People forget that the relationship between the US and Great Britain for the first 120 years was both difficult and adversarial. Deweys victory at Manila Bay, over one of Britain's oldest enemy's, caused a sudden and dramatic reevaluation of this relationship, culminating in a single paragraph, in the midst of a major speech given by Mr. Joseph Chamberlin, Colonial Secretary to Her Majesty, given at an assembly in Birmingham, on May 13 1898.
"What is our next duty? It is to establish and maintain bonds of permanent amity with our kinsman across the Atlantic. They are a powerful and generous nation. They speak our language, they are bred of our race. Their laws, their literature, their standpoint on every question are the same as ours; their feeling, their interest in the cause of humanity and the peaceful development of the world are identical with ours. I do not know what the future has in store for us, I do not know what arrangements may be possible with us, but this I know and feel--- that the closer, the more cordial, the fuller, and the more definite these arrangements are with the consent of both peoples, the better it will be for both and for the world. And I even go so far as to say that, as terrible as war may be, even war itself would be cheaply purchased if in a great and noble cause the Stars and Stripes and the Union Jack should wave together over an Anglo-American alliance. "
On May 24th, at a joint gathering in England, to celebrate Queen Victoria's 79th birthday, a British Regimental Surgeon stood up and proposed a toast to the 2 flags displayed side by side.
"Their colors never run."