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THE MAKING OF A STATE
motives and feelings, a State debt is sometimes an effective background for political relations; and I negotiated with American financiers on the subject of eventual loans, signing an agreement for a first loan of 10,000,000 dollars before I sailed.
At noon on November 20 our boat, the “Carmania,” steamed out of New York harbour. On leaving the Vanderbilt Hotel I was surprised to find a detachment of American sailors awaiting me. They had been sent to render me my first military honours as President—those military honours that were henceforth to be paid as I came and went, everywhere and always, compelling me again and again to realize that I had ceased to be a private individual.
