ations efforts greater than have been made before. England has at the
same time blockaded Brest, the Biscay coast, Toulon, and Cadiz, when
there were powerful squadrons lying within the harbors. It is true
that commerce in neutral ships can then enter other ports of the
United States than those named; but what a dislocation of the carrying
traffic of the country, what failure of supplies at times, what
inadequate means of transport by rail or water, of dockage, of
lighterage, of warehousing, will be involved in such an enforced
change of the ports of entry! Will there be no money loss, no
suffering, consequent upon this? And when with much pain and expense
these evils have been partially remedied, the enemy may be led to stop
the new inlets as he did the old. The people of the United States will
certainly not starve, but they may suffer grievously. As for supplies
which are contraband of war, is there not reason to fear that the
United States is not now able to go alone if an emergency should
arise?

The question is eminently one in which the influence of the government
should make itself felt, to build up for the nation a navy which, if
not capable of reaching distant countries, shall at least be able to
keep clear the chief approaches to its own. The eyes of the country
have for a quarter of a century been turned from the sea; the results
of such a policy and of its opposite will be shown in the instance of
France and of England. Without asserting a narrow parallelism between
the case of the United States and either of these, it may safely be
said that it is essential to the welfare of the whole country that the
conditions of trade and commerce should remain, as far as possible,
unaffected by an external war. In order to do this, the enemy must be
kept not only out of our ports, but far away from our coasts.[15]

Can this navy be had without restoring the merchant shipping? It is
doubtful. History has proved that such a purely military sea power can
be built up by a despot, as was done by Louis XIV.; but though so fair
seeming, experience showed that his navy was like a growth which
having no root soon withers away. But in a representative government
any military expenditure must have a strongly represented interest
behind it, convinced of its necessity. Such an interest in sea power
does not exist, cannot exist here without action by the government.
How such a merchant shipping should be built up, whether by subsidi