Some Vietvs Connected with the Question of Coast Defence. 81 



to each great harbor in our country be guarded by impregnable forts 

 of iron and steel, with turrets the most perfect, the works re-enforced 

 by inland intrenchments for infantry supports. Let monster guns be 

 placed on hydraulic tables in masked turret batteries, made flush 

 with the earth's surface and fired with the aid of azimuth distance 

 signals, so arranged as to have absolute command of the straits and 

 channels leading to our great cities of the sea coast. Let there be 

 special strategical railroads, built to the sea coast, to the forts and 

 intrenchments, so that troops and munitions may be moved to the 

 front when needed. Let more men be trained and drilled; let the 

 forges bring their steel; let the mills hammer it into ingots or roll it 

 into plates. Let us be ready. Not " sometime," but now. 



Then, possessed of the power to enforce our rights, accustomed by 

 our system, by our theory of government, to a just consideration of 

 the rights of others, the name of American shall be greater than 

 that of king, and the flag of our nation shall gleam as brightly and as 

 proudly in these days as when John Paul Jones swept the English 

 channel; as when Perry and MacDonough won victory upon the lakes, 

 and Porter and Farragut upon the seas. 



Let me add that it is not from enmity to England that I have 

 selected so many of the examples of unannounced war from the annals 

 of her history to illustrate the dangers which, it seems to me, are not 

 sufficiently considered by our people. It happens that the naval his- 

 tory of England contains more examples of the '* strategy " of sudden 

 attack, to give it a mild name, and more dreadful memories of the 

 results of heedlessness on the part of her opponents, more opportune 

 lessons than history elsewhere affords. 



For any nation violating laws divine and human, for sordid purposes 

 of mercantile gain, we can have only a natural horror. England's 

 faults appear to have been chiefly those of her politicians and of an 

 unscrupulous class of political merchants, whose selfishness and nar- 

 rowness have alone prevented the supremacy of English civilization 

 throughout this world. Political narrowness, born of egotism and 

 fear, has sought to make the colonies subservient to the personal 

 ambition and interests of residents of the island of Great Britain, 

 rather than agencies for the advancement of civilization by the estab- 

 lishment of God-fearing, law abiding nations throughout the earth. 



Yet to be an Englishman is to be assured of the watchful protection 

 of one of the most powerful of modern governments; a protection 

 which is sought of all governments, but which is most imperfectly 



