Perhaps no more can be affirmed of any nation.
Mill boldly affirmed that there might be remote realms in space where 2+2 did not make 4 but some different total, even empiricists may hestitate to concur; and yet Mill's assertion is at least the most obvious empiricist reading of the situation.
The American people had sent food to the reconcentrados; President McKinley, while opposing recognition of the rebels, affirmed the possibility of intervention; Spain resented this attitude; and finally, in February 1898, the United States battleship " Maine " was blown up - by whom will probably never be known - in the harbour of Havana.
He was elated that, in his mind, his earlier identification was affirmed.