My task is done.

I have discussed with as much brevity as I could the three foundations of our ancient grudge against England: our school textbooks, our various controversies from the Revolution to the Alaskan boundary dispute, and certain differences in customs and manners.

Some of our historians to whom I refer are themselves affected by the ancient grudge.

You will see this if you read them; you will find the facts, which they give faithfully, and you will also find that they often (and I think unconsciously) color such facts as are to England's discredit and leave pale such as are to her credit, just as we remember the Alabama, and forget the Lancashire cotton-spinners.

You cannot fail to find, unless your anti-English complex tilts your judgment incurably, that England has been to us, on the whole, very much more friendly than unfriendly--if not at the beginning, certainly at the end of each controversy.