Whether that be true or not. these colonies probably could not have held their place in the conflicts of the world except for rapid additions to their numbers. Only a few years went by until our population had doubled. It doubled. of course. out of the populations of foreign countries that had come herethe outcast. the refugee. the man fleeing from adversity. most of them coining here in paupers rags or sent over by the bounty of other men. but when they came they became a part of the sinew and bone and soul of America. so that when the War of 181.2 came around we found ourselves much more able to defend than we would have been if we had possessed only the 2.500.000 people who were here at the close of the Revolutionary War. From that day on these people came and continued to come. and the alarmist stood and continued to sound his alarm. Each shipload of people who came to our shores at once brought to the surface the fears of these people.