138 THE ROARING FORTIES 



be adequately peopled for centuries. So far as 

 suspicion of British designs on the Pacific ter 

 ritory operated to promote the American policy, 

 that policy was doubtless rational; for the his 

 tory of the British Empire gave little assurance 

 of a dislike for expansion, and strong Britain 

 would be a less desirable neighbor than weak 

 Mexico. Yet it would not have been difficult to 

 ascertain and publish the truth, that neither the 

 government nor the people of Great Britain in 

 the forties had any wish or purpose to acquire 

 any regions contiguous to the United States. 

 The rather pronounced trend of feeling was in 

 just the opposite direction, toward the thought 

 that there was already somewhat more con 

 tact with the republic than was altogether de 

 sirable. 



What did most to increase by two-thirds the 

 already vast area of the United States was the 

 aggressive idealism of the American democracy. 

 In the forties this characteristic was probably 

 at its maximum. The nation was permeated 

 with a sense of power and of destiny that tol 

 erated no suggestion of limit in any direction. 

 On the cultural side indications of an approach 

 ing realization of the ideal were scanty; on the 

 material side every manifestation of bigness 



