America as a Larger Britain
President “Patton,” of Princeton University, has lately defined the United States as being, in brief, “simply a larger Britain.” That is strongly confirmed by the following parallel presented by the Yale Review:— Townsend Revenue Act, 1767, one of the causes of the American Revolution. All the moneys that shall arise by the said duties . . . shall be applied . . . in making a more certain and adequate provision for the charge of the administration of justice and in the support of civil government, in such of the said colonies and plantations where it shall be found necessary; . . . the residue of such duties shall be paid into the receipt of his majesty’s exchequer, and shall be entered separate and apart from all other moneys paid or payable to his majesty; . . . and shall be there reserved, to be from time to time disposed of by Parliament toward defraying the necessary expenses of defending, protecting, and securing the British colonies in America. Porto Rican Bill, enacted by the American Congress, 1900. The duties and taxes collected in Porto Rico in pursuance of this Act, . . . and the gross amount of all collections of duties and taxes in the United States upon articles of merchandise coming from Porto Rico, shall not be covered into the general fund of the treasury, but shall be held as a separate fund, and shall be placed at the disposal of the president, to be used for the government and benefit of Porto Rico until the government of Porto Rico herein provided shall have been organized. And since the United States has thus become “a larger Britain,” how stands the nation with respect to the principles upon which the nation was founded, and for which it stood in the world?—Plainly these principles are abandoned. And when these principles are so abandoned, then, in the estimation of those who have abandoned those principles, what could have been the character, and what could have been the use, of the American Revolution? Yet the worst feature of this case is, not that the United States is a Britain either larger or smaller, but that it is so completely another Rome. If in this career of apostasy, the United States would stop with being as is Britain, the evil would not be so great; but when she becomes not only what Britain was, but goes on and becomes what Rome was, then the evil can be only such as came to Rome—irretrievable ruin.