And State Papers 345 



When our forefathers joined to call into being 

 this Nation, they undertook a task for which there 

 was but little encouragaging precedent. The de 

 velopment of civilization from the earliest period 

 seemed to show the truth of two propositions : In 

 the first place, it had always proved exceedingly 

 difficult to secure both freedom and strength in any 

 government ; and in the second place, it had always 

 proved wellnigh impossible for a nation to expand 

 without either breaking up or becoming a central 

 ized tyranny. With the success of our effort to 

 combine a strong and efficient national union, able 

 to put down disorder at home and to maintain our 

 honor and interest abroad, I have not now to deal. 

 This success was signal and all-important, but it 

 was by no means unprecedented in the same sense 

 that our type of expansion was unprecedented. The 

 history of Rome and of Greece illustrates very well 

 the two types of expansion which had taken place 

 in ancient time and which had been universally ac 

 cepted as the only possible types up to the period 

 when as a Nation we ourselves began to take pos 

 session of this continent. The Grecian States per 

 formed remarkable feats of colonization, but each 

 colony as soon as created became entirely independ 

 ent of the mother State, and in after years was al 

 most as apt to prove its enemy as its friend. Local 

 self-government, local independence, was secured, 

 but only by the absolute sacrifice of anything re 

 sembling national unity. In consequence, the Greek 

 world, for all its wonderful brilliancy and the ex- 



