Americans were surprised to find how completely it was overlooked in the contemporaneous European discussion--how general was the sympathy with the Spanish request for arbitration, and how naïf the apparently genuine surprise at the instant and unqualified refusal to consider it.
Reid reflects on the American surprise at European sympathy for Spain's request for arbitration during a conflict.
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They should persist in this claim respectfully, but firmly, taking care to bring no discredit upon it by their own action.
Ordinarily the simple performance of duty is so blessed of God, that men who live in the doing of it, are the best off, in all respects, even in this world.
They should strive for distinction by economy, by industry, by sobriety, by patient perseverance in well-doing, by constant improvement of religious instruction, and by the constant practice of Christian virtues.
It is my firm conviction, that suffrage is not only the best security for freedom, but the most potent agent of amelioration and civilization.