PRESIDENT WILSON AND PRESIDENT MADISON.
[TO THB EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] Sur,—The enclosed extract from Mahan's Bea Power in its Relation to the War of 1812 seems to apply no less to President Wilson's epoch than to that of his predecessor, President Madison.—I am, Sir, &c.,
H. C. M.
"Entire conviction of the justice and urgency of the American contentions . . . is not enough to induce admiration for the course of American statesmanship at this time. The acuteness and technical accuracy of Madison's voluminous arguments make but more impressive the narrowness of the outlook, which saw only the American point of view, and recognized only the force of legal precedent, at a time when the foundations of the civilized world were heaving. American interests doubtless were his sole concern ; but what was practicable and necessary to support those interests depended upon a wide consideration and just appreciation of external conditions. That laws are silent amid the clash of arms seems in his apprehension transformed to the conviction that at no time are they more noisy and compulsive. Upon this political obtuseness there fell a kind of poetical retribution, which gradually worked the Administration round to the position of substantially supporting Napoleon, when putting forth all his power to oppress the liberties of Spain, and of embarrassing Great Britain when a people in insurrection against perfidy and outrage found in her their sole support."—Sea Power in sio Relation to the War of 1812 (L, 139).
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