our independence.

The War of 1812 is instructive from the fact that, though the actions
of our naval ships produced little material effect, the skill,
daring, and success with which they were fought convinced Europeans
of the high character and consequent noble destiny of the American
people. The British were so superior in sea strength, however,
that they were able to send their fleet across the ocean and land
a force on the shores of Chesapeake Bay. This force marched to
Washington, attacked the city, and burned the Capitol and other
public buildings, with little inconvenience to itself.

The War of the Rebellion is instructive because it shows how two
earnest peoples, each believing themselves right, can be forced,
by the very sincerity of their convictions, to wage war against
each other; and because it shows how unpreparedness for war, with
its accompanying ignorance of the best way in which to wage it,
causes undue duration of a war and therefore needless suffering.
If the North had not closed its eyes so resolutely to the fact
of the coming struggle, it would have noted beforehand that the
main weakness of the Confederacy lay in its dependence on revenue
from cotton and its inability to provide a navy that could prevent
a blockade of its coasts; and the North would have early instituted
a blockade so tight that the Confederacy would have been forced
to yield much sooner than it did. The North would have made naval
operations the main effort, instead of the auxiliary effort; and
would have substituted for much of the protracted and bloody warfare
of the land the quickly decisive and comparatively merciful warfare
of the sea.