266 A Forgotten Maxim 



again and again we have owed peace to the fact that 

 we were prepared for war; and in the only contest 

 which we have had with a European power since 

 the Revolution, the War of 1812, the struggle and all 

 its attendant disasters were due solely to the fact 

 that we were not prepared to face, and were not 

 ready instantly to resent, an attack upon our honor 

 and interest; while the glorious triumphs at sea 

 which redeemed that war were due to the few prep- 

 arations which we had actually made. We are a 

 great peaceful nation; a nation of merchants and 

 manufacturers, of farmers and mechanics; a nation 

 of workingmen, who labor incessantly with head or 

 hand. It is idle to talk of such a nation ever being 

 led into a course of wanton aggression or conflict 

 with military powers by the possession of a suffi- 

 cient navy. 



The danger is of precisely the opposite character. 

 If we forget that in the last resort we can only se- 

 cure peace by being ready and willing to fight for 

 it, we may some day have bitter cause to realize that 

 a rich nation which is slothful, timid, or unwieldy is 

 an easy prey for any people which still retains those 

 most valuable of all' qualities, the soldierly virtues. 

 We but keep to the traditions of Washington, to the 

 traditions of all the great Americans who struggled 

 for the real greatness of America, when we strive 

 to build up those fighting qualities for the lack of 

 which in a nation, as in an individual, no refinement, 

 no culture, no wealth, no material prosperity, can 

 atone. 



