[199] Paris, May 12, 1787. Washington papers, Library of Congress.

[200] Calais, April 3, 1789.

[201] Paris, July 31, 1789.

[202] "Rochambeau near Vendôme," April 11, 1790.

[203] Paris, May 12, 1787.

[204] Ternant to Montmorin, Philadelphia, March 13, 1792. Correspondence of the French Ministers, ed. Turner, Washington, 1904.

[205] July 28, 1792.

[206] Philadelphia, May 18, 1793. Correspondence of the French Ministers in the United States, ed. Turner, Washington, 1904, p. 214.

[207] May 31, June 19, 1793. Ibid., pp. 216, 217.

[208] June 19, 1793. Ibid., p. 230.

[209] October 11, 1793. Ibid., p. 287.

[210] Washington to Alexander Hamilton, July 29, 1795.

[211] To Jefferson, June 6, 1796.

[212] To Oliver Wolcott, May 15, 1797.

[213] Mount Vernon, May 29, 1797.

[214] To T. Pickering, August 29, 1797.

[215] "Nulli flebilior quam mihi," wrote Lafayette, in learning the news, to Crèvecœur, who had just dedicated to Washington his Voyage dans la haute Pennsylvanie, adorned, by way of frontispiece, with a portrait of Washington, "gravé d'après le camée peint par Madame Bréhan, à New York, en 1789." Crèvecœur wanted to offer a copy of his book to Bonaparte. "Send it," a friend of his who knew the young general told him; "it is a right you have as an associate member of the Institute; add a letter of two or three lines, mentioning in it the name of Washington." St. John de Crèvecœur, by Robert de Crèvecœur, 1883, p. 399.

[216] "Eloge funèbre de Washington, prononcé dans le temple de Mars (Hôtel des Invalides) le 20 pluviose, an VIII (8 février, 1800)," in Œuvres de M. de Fontanes, recueillies pour la première fois, Paris, 1839, 2 vols., II, 147.

[217] Lafayette's journeys to America.

[218] An exact justification of Lacretelle's prediction; above, p. 94.

[219] Histoire des Etats Unis, 3 vols.; preface dated 1855; the lectures had been delivered in 1849. Washington is the hero of the work, which is carried on only to 1789.

[220] Washington, libérateur de l'Amérique, 1882, often reprinted, dedicated: "A la mémoire de Lazare Hoche, le soldat citoyen, qui aurait été notre Washington s'il eût vécu."

[221] August 1, 1786.

[222] "It is estimated that there are more small holdings of land in France than in Germany, England, and Austria combined." Report of the [U.S.] Commissioner of Education, 1913, p. 714.

[223] To Richard H. Lee, December 14, 1784. On French exertions in that line, Consul-General Skinner wrote: "If correspondents could penetrate, as the writer has done, the almost inaccessible mountain villages of this country, and there discover the enthusiastic French forester at work, applying scientific methods to a work which can not come to complete fruition before two or three hundred years, they would retire full of admiration and surprise and carry the lesson back to the United States." Daily Consular Reports, November 2, 1907.

[224] "The story of French success in the exploration, the civilization, the administration, and the exploitation of Africa, is one of the wonder tales of history. That she has relied on the resources of science rather than those of militarism makes her achievement the more remarkable.... Look at Senegambia as it is now under French rule.... Contrast the modernized Dahomey of to-day with its railways, schools, and hospitals with the blood-soaked country of the early sixties; remember that Algeria has doubled in population since [the time of] the last Dey—and you will have a bird's-eye view, as it were, of what the French have accomplished in the colonizing field." E. Alexander Powell, The Last Frontier, New York, 1912, p. 25. Concerning the Arabs under French rule, Edgar A. Forbes writes: "The conquered race may thank the stars that its destiny rests in a hand that seldom wears the rough gauntlet." The Land of the White Helmet, New York, 1910, p. 94.

[225] To Lafayette, Aug. 15, 1786. Cf. below, p. 347. Same views in Franklin, who had written to his friend David Hartley, one of the British plenipotentiaries for the peace: "What would you think of a proposition, if I should make it, of a family compact between England, France, and America?... What repeated follies are those repeated wars! You do not want to conquer and govern one another. Why, then, should you continually be employed in injuring and destroying one another?" Passy, Oct. 16, 1783.

[226] June 15, 1782.

IV

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

On two tragic occasions, at a century's distance, the fate of the United States has trembled in the balance: would they be a free nation? Would they continue to be one nation? A leader was wanted on both occasions, a very different one in each case. This boon was granted to the American people, who had a Washington when a Washington was needed, and a Lincoln when a Lincoln could save them. Neither would have adequately performed the other's task.

A century of gradually increasing prosperity had elapsed when came the hour of the nation's second trial. Though it may seem to us small, compared with what we have seen in our days, the development had been considerable, the scattered colonies of yore had become one of the great Powers of the world, with domains reaching from one ocean to the other; the immense continent had been explored; new cities were dotting the wilderness of former days. When in 1803 France had, of her own will, ceded the Louisiana territories, which have been divided since into fourteen States, minds had been staggered; many in the Senate had shown themselves averse to the ratification of the treaty, thinking that it might prove rather a curse than a boon. "As to Louisiana, this new, immense, unbounded world," Senator White, of Delaware, had said, "if it should ever be incorporated into this Union ... I believe it will be the greatest curse that could at present befall us; it may be productive of innumerable evils, and especially of one that I fear even to look upon."

What the senator feared to look upon was the possibility, awful and incredible as it might seem, of people being so rash as to go and live beyond the Mississippi. Attempts would, of course, be made, he thought, to prevent actions which would entail such grave responsibilities for the government; but those meritorious attempts on the part of the authorities would probably fail. "It would be as well to pretend to inhibit the fish from swimming in the sea.... To every man acquainted with the manner in which our Western country has been settled, such an idea must be chimerical." People will go, "that very population will go, that would otherwise occupy part of our present territory." The results will be unspeakable: "Our citizens will be removed to the immense distance of two or three thousand miles from the capital of the Union, where they will scarcely ever feel the rays of the general government; their affections will be alienated; they will gradually begin to view us as strangers; they will form other commercial connections, and our interests will become distinct."