Their numbers, however, were comparatively insignificant, and although they made a show of organizing an army for the purpose of opposing the United States troops, and achieving the independence of Canada, they took good care not to risk a conflict with the vastly superior forces of the Americans, and in less than a month, such of them as had not deserted, surrendered; and all further traces of opposition to American occupation disappeared. On the 4th of July, 1890, which was the one hundred and fourteenth anniversary of American Independence, the United States took formal possession of Canada; and the prosperity of that vast section of the North American Continent may be said to date from that eventful day.
The war now being concluded, and the questions which had for more than a century proved so vexatious, being permanently settled, the people of the United States had plenty of leisure time to count up the cost of the "economy" which their rulers had been treating them to, ever since the end of the Civil War.
As has already been shown, these demagogues, while prating about the surplus, and the tariff, and the down-trodden laboring man, and the crime of spending the people's money for anything but river and harbor and public building jobs, and exorbitant premiums on immature bonds; had permitted the United States Navy to go to decay, from motives of "economy;" had utterly refused to offer even decent rates of compensation for the carrying of foreign mails in American ships, for the sake of "economy;" had declined to encourage the establishment of an auxiliary naval force, by the payment of an annual rental for the privilege of employing swift American built steamships as cruisers in time of war, because by not doing so, the treasury would save $5,000,000 or $10,000,000 a year, and these statesmen could continue to pose before the country as champions and apostles of "economy;" and had neglected year after year to fortify the seaboard cities, notwithstanding the constant and oft repeated warnings uttered by military and naval experts, intelligent and thoughtful writers, and farsighted statesmen of both political parties; because, forsooth, when year after year the River and Harbor Bill and the Public Buildings Bill had been inflated to the largest possible figures that would be likely to escape a presidential veto, they found that they could not spend any money on fortifications without exceeding the appropriations made by their predecessors, and would thus render themselves liable to be considered by their constituents as lacking in the great essential element of "economy."
Well, these economical statesmen had had their way—and their day—and their constituents and masters—the People of the United States—said to them, "Gentlemen, render an account of your stewardship. Let us see what your loud professions of 'economy' for the past twenty-five or thirty years amount to. Let us have an itemized account, debit and credit, and see how far your acts have been justified by results."
You are clearly entitled to credit for the following amounts:
CREDIT.
| Mail Subsidies saved annually | $5,000,000 |
| Rental of Steamships (assuming 100 swift ships at $100,000 each) as an auxiliary naval force | 10,000,000 |
| Adequate naval and fortification appropriations annually |
20,000,000 ——————— |
| Total annual saving |
$35,000,000 ——————— |
| Total for ten years | $350,000,000 |
A very handsome exhibit, gentlemen; now let us see the other side of the account.
DEBIT.
| Amount paid annually to foreign ships, carrying American products | $150,000,000 |
| Amount of wages lost to American ship-builders and their workmen, annually (figures previous to 1860) | 12,000,000 |
| Amount of domestic shipbuilding materials not used annually (figures previous to 1860) | 30,000,000 |
| Passage money paid by Americans to foreign shipowners annually (estimated) |
5,000,000 ——————— |
| Total annual cost |
$197,000,000 ——————— |
| Total for ten years | $1,970,000,000 |