Men are saying that if we should go to war upon
either side there will be a divided America--an abominable libel of
ignorance. America is not all of it vocal just now. It is vocal in
spots.
But I for one have a complete and abiding faith in that great silent
body of Americans who are not standing up and shouting and expressing
their opinions just now, but are waiting to find out and support the
duty of America. I am just as sure of their solidity and of their
loyalty and of their unanimity, if we act justly, as I am that the
history of this country has at every crisis and turning point
illustrated this great lesson.
We are the mediating nation of the world. I do not mean that we
undertake not to mind our own business and to mediate where other people
are quarreling. I mean the word in a broader sense. We are compounded of
the nations of the world. We mediate their blood, we mediate their
traditions, we mediate their sentiments, their tastes, their passions;
we are ourselves compounded of those things.
We are, therefore, able to understand all nations; we are able to
understand them in the compound, not separately, as partisans, but
unitedly, as knowing and comprehending and embodying them all.
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