine the Great and George III-Russian Sympathy Given but no Troops-Holland's Refusal to Give Aid Against America-An Army Se- cured at last in Germany-Alien Forces Needed because of British Un- willingness to Serve Against America-National Origin of the Americans and Their Leaders-First Proposals for Ambassadors and Alliances-Mov- |