It being just the commencement of the winter season, and therefore a most unfavorable time to undertake hostilities, both sides sought to gain time, and a voluminous diplomatic correspondence ensued; during which both the United States and England were exerting every effort to prepare for the struggle which was considered to be inevitable as soon as spring opened. Work was pushed night and day on the unfinished war vessels; and a large force of men were placed at work upon the sea-coast forts to try and strengthen them as much as possible. Additional guns were brought from the interior and mounted in the forts as rapidly as practicable; and the hurry and bustle of preparation was noticeable from one end of the country to the other. As yet, war had not been definitely declared, except by Canada, and the President had issued no call for troops; but everybody knew that the call could not be long delayed; and the "Grand Army Men," as the veterans of the War of the Rebellion styled themselves, organized themselves into battalions and regiments, and met and drilled two or three times a week, and were ready to respond instantly to the call of the President, as soon as it should be issued. An enrollment of these volunteer associations, taken on January 1, 1890, showed a total of over 300,000 veterans ready and anxious to go to the front once more.
Besides these, there were enthusiastic young men by the million, who had been children during the War of the Rebellion, but who were fired with a patriotic desire to resent the outrages and insults which they thought their country had received at the hands of Canada.
As far as the land forces were concerned, nothing more could be desired. The Government, it was evident, would be embarrassed by a superabundance of force, rather than a lack of it; and the indications were that within thirty days after war was declared, a thoroughly well drilled, well equipped, well armed, and well officered army of at least half a million of men, would be ready to overrun Canada in the shortest possible space of time. The more enthusiastic ones, claimed that the campaign would be over in thirty days after the boundary line was crossed. Others said that the war might last sixty days, and here and there one or two might be found who thought that possibly it might take all summer. There was no difference of opinion as to the result. The only differences were as to the time it would require to bring it about. The idea that this over-whelming and magnificent force could receive anything approaching a defeat, or even a check, in its victorious career through Canada, never entered anybody's head. But there were numerous bets made on the exchanges and elsewhere, as to the number of days the campaign would last. The whole country seemed to be in a blaze of military enthusiasm, and it became all the rage for young men to chaff each other about "spending next summer in Canada." On the surface, therefore, everything appeared satisfactory, and the only apparent drawback was a feeling that Canada couldn't offer resistance enough to make the struggle even an interesting one. Under this apparent confidence, however, there was a vast amount of anxious foreboding in the minds of a few of the more thoughtful residents of our seaboard cities.
These men knew the utterly defenseless condition of our coasts. They knew how absurdly inadequate our Navy was to cope with that of England. They had seen the fast passenger steamships of the Cunard and other English lines, (two of which, belonging to the Inman line, the "City of New York," and the "City of Paris," were owned by Americans) withdrawn from the passenger service, and transformed into armed cruisers in accordance with the terms of the contracts by which the English Government paid them an annual subsidy or rental, amounting to about four per cent. of their cost. The cable had brought news of the feverish activity which reigned in all the English dockyards and arsenals.
Of course, details of these preparations were not forthcoming; but the utmost reticence of the officials could not conceal the fact that war preparations on an immense scale were being pushed forward with the utmost rapidity.
Meanwhile the Americans were not idle. Congress had been called in special session by the President, in view of the gravity of the situation, and immense appropriations, aggregating between $200,000,000 and $300,000,000 were rushed through both houses in frantic haste; and a tremendous effort was made at a vast expense, to lock the stable door, which had so long been invitingly left open. There was no time to build large vessels or heavy guns; so the greatest efforts were made to perfect a system of harbor obstructions and torpedoes. All sorts of experiments were tried in this direction; and the whole inventive genius of the country seemed to be puzzling itself over the problem of self-defense.
Of course it goes without saying that the newspapers in all three countries reaped a rich harvest. No rumor was too absurd or sensational to find believers, and the public mind was wrought up to an intensity of feeling on both sides, that was almost inconceivable in its bitterness and rancor.
In March, 1890, the excitement was, if possible, intensified by a remarkable speech delivered in the British House of Commons by Lord Randolph Churchill. This nobleman had been a prominent figure in English politics for several years, and had held numerous Government positions—among them Chancellor of the Exchequer, and leader of the House of Commons. He was a man of unquestioned ability, but had come to be regarded by the older and more conservative public men, as too eccentric and too unmanageable for a leader.
He had, therefore, been reduced to the ranks—so to speak—in Parliament, and had been chafing for two or three years in what seemed to him to be a position utterly unworthy of his talents and experience as a parliamentarian and debater. The present occasion afforded him an opportunity, which he was not slow to embrace, of putting himself once more in a prominent position before the English public.
His speech was entirely unexpected, and created the utmost excitement on both sides of the ocean. It was during a debate on a bill authorizing some of the extraordinary expenditures for arming and preparing war ships, etc., which the Admiralty were then making. The debate had gone on sleepily and stupidly, as such debates usually do, until one evening in March, Lord Churchill threw what proved to be a veritable bombshell into the discussion. In this remarkable speech, his Lordship traced the whole history of the differences between the United States and Canada, from 1783 to 1889. His point of view, of course, was an intensely English one, and he justified Canada entirely in the course she had thus far seen fit to pursue.