If there existed then a day when great men and great measures were
to be born, certainly there lay ready a stage fit for any mighty
drama--indeed, commanding it. It was a young world withal, indeed
a world not even yet explored, far less exploited, so far as were
concerned those vast questions which, in its dumb and blind way,
humanity both sides of the sea then was beginning to take up.
America scarce more than a half century ago was for the most part a
land of query, rather than of hope.
Not even in their query were the newer lands of our country then
alike. We lay in a vast chance-medley, and never had any country
greater need for care and caution in its councils. By the grace of
the immortal gods we had had given into our hands an enormous area
of the earth's richest inheritance, to have and to hold, if that
might be; but as yet we were not one nation. We had no united
thought, no common belief as to what was national wisdom. For
three quarters of a century this country had grown; for half a
century it had been divided, one section fighting against another
in all but arms.
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