2659. ENGLAND, Maritime rivalry.—
The only rivalry that can arise is on the ocean.
England may, by petty larceny, thwartings,
check us on that element a little, but nothing
she can do will retard us one year's growth.
We shall be supported there by other nations,
and thrown into their scale to make a part
of the great counterpoise to her navy. If,
on the other hand, she is just to us, conciliatory,
and encourages the sentiment of family
feelings and conduct, it cannot fail to befriend
the security of both. We have the seamen
and materials for fifty ships of the line, and
half that number of frigates; and were France
to give us the money and England the dispositions
to equip them, they would give to
England serious proofs of the stock from
which they are sprung, and the school in
which they have been taught: and added to
the efforts of the immensity of seacoast lately
united under one power, would leave the state
of the ocean no longer problematical. Were,
on the other hand, England to give the
money, and France the dispositions to place
us on the sea in all our force, the whole
world, out of the continent of Europe, might
be our joint monopoly. We wish for neither
of these scenes. We ask for peace and justice
from all nations; and we will remain
uprightly neutral in fact, though leaning in
belief to the opinion that an English ascendency
on the ocean is safer for us than that
of France.—
To James Monroe. Washington ed. v, 12.
Ford ed., viii, 449.
(W.
May. 1806)
