ble blow, it
did but slight harm. And regardless of it England struck Bonaparte down.
His hope that we might damage and lessen the power of her fleet that he
so much respected and feared, was not realized. We made the Treaty of
Ghent. The impressing of sailors from our vessels was tacitly abandoned.
The next time that people were removed from vessels, it was not England
who removed them, it was we ourselves, who had declared war on England
for doing so, we ourselves who removed them from Canadian vessels in the
Behring Sea, and from the British ship Trent. These incidents we shall
reach in their proper place. As a result of the War of 1812, some
English felt justified in taking from us a large slice of land, but
Wellington said, "I think you have no right, from the state of the war,
to demand any concession of territory from America." This is all that
need be said about our War of 1812.

Because I am trying to give only the large incidents, I have
intentionally made but a mere allusion to Florida and our acquisition of
that territory. It was a case again of England's siding with us against
a third power, Spain, in this instance. I have also omitted any account
of our acquisition of Texas, when England was not friendly--I am not
sure why: probably because of the friction between us over Oregon.
But certain other minor events there are, which do require a brief
reference--the boundaries of Maine, of Oregon, the Isthmian Canal,
Cleveland and Venezuela, Roosevelt and Alaska; and these disputes we
shall now take up together, before we deal with the very large matter
of our trouble with England during the Civil War. Chronologically, of
course, Venezuela and Alaska fall after the Civil War; but they belong
to the same class to which Maine and Oregon belong. Together, all of
these incidents and controversies form a group in which the underlying
permanence of British good-will towards us is distinctly to be
discerned. Sometimes, as I have said before, British anger with us
obscures the friendly sentiment. But this was on the surface, and it
always passed. As usual, it is only the anger that has stuck in our
minds. Of the outcome of these controversies and the British temperance
and restraint which brought about such outcome the popular mind retains
no impression.

The boundary of Maine was found to be undefined to the extent of 12,000
square miles. Both Maine and New Brunswick claimed this, of course.
Maine took her coat off t