Preface

This volume, examining as it does the foreign relations of the United States for almost the first century of its existence, necessarily cannot be comprehensive. Although I trust that I have not omitted major developments, I have felt free to neglect minor ones that, in my opinion, do not relate to the central theme.

That theme, as the title proclaims, is the creation of a republican empire stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific. Territorial expansion is, of course, a major part of the story, but so too is the establishment of independence, the creation of an idiosyncratic view of world politics, the framing of a republican constitution and republican patterns of diplomacy, the dangers posed to a fragile young nation by the wars of the French Revolution and Napoleon, and the defeat, in the Civil War, of the great effort to destroy the empire.

The reader will quickly discern that 1 do not write in a hagio-graphic spirit. Americans and their policymakers often stumbled, they were sometimes driven by ignoble forces and ignorance as well, and at least some even of the great successes might have been attained at less cost. This is an opinionated book, although 1 hope my opinions are grounded on fact, and 1 have not hesitated to pass negative judgments when 1 have felt that they were called for.

Major portions of this book are based on my own researches in archives here and abroad while preparing earlier writings. In those parts of the work, however, I have incorporated findings of others, particularly those who wrote after my own books appeared, and in the other sections I rely even more heavily on my professional colleagues. If this book has merit, it is largely to their credit.

More specifically, I am grateful to my colleagues Sidney Fine and

Shaw Livermore, Jr., and to an enthusiastic “amateur,” Warren E. Poitras, for their helpful readings of the manuscript. As always, for that service, but also for encouragement and support, I am especially indebted to my wife, Nancy. I also thank my youngest son, James, who frequently asked when I was going to finish my task.