The streams that had carried the wealth and supported the trade of the
seceding States turned against them, and admitted their enemies to
their hearts. Dismay, insecurity, paralysis, prevailed in regions that
might, under happier auspices, have kept a nation alive through the
most exhausting war. Never did sea power play a greater or a more
decisive part than in the contest which determined that the course of
the world's history would be modified by the existence of one great
nation, instead of several rival States, in the North American
continent. But while just pride is felt in the well-earned glory of
those days, and the greatness of the results due to naval
preponderance is admitted, Americans who understand the facts should
never fail to remind the overconfidence of their countrymen that the
South not only had no navy, not only was not a seafaring people, but
that also its population was not proportioned to the extent of the
sea-coast which it had to defend.

IV. Number of Population. After the consideration of the natural
conditions of a country should follow an examination of the
characteristics of its population as affecting the development of sea
power; and first among these will be taken, because of its relations
to the extent of the territory, which has just been discussed, the
number of the people who live in it. It has been said that in respect
of dimensions it is not merely the number of square miles, but the
extent and character of the sea-coast that is to be considered with
reference to sea power; and so, in point of population, it is not only
the grand total, but the number following the sea, or at least readily
available for employment on ship-board and for the creation of naval
material, that must be counted.

For example, formerly and up to the end of the great wars following