READJUSTMENT AFTER WAR 5 



any likelihood that the United States would 

 figure among the important industrial powers. 



The one aspect in which the American Re 

 public attracted serious attention among en 

 lightened nations was the political and social. 

 Here was to be found in practical operation on 

 a large scale the democracy that the French 

 Revolution had threatened to impose upon all 

 Europe. Liberty and equality of a kind and 

 degree portentously suggestive of the ideals of 

 1789 and 1792 prevailed throughout the United 

 States and were watched with some anxiety by 

 the dominant classes in the Old World. It was 

 a cardinal maxim of conservative political phi 

 losophy in Europe that republican government 

 could not be adapted to the needs of a great 

 territory and population. The career of the 

 American Republic was expected therefore to 

 be stormy and brief. War with the United 

 States in 1812 had not been desired by the 

 British governing aristocracy; it involved an 

 annoying diversion of attention and resources 

 from the serious business of the hour. Only 

 because it might in some measure hasten the 

 inevitable failure and downfall of the American 

 system was it regarded with any equanimity. 

 The attitude of the New England Federalists 



