I advocate
preparation for war in order to avert war; and I should never
advocate war unless it were the only alternative to dishonor.
[Footnote: "Autobiography," p. 226.]
You will be able to see from what he did while he was President,
when he was in a position where he could have plunged the country
into war half a dozen times, whether these words were true, or
whether he was really the fire-eater which some of his enemies
insisted he was.
He secured from Congress nearly a million dollars, to permit the
Navy to engage in target-practice. To those who were alarmed at
such "waste," he remarked that gun-powder was meant to be burned,
and that sailors must learn to shoot, since in battle, the shots
that hit are the only ones that count. There is nothing wonderful
about such remarks. In looking back at them there seems to be
nothing wonderful about many things that he said and did. They are
merely examples of plain, common-sense, and it appears ridiculous
that anybody should have had to make such remarks, or to fight
hard to get such clearly necessary things done. Yet he did have to
fight for them. It had to be driven into the heads of some of the
men in Congress that it is not the proper use of gun-powder to
keep it stored up, until war is declared, then bring it out,
partly spoiled, and give it to soldiers and sailors, who for lack
of practice, do not know how to shoot straight.
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