Part 14 (1/2)

The Monarchical Democratic or free Imperialism--it is scarcely necessary for me to say--is that of Great Britain.

The Republican Democratic or free Imperialism is that of the United States of America, of the Argentine Republic, of Brazil.

Happily the two great and glorious countries which are favoured with the advantages of the Democratic type of Imperialism are united in a grand and n.o.ble effort to destroy the German Autocratic Imperialism in chastis.e.m.e.nt of its criminal aspirations to universal domination.

The two types of Democratic or free Imperialism--the Monarchical and the Republican--can be better ill.u.s.trated by a comparative short historical study of their development in Great Britain and her colonies, and in the United States. I summarize it as follows, beginning by the last mentioned, as it requires a shorter exposition.

CHAPTER XIX.

AMERICAN IMPERIALISM.

The still recent and wonderful growth of the two American continents, in population and wealth, is almost an incredible marvel. It is none the least politically.

The two Americas, by the extent of their areas, the vastness of their productive lands, the length and largeness of their mighty Rivers, the broadness of their Lakes, the grandeur of their scenery, seem to be most adapted to great developments of many kinds. It is difficult to think of small conceptions originating in the New World, which the genius of Columbus discovered and the combined genius of all the great races of the Old are united in developing.

Let me first put the question:--when the leading European nations undertook to colonize the new Continents, were they not, consciously or not, throwing the Imperialist seed in a fertile land where it was sure to take root and blossom? Spain, France, and, last, England were certainly not obeying the dictates of our ”Nationalist school” when they brought under their Sovereign authority such vast stretches of American territory.

That Christian Civilization was to be extended to the new great Hemisphere, goes without saying. That the riches, then unknown, of the New World, were to be extracted from the land so full of them, was one of the duties of the discoverers, all will admit. The European Governments in extending their Sovereignties to America unfortunately adopted the mistaken Colonial Policy then still too much prevalent.

Their error was to stick to the wrong conception that a colony was important only in the measure that it could be favourable to the interests of the Metropolis. History proves that this colonial system is bound to lead to unfair treatment of the colonies. Absolutism, then dominant in Europe, could not be expected to show any tender leniency towards the Colonials who were above all to work for the wealth and glory of the Metropolis. Spain proved to be the worst promoter of that Regime. Her failure has been most complete. She has had to withdraw her flag from the very large part of America over which it might have been kept waving, if sounder and more just political notions had prevailed in the narrowed minds of her Rulers.

England, treading along the wrong path of Colonial oppression, but in a much less proportion, had to face a like result in the revolt of her American Colonies. Fortunately for her, for America and the world at large, the event widely opened her eyes. In acknowledging the independence of the young Republic of the United States, she was destined to be proud of her offspring in witnessing the astonis.h.i.+ng development of the child to whom she had given birth. Could she have then foreseen that the day would come when at the hour of her dire trial, the daughter who threw off her motherly authority, too stringently exercised, would rush to her support for the defence of the very principles of Political Liberty for which she, the child, had fought for her independence, how soon would England have forgotten the sufferings of the parting and blessed Providence for them!

The American Revolution, successfully carried out, was the occasion for England to revolutionize her Colonial Policy. She was the first nation--and I am sorry to say she has remained alone--to understand with great clearness that the old Colonial Regime, fraught with such disastrous consequences, must be done away with and replaced by the new one which called the colonies to the enjoyment, to the largest possible extent, of the free inst.i.tutions of the Mother Land.

Like every new born child, whose laborious birth was critical, the American Republic experienced great difficulties the very moment she commenced to breathe freely. So true it is always that national development, like personal success, cannot be achieved without struggle.

The United States offer the example of the best development of the Imperialist evolution in the world. It dates as far back as the proclamation of the Independence of the Republic. When she was admitted into the international society of Sovereign States, she had at first to settle her political organization. The framing of a const.i.tutional charter proved to be a very arduous task, at times almost desperate.

Three sets of divergent opinions were fighting at close range during the protracted and solemn deliberations which at last reached a happy conclusion. Thirteen American British Colonies had coalesced to wring their Independence from England. The goal once attained, a first group of opinion was favoured by the supporters of the dissolution of the temporary union organized to secure the Independence of the whole, but to revert, they said, if successful, to their previous separate status.

Had this view prevailed, at the very start North America would have been c.u.mbered with thirteen Sovereign States. Many were alarmed at the creation of so many small Republics. More reasonable persons suggested to organize three or four of them, instead of thirteen, meeting as much as possible the wants natural to geographical conditions. It was no doubt an improvement on the first mentioned scheme. It met with the hearty support of devoted adepts.

It is much to be hoped that they will forever receive from the successive generations of their countrymen the reward of the grat.i.tude they deserve, the true statesmen who, at this important juncture, stepped on the scene and bravely took their stand in favour of the maintenance of the Union which had conquered Independence, and of the establishment of only one great Republic. The celebrated Hamilton was their trusted leader. They knew they were undertaking an herculean task.

At that time, the population of the thirteen original States, scarcely four millions in number, was scattered over a vast territory, and located, for the most part, on the lands near the Atlantic coasts, two thousand miles in length, from North to South. Transportation was in a very primitive stage. Many years had yet to run before the whistle of the locomotive, powerful and struggling, would be echoed by the solitude of immense forests. No one foresaw that, in less than a century, the overflowing tide of European immigration would roll its waves so powerfully as to cross the whole continent and the Rocky Mountains to reach the coast of the Pacific Ocean.

With such conditions, so unfavourable to the aspirations of only one new Independent State, moulding together political groups so far apart, interests apparently so hostile, the local point of view, local prejudices, were sure to dominate. They inspired the strong current of opinion in favour of the dissolution of the temporary Union, and the organization of every one of the old provinces into a separate Sovereign State.

How, under such circ.u.mstances, the friends of a unique National American Union succeeded in the marvellous achievement of carrying their point by a prodigy of persuasive demonstration, will forever be a wonder for the student of the Republic's history. Few in numbers when they boldly threw their challenge, they encountered the shock of local fanaticism heightened by their offensive. Everything seemed to predict their utter failure. If ever Founders of States have proved the heroism of their convictions, the American Federalists have most gloriously done so.

Undoubtedly, the force of the argument was with them. But what can logic, reason, good sense, too often do against inveterate prejudices?

Were they, in this particular instance, destined to be powerless?

The Federalists--such is their historical name--were not to be disheartened by the formidable obstacles thrown in their way. An _Imperialist_ inspiration was certainly the basic foundation of their demonstration finally triumphant. They told their countrymen that if they were to erect thirteen small Republics upon the burning ruins of the first Union to which they owed their Independence, they would prepare a very sad future for their children and children's children.

European immigration was setting in, slowly but surely. They predicted that the World, this time, would witness, not a barbarous invasion like that which overthrew the Roman Empire, but one which the Old World would overflow to the New Continents. This surplus European population would bring over to America Christian Civilization, the training of hard work, large hopes, courage, experience in many ways, persevering energy, which would transform the boundless regions which could become their national heritage--until then the domain of the wandering Indian--into one of the greatest and wealthiest countries on earth. Would they commit the irreparable error to destroy the certainty of such a magnificent National Destiny, by creating thirteen separate governments, with the sure result of renewing in America, by such race groupings, the atrocious military conflicts which, for centuries, have flooded the European soil with human blood.

Hamilton and some of his most distinguished friends published that work, ent.i.tled: ”_The Federalist_”, which will ever live as one of the broadest and most elevated productions of Political Intelligence. To all, and especially to the ”Nationalist” theorists, I strongly recommend the reading of that book, a monument of the genius of great statesmen.