f its soil are of virgin richness; its
mineral wealth is so great that its precious metals have affected the
monetary standards of the world, and its vast mineral and agricultural
wealth is as yet only partly developed. Vast as has been the production
of gold in California, its annual output is of less value than that of
wheat. In wheat, corn, and cotton, indeed, the product of this country
is simply stupendous; while, in addition to its gold and silver, it is a
mighty storehouse of coal, iron, copper, lead, petroleum, and many other
products of nature that are of high value to mankind.

In its progress towards its present condition, our country has been
markedly successful in two great fields of human effort, in war and in
peace. A brief preliminary statement of its success in the first of
these, and of the causes of its several wars, may be desirable here, as
introductory to their more extended consideration in the body of the
work. The early colonists had three enemies to contend with: the
original inhabitants of the land, the Spanish settlers in the South, and
the French in the North and West. Its dealings with the aborigines has
been one continuous series of conflicts, the red man being driven back
step by step until to-day he holds but a small fraction of his once
great territory. Yet the Indians are probably as numerous to-day as they
were originally, and are certainly better off in their present peaceful
and partly civilized condition than they were in their former savage and
warlike state.

The Spaniards were never numerous in this country, and were forced to
retire after a few conflicts of no special importance. Such was not the
case with the French, who were numerous and aggressive, and with whom
the colonists were at war on four successive occasions, the last being
that fierce conflict in which it was decided whether the Anglo-Saxon or
the French race should be dominant in this country. The famous battle on
the Plains of Abraham settled the question, and with the fall of Quebec
the power of France in America fell never to rise again.

A direct and almost an immediate consequence of this struggle for
dominion was the struggle for liberty between the colonists and the
mother-country. The oppressive measures of Great Britain led to a war of
seven years' duration, in which more clearly and decisively than ever
before the colonists showed their warlike spirit and political genius,
and whose outcome was the inde