4 READJUSTMENT AFTER WAR 



some 1,500,000 were negro slaves, was scattered 

 along a thousand miles of the Atlantic seaboard, 

 with a few straggling lines of settlement in the 

 Mississippi valley. For military power this na 

 tion could boast a dozen half-filled regiments of 

 regular troops, distributed in small detachments 

 over the whole territory, and a navy so insig 

 nificant in size as to evoke roars of laughter 

 when the number of its ships was mentioned 

 in the House of Commons. Before the end of 

 the war this minute navy had given such an 

 account of itself as no longer to be a cause of 

 mirth at Westminster, and even the army, after 

 bitter humiliation, had won somewhat of dis 

 tinction. Yet in no sense could the United 

 States be reckoned as of much significance 

 among the powers of the civilized world. Its 

 foreign commerce had assumed some impor 

 tance during the long Napoleonic wars, but 

 could expect no great development in the com 

 petition with Great Britain after peace had been 

 made. In manufacturing, a little impetus had 

 been given by the exclusion of British goods 

 through embargo and war; but here again the 

 restoration of peace would put the Americans 

 under the crushing weight of competition from 

 England and would end, for the time at least, 



