That the elevated standard thus set up by our early diplomacy has been
preserved with but little exception is a simple matter of history. We
have been almost uniformly fortunate in the choice of our ministers
abroad, especially those to Great Britain. It is rightly regarded as a
distinction hardly inferior to any in the State, to occupy the post of
Plenipotentiary to St. James's or Versailles,--and this no less because
the incumbent has generally been one of our most honored statesmen than
because of the essential dignity and importance of the office.
If we consider, in connection with this fact, the persistency with which
the Government has asserted the rights of an equal power, the promptness
with which it has resented every indignity offered to our flag, and the
vigor with which it has enforced in our favor the principles of
international law, it can be no matter of surprise that we should stand,
as we assuredly have stood, second to none in the estimate of our
physical and moral power.
Starting on a totally new system,--a system which, if successful, would
disprove the universally received dogmas of the political philosophers
of Europe,--running counter to every prejudice and every conclusion of
the Old-World statesmen,--the United States had to work their way
through difficulties innumerable to their present rank, and were forced
to prove their institutions by experience, before they could assume the
dignity of a first-class power.
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