New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1907-04-26
JAMESTOWN.

There is a peculiar fitness in the manner OF
opening the jamestown celebration. The feat
ure Of the day is a great display OF sea power.
And jamestown prominently owed its origin
to the establishment of sea power. A Few years
ago Great Britain concentrated the thlrd cen
tenary of the defeat Of the Spanish Armada.
To that commemOration tOday's festivities form
an historical and logical complement The de-
feat of the Armada secured the British Isles
against invasion. 1t also made it possible for
the British with reasonable degree of secur-
Itv. TO plant colonies in the New World. A
hundred and ten years before an English ship
had first visited the American shores, and dur
ing all those years must believe the English
people To have been enthusiastically adventur-
Gus and enterprsing. Yet they planted no col
ones here Even as late as 1888, five years be
fore the Armada Gilbert nominally annexed
Newfoundland to the British Empire, but
planted no colony there, and for years there
after the vessels of other nations were more
numerous than English in those waters. Two
years later Raleigh tried in vain TO plant
colony on the island of Roanoke Thus for
more than Il century the greatest colonizing
nation in the world was compelled to remain a
practically inactive spectator Of the widespread
adventures and acquisitions of its rivals. 1t
was not until after the epoch making event Of
1888 that the New World opened 10 the
race which was destined TO become it's chief Oc-
cupant and master
For confirmation of this fact we have merely
10 look at the subsequent record Of British col
OnizatiOn. In the period of almost century be-
fore the Armada only few furtive visits were
made 10 the American continent and only one
attempt at colonization was made, and that
vain one. In an equal space after it the whole
North American coast from Maine TO Cape Hat
teras was colonized by the British Such a
result was made possible by nothing else than
British mastery of the sea. Noteworthy. too,
is the relation Of jamestown TO the expansion
Of British dominion the land At no other
point on the whole coast was access to the re-
gion beyond the Alleghanies so easy or the de-
STABILITY of II so obvious. Had the expansion
isl initiative beer left 10 the cOonists Of Massa-
chusettS invasion of the Ohio Valley would have
been deferred until too late, and the coast set
Elements would have had TO fight not 10 gain a
empire but to maintain their narrow and
precarious footing against great inland power.
It the victory of 1888 that made James
town possible, and it was the settlement of
jamestown that made possible the enterprises
Of SpottIswoOd and Dinwlddie.
jamestown was thus at once the offspring Of
conquest and the parent of other cOnquests. In
later years the adjacent waters were the scene
IF epoch making struggles. Just off the capes
was fought the fight which did not, indeed, per-
nscently win control of the sea for the Franco
American alliance, but which did so for a suf-
dc;ent time 20 assure the browning victory at
Yorktown, while right In Hampton Roads Oc-
CURED the duel which secured TO this nation
sea power n its own Civil War and gave notice
sor TIE transformation Of the navies Of the
world In view of these things a celebration
OF the jamestown tercentenary without a great
naval display would have been sngularly inau-
proprtate. Yet by no means the least impress
Sive feature Of the occasion is this: That these
lavies Of many lands, including three with
which America was once at war and others
which at times have been at war among them
selves, now meet IN those historic waters In
perfect peace and friendship and with a pros
Qect that those 5enefcent conditions will be per
petuated jamestown is ST.. identified with sea
power. but 1t is a sea power which contains
within itself the promise and the potency OF
lasting peace.