278 A Forgotten Maxim 



very Congress that declared war voted down the bill 

 to increase the Navy by twenty battleships ; though 

 it was probably too late then, anyhow, for even un- 

 der the simpler conditions of that day such a fleet 

 could not have been built and put into first-class or- 

 der in less than a couple of years. Bitterly did the 

 nation pay for its want of foresight and forethought. 

 Our cruisers won a number of striking victories, 

 heartening and giving hope to the nation in the face 

 of disaster; but they were powerless to do material 

 harm to the gigantic naval strength of Great Britain. 

 Efforts were made to increase our little Navy, but 

 in the face of a hostile enemy already possessing 

 command of the seas this was impossible. Two or 

 three small cruisers were built; but practically al- 

 most all the fighting on the ocean was done by the 

 handful of frigates and sloops which we possessed 

 when the war broke out. Not a battleship was able 

 to put to sea until after peace was restored. Mean- 

 while our coast was blockaded from one end to the 

 other and was harried at will by the hostile squad- 

 rons. Our capital city was burned, and the cease- 

 less pressure of the blockade produced such suffer- 

 ing and irritation as nearly to bring about a civil 

 war among ourselves. If in the first decade of the 

 present century the American people and their rulers 

 had possessed the wisdom to provide an efficient fleet 

 of powerful battleships there would probably have 

 been no War of 1812 ; and even if war had come, the 

 immense loss to, and destruction of, trade and com- 

 merce by the blockade would have been prevented. 



