AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 49 



foreign intervention. Had the bloody ordeal fallen on 

 us when possessed of but one-tenth of our present popula 

 tion, there can be little question that the intense hostility 

 with which we are regarded by the ruling classes in the 

 nations of Western Europe, would have dictated armed in 

 tervention, the forcible opening of the blockade, and, finally, 

 the dismemberment of the Republic. If the magnitude of 

 our resources and the numbers of our armies appalled our 

 enemies, both at home and abroad, it must be borne in mind 

 that these were but results made possible by our vast popu 

 lation.&quot; 



&quot; Our foes shrank from a contest with a nation which, 

 even in the midst of an unexampled rebellion, was still able 

 to pour its armies into the field by the million, and to sus 

 tain the Government by an incalculable store of riches. 

 Our vast northern and western population has saved it from 

 overthrow. If, with this great preponderance of numbers, 

 we have found it so difficult to overcome rebellion, it will 

 be at once perceived, that, if our population had been no 

 greater than that of the South, the task of suppressing it 

 would have been a sheer impossibility. Instead of literally 

 overrunning the South, and crushing it beneath the mere 

 weight of numbers, we should have found ourselves engaged 

 in a war ruinously protracted, the end of which, in all hu 

 man probability, would have been a destruction of the Re 

 public.&quot; 



Tims all that is dear to us as a united people, has 

 depended on a question of numbers. The consider 

 ation of this fact may not have been embraced in the 

 calculations of those who, many years ago, put the 

 public lauds in market at a low price ; but it became 

 a controlling element of the policy which enacted the 

 Homestead Law. As the cheap lands have once 



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