OF

UNIVERSITY

CALIFORNIA
PREFATORY NOTE

In the present volume there is reproduced, with some revision and amplification, a series of articles that appeared in Harper's Magazine; and one chapter—the fourth-has been added. The primary

— object of the work is to give, not a chronological narrative of international transactions, but rather an exposition of the principles by which they were guided, in order that the distinctive purposes of American diplomacy may be understood and its meaning and influence appreciated. Nothing could be more erroneous than the supposition that the United States has, as the result of certain changes in its habits, suddenly become, within the past few years, a “world-power.” The United States has in reality always been, in the fullest and highest sense, a world-power; and the record of its achievements in the promulgation and spread of liberal and humane doctrines is one in which no American need hesitate to own a patriotic pride.

J. B. M.