290 POLITICS 



England's free- trade policy had created, and gradually all the leading 

 nations of the earth fell into line with them. In the presence of 

 universal tariff barriers, in which the powers of government are most 

 extensively and ingeniously employed for the primary advantage 

 of specific classes, it is hard to find an adequate ground on which to 

 resist the demand of any other class for a similar employment of 

 governmental power in behalf of its interests. Nationalism has 

 sounded the knell of individualism whether forever or not, it 

 remains for the future to disclose. 



Another conspicuous feature of nineteenth-century politics that 

 experienced serious if not irreparable disaster through the national- 

 istic movement was the doctrine of federalism. As the principle 

 upon which the United States developed its astonishing progress in 

 the first half-century, federalism came to be regarded as the touch- 

 stone of pure gold in governmental organization. The most logical 

 constitution-makers in the world, the publicists of Latin America, 

 brought forth a large crop of systems embodying this vital principle. 

 Witness the United States of Mexico, the United States of Colombia, 

 the United States of Venezuela, the United States of Brazil, and so 

 on. Only yesterday our government relieved itself of the embarrass- 

 ment in diplomatic intercourse caused by this very sincere flattery. 

 By order of the Department of State, we are henceforth to be, not 

 the " United States," but " America," distinguishing ourselves from 

 our sister republics by simply appropriating to our exclusive use 

 the name of the hemisphere of which they are a part. Though fed- 

 eralism was in its first application merely a more or less mechanical 

 device for combining previously well-defined and independent 

 political units into a single system, there came later to be found in 

 it the invaluable principle of local self-government. The partition 

 of power between central and state organizations was treated, not 

 merely as an essential to the union of distinct sovereignties, but as 

 a guarantee of individual liberty against all sovereignty. But the 

 sweep of nationalizing sentiment obliterated this beneficent con- 

 ception. In realizing the ends and aspirations of the nation, the 

 autonomy of states received as little consideration as the rights of 

 individuals. Centralization of power, in the name and for the pur- 

 poses of national unity, accompanied the progress of every body 

 politic in which federalism had for any reason obtained a hold. 



Ill 



After this very general survey of the tendencies manifested in the 

 nationalistic stage of the century's progress, we are able to under- 

 stand readily the influences which have produced the later and final 

 stage. This, covering the last fifteen or twenty, years, may with a 

 fair degree of accuracy be designated the era of the new imperialism. 



