Had its author said: "The Declaration of Independence was signed by Christopher Columbus on Washington's birthday during the siege of Vicksburg in the presence of Queen Elizabeth and Judas Iscariot," his statement would have been equally veracious, and more striking.
As to Winston Churchill's declaration that Great Britain will not surrender her control of the seas, I am as little shocked by that as I should be were our Secretary of the Navy to declare that in no circumstances would we give up control of the Panama Canal.

The Panama Canal is our carotid artery, Great Britain's navy is her jugular vein.
It is her jugular vein in the mind of her people, regardless of that new apparition, the submarine.

I was not shocked that Great Britain should decline Mr.Wilson's invitation that she cut her jugular vein; it was the invitation which kindled my emotions; but these were of a less serious kind.
The last letter that I shall give is from an American citizen of English birth.
"As a boy at school in England, I was taught the history of the American Revolution as J.R.Green presents it in his Short History of the English People.

The gist of this record, as you doubtless recollect, is that George III being engaged in the attempt to destroy what there then was of political freedom and representative government in England, used the American situation as a means to that end; that the English people, in so far as their voice could make itself heard, were solidly against both his English and American policy, and that the triumph of America contributed in no small measure to the salvation of those institutions by which the evolution of England towards complete democracy was made possible.

Washington was held up to us in England not merely as a great and good man, but as an heroic leader, to whose courage and wisdom the English as well as the American people were eternally indebted....
"Pray forgive so long a letter from a stranger.