The Chief Practical Use Of History Is

Perhaps The Most Typically American Place In America.

Of All The Differences Between The Old World And The New, This Is Perhaps The Most Salient. Half The Wars Of Europe, Half The Internal Troubles That Have Vexed European States... Have Arisen From Theological Differences Or From The Rival Claims Of Church And State. This Whole Vast Chapter Of Debate And Strife Has Remained Virtually Unopened In The United States. There Is No Established Church. All Religious Bodies Are Equal Before The Law, And Unrecognized By The Law, Except As Voluntary Associations Of Private Citizens.

There Is A Hearty Puritanism In The View Of Human Nature Which Pervades The Instrument Of 1787. It Is The Work Of Men Who Believed In Original Sin, And Were Resolved To Leave Open For Transgressors No Door Which They Could Possibly Shut.

I Have Often Asked Americans Wherein They Consider Their Freedom Superior To That Of The English, But Have Never Found Them Able To Indicate A Single Point In Which The Individual Is Worse Off In England As Regards His Private Civil Rights Or His General Liberty Of Doing And Thinking As He Pleases. They Generally Turn The Discussion To Social Equality, The Existence Of A Monarchy And Hereditary Titles And So Forth - Matters Which Are, Of Course, Quite Different From Freedom In Its Proper Sense.

Our Country Is Not The Only Thing To Which We Owe Our Allegiance. It Is Also Owed To Justice And To Humanity.