Page:Dramatic Moments in American Diplomacy (1918).djvu/104

84 he was patient and tolerant that he was weak, or because he was mistaken that he had to be consistent, were given a shock. He called for 80,000 volunteers. He began to build his navy. He saw and acted upon the one obvious and constant proposition in our whole diplomatic history. Which was—and is—that the only force on earth that prevented our humiliation at will was the navy of Great Britain. And he forgot all about his "no alliance" shibboleth, and his antipathy to the snug little island.

The historian says that he attempted to gain Louisiana by intimidation and guile. And adds that "when Bonaparte was the one to be frightened and Talleyrand the one to be hoodwinked, the naïveté of the proceedings becomes rather ludicrous."

The only reason this view was ever adopted has been that our chroniclers have been loath to grant the inestimable obligation we were under to the English. It was not a bluff that Jefferson made even though birds were still