It signifies steersmanship, and implies control, guidance, direction, and, obviously, foresight.

Now, let us see how this word is used by those who are supposed to instruct public opinion.
The settlement of the Irish Question was hailed as a triumph of British statesmanship.

One of the Sunday newspapers of the higher order acclaimed Mr.Lloyd George as the greatest statesman in the history of England and perhaps the greatest man in the world.

But it needs only a little thought, only a moment's reflection, to realise that this welcome settlement was a triumph, not of statesmanship, but of murderous brutality.

There would have been no paens if there had been no volleys, no triumph if there had been no violence.
Statesmanship was defeated in the eighties, and those who defeated it, those who exalted prejudice and racialism and intolerance above rationality and foresight, are now among those whom the world salutes as immortal statesmen.