THE LATE GENERAL U. S. GRANT
Recorded September Ninth, 1920
The imbroglio started by President Carranza is beginning to influence the politicians of Buenos Ayres and other centers in South America. They have secretly repudiated the Monroe Doctrine. Their next maneuver will be a public repudiation.
I would say to Congress, stop juggling with phrases and attend to the business of the hour. The majority have been chasing shadows in a sphere of politics illumined by moonshine bottled in the Blue Ridge. I was more careful of my brand. When President Lincoln asked for the label, so he could recommend it to other generals, he was not far wrong in his surmises. It is not so much the thing as the quality that counts. Most of you at Washington will have to learn the difference between inhibition and prohibition.
The United States will be isolated within three years from this date if the blowhards from the woolly constituencies are not suppressed. You need a broncho buster in the Senate and a donkey muzzler in the House.
When a boycott is started by the countries south of the Union your enemies in Europe will begin to act. It is not a question of commerce but of common sense. I repeat what Lincoln said in 1862: “The times are dark and the spirits of ruin are abroad in all their power.”
My message to Congress is: See that fifty thousand troops are stationed permanently near the District of Columbia.
My message to the Governors of New York, Pennsylvania and Illinois is: Get ready! The troops on the borders of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona are inadequate. The fortifications of the Panama and at San Diego and San Pedro are inadequate. You are in the same condition the French were in previous to 1789, when the motto was, “After us the Deluge.” The Deluge came but it did not consist of water.
Our foes of the old Germany and the new Russia count on crippling the United States through South America, with the aid of Japan; but he who delivers the first blow will be the victor.
The Germans still believe they can eventually invade France, enter Paris and cause a revolution, found a new empire to include France, Belgium, Holland and Switzerland, with Italy later on. This dream includes a practical understanding with Soviet Russia, which, by that time, they expect would be weary of futile experiments. Plots will be exposed that will make it apparent how vain some of your optimistic surmises have been. Diplomats who are not psychologists will be balked by developments in Switzerland, that nation having become the rendezvous of disillusioned wire-pullers without a country.
You are now at the cross roads. Take the wrong turning and you will come to the skull and cross bones.
I could say much more but we are not yet experts in this new mode of inter-communication and must be brief.