He has no gigantic army behind him, no great empire to support
him. He stands alone with a small peasant people, and is a match for us by
mere force of genius. I spoke to him--he drove me into a corner." Kruger's
great ability, as delineated by Bismarck, was indisputable, and a man with
less of it might have been President and might have avoided the war, but
only at a loss to national interests. The President had one aim and one
goal, his country's independence, and all the force of his genius was
directed toward the attainment of that end. He tried to secure his
country's total independence by peaceable means, but he had planted the
seed of that desire so deeply in the minds of his countrymen that when it
sprouted they overwhelmed him and he was driven into war against his will.
Kruger would not have displaced diplomacy with the sword, but his burghers
felt that peaceful methods of securing their independence were of no
avail, and he was powerless to resist their wishes. He did not lead the
Boers into war; they insisted that only war would give to them the relief
they desired, and he followed under their leadership. When the meetings of
the Volksraad immediately preceding the war were held, it was not Paul
Kruger who called for war; it was the representatives of the burghers, who
had been instructed by their constituents to act in such a manner. When
the President saw that his people had determined to have war, he was
leader enough to make plans which might bring the conflict to a successful
conclusion, and he chose a moment for making a declaration that he
considered opportune.
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