Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/25

Rh self-aggrandizement, and whose exploits were destined to plunge her in deep abasement. Even the pope himself about that time had been upon the war-path, sending out his armies with fire and sword where words failed, and all greatly to his discomfiture and humiliation.

To the principle of evil in human affairs mankind owes much. To war, a great evil, a beastly arbitrament, but the only ultimate appeal yet found by man with all his wisdom, America owes much. To the silly strifes of European powers America owes more than to any butchering done by her own hands. It was due to this preoccupation, and to the weakness thence arising, rather than to any extraordinary display of wisdom, patriotism, or power on the part of the colonists, English or Spanish, that their independence was achieved.

There are foolish wars, and there are necessary wars: foolish sometimes on both sides, always foolish on one side. Hundreds of wars there have been, and will be, which leave the combatants, after tearing each other like wolves for a time, exactly as at the outset. Resorting to war for freedom or the integrity of the nation is not the same as war for the arrangement of differences which after any amount of fighting can only be settled upon some basis of equity which has to be determined upon other principles than those of arms. It is better to fight than to be a slave. It is not well to fight simply for power or aggrandizement, since the issue is based on injustice, and is sure to be transient. It is not worth while to fight purely for the mastery, as it is foreordained that no man shall be master on this planet.

The United States had finished the war which gave them their freedom; and were now busy trying to raise money, frame a constitution, and organize a government, while turning an honest penny by furnishing supplies to the combatants who were still destroying