The Indian Wars, 1784-1787 181 



ence between the careers of the English-speaking 

 and Spanish-speaking peoples on this continent. The 

 wise statesmanship typified by such men as Wash 

 ington and Marshall, Hamilton, Jay, John Adams, 

 and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, prevailed over 

 the spirit of separatism and anarchy. Seven years 

 after the war ended, the Constitution went into ef 

 fect, and the United States became in truth a nation. 

 Had we not thus become a nation, had the separatists 

 won the day, and our country become the seat of va 

 rious antagonistic States and confederacies, then 

 the Revolution by which we won liberty and inde 

 pendence would have been scarcely more memorable 

 or noteworthy than the wars which culminated in 

 the separation of the Spanish-American colonies 

 from Spain ; for we would thereby have proved that 

 we did not deserve either liberty or independence. 

 The Revolutionary War itself had certain points 

 of similarity with the struggles of which men like 

 Bolivar were the heroes; where the parallel totally 

 fails is in what followed. There were features in 

 which the campaigns of the Mexican and South 

 American insurgent leaders resembled at least the 

 partisan warfare so often waged by American Rev 

 olutionary generals ; but with the deeds of the great 

 constructive statesmen of the United States there is 

 nothing in the career of any Spanish- American com 

 munity to compare. It was the power to build a 

 solid and permanent Union, the power to construct 

 a mighty nation out of the wreck of a crumbling 

 confederacy, which drew a sharp line between the 



