Contents

Preface xvii PART ONE: THE AMERICAN SETTING

CHAPTER 1. THE PEOPLE 3 1. The Influence of the New World on the Old: John R. Seeley 5 2. "The Disinherited, the Dispossessed": Stephen Vincent Benet 8 3. The Inhabitants of Colonial Virginia: Robert Beverley 10 4. The Coming of the Pilgrims: William Bradford 12 5. "This Is the Door Thou Hast Opened": Edward Johnson 15 6. "What Is an American?": Jean de Crevecoeur 17 7. The "Despised Races": Robert Louis Stevenson 21 8. "The Souls of Black Folk": W. E. B. Du Bois 25 9. A Map of New York: Jacob A. Riis 30 10. "I Lift My Lamp Beside the Golden Door": Emma Lazarus 32 11. A Test of Opportunity, Not of Character: 33 12. Putting up the Bars: Commissioner-General of Immigration 35 13. The American Language: Henry L. Mencken 39 14. "The Three Southwestern Peoples": Paul Horgan 42 15. The Twentieth-Century American: Henry Steele Commager 46 CHAPTER 2. THE LAND 54 1. The Spaciousness and Diversity of the American Scene: ~kfu~~ ~ 2. The Rhythm of Flowing Waters: Constance Lindsay Skinner 59 3. "The Extreme Fruitfulness of That Country": Robert Beverley 62 4. "A Hideous and Desolate Wilderness": William Bradford 67 5. "American Areas without a Trace of Europe's Soil": Walt Whitman ll9 6. The Significance of the Frontier: Frederick Jackson Turner 72 vi Contents vii 7. A Democratic Land System 80 A. "The Common Benefit of the United States": Resolu· tion of Congress on Public Lands 81 B. The Land Ordinance of 1785 82 8. A Belt of Trees for the Arid West: Ferdinand V. Hayden 84 9. The Arid Regions of the West: John W. Powell 86 10. Forests, Prosperity, and Progress: Carl Schurz 88 11. "From Plymouth Rock to Ducktown": Stuart Chase 92 12. A Program of Conservation : 98 13. The TVA and the Seamless Web of Nature: David E. Lilienthal 102

PART TWO: PRINCIPLES, TRADITIONS AND INSTITUTIONS CHAPTER 3. FUNDAMENTALS OF THE AMERICAN POUTICAL SYSTEM 109

1. The Mayflower Compact III 2. The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut II2 3. An Early Assertion of Colonial Independence: ' Declaration of Liberties II5 4. The Origin and Nature of Government: John Locke II6 5. Natural Law and Democracy: John Wise 120 6. Government Is Limited 123 A. "Parliament Cannot Make Two and Two Five": James O~ I~ B. "In All Free States the Constitution Is Fixed": Samuel Adams 124 7. The Declaration of Independence: 125 8. Revolution Legalized 127 A. "How Can the People Institute Governments?": John Adams 127 B. Concord Demands a Constitutional Meeting: Resolu· tions of the Concord Town Meeting 128 9. The Virginia Bill of Rights: George Mason 129 10. The Constitution: Preamble and Bill of Rights 132 11. The Northwest Ordinance 135 12. The Principle of Equality in American Society: Charles Pinckney 138

.~ Vlll Contents 13. What Is a Republic? 140 A. "A Government Which Derives All Its Powers from the People": 141 B. "It Is Representation Ingrafted upon Democracy": 141 14. Washington's Farewell Address: George Washington 143 15. "We Are All Republicans, We Are All Federalists": Thomas JefJerson 147 16. "A Constitution Framed for Ages to Come": John Marshall 150 17. The Gettysburg Address: 152 18. Liberty, the Necessary Condition of Progress: Henry George 153 19. "There Is Nothing Mysterious about Democracy": Franklin D. Roosevelt 155 20. "This I Deeply Believe": David E. Lilienthal 158 CHAPTER 4. mE MACHINERY OF GOVERNMENT 161 1. How to Balance Classes and Factions in a Republic: James Madison 163 2. Davy Crockett Runs for the Legislature: David Crockett 171 3. Andrew Jackson Is Inaugurated: Mrs. Samuel Harrison Smith 173 4. The Spoils System 176 A. Rotation in Office: Andrew Jackson 176 B. The Spoils of Victory: William Learned Marcy 177 5. "Troubles of a Candidate": Peter Finley Dunne 178 6. "Honest Graft and Dishonest Graft": William L. Riordan 180 7. "Boss Pendergast": Ralph Coghlan 182 8. Invisible Government: Elihu Root 185 9. "Let's Go Back to the Spoils System": John Fischer 188 10. Political Parties in America: Henry Steele Commager 191 11. Public and Political Associations in the United States: Alexis de Tocqueville 196 12. "It Is of the Very Essence of Americanism": George San- tayana 201

CHAPTER 5. DEMOCRACY, OR MAJORITY RULE AND MINORITY RIGHT' 204 1. "Cherish the Spirit of the People": Thomas JefJerson 207 2. "It Is Essential to Liberty that the Rights of the Rich Be Secured": John Adams 208 Contents ix 3. "The Combinations of Civil Society Are Not Like Those of a Set of Merchants": 210 4. "We Are Descending into a Licentious Democracy": Fisher Ames 212 5. "Dare We Flatter Ourselves That We Are a Peculiar Pe~ pie?": James Kent 215 6. The Tyranny of the Majority: Alexis de Tocqueville 216 7. The Numerical and the Concurrent Majorities: John C. Calhoun 222 8. "Democracy Furnishes Its Own Checks and Balances": Henry Steele Commager 225 9. "The People Is Firm and Tranquil": George Bancroft 227 10. "Every American Is an Apostle of the Democratic Creed": Alexander Mackay 229 11. The Real Meaning of the Principles of the Declaration 232 A. "They Meant to Set up a Standard for a Free Society": Abraham Lincoln 233 B. "To Lift Artificial Weights from All Shoulders": Abra- ham Lincoln 234 12. "Did You Suppose That Democracy Was Only for Poli- tics?": Walt Whitman 235 13. "The Eternal Mob": Henry L. Mencken 237 14. "Democracy Is Not Dying": Franklin D. Roosevelt 241 15. The Faults and Strength of American Democracy 244 A. The True Faults of American Democracy: James Bryce 245 B. The Strength of American Democracy: James Bryce 247

CHAPTER 6. STATE AND NATION 252 1. "With Our Fate Will the Destiny of Unborn Millions Be Involved": George Washington 254 2. The Constitution Partly Federal, Partly National: James ~~~ ~ 3. "A Rising, Not a Setting Sun": Benjamin Franklin 261 4. Strict or Broad Construction? 264 A. "Lace Them up Straitly within the Enumerated Pow- ers": Thomas Jefferson 265 B. "There Are Implied as Well as Express Powers": Alex- ander Hamilton 269

~ x Contents 5. The Constitution a Compact 273 A. Kentucky Resolutions: Thomas Jefferson 273 B. Virginia Resolutions: James Madison 275 6. "The Origin of This Government and the Source of Its Pow- er": Daniel Webster 276 7. "A Compact Is a Binding Obligation": Andrew Jackson 280 8. "A Separation of These States Is a Moral Impossibility": Daniel Webster 283 9. "The Fictitious Idea of One People of the United States": Jefferson Davis 286 10. "The Union Is Older than the Constitution": Abraham Lincoln 289 11. The Fourteenth Amendment 292 12. "Government at the Service of Humanity" : Woodrow Wilson 292 13. Broadening the Commerce Power: Charles E. Hughes 297 14. "The Obsolescence of Federalism": Harold J. Laski 302 15. Central Policy and Local Administration: David E. Lilienthal 307

CHAPTER 7. THE AND RUGGED 315 l. True and False Principles of Economy in the Bay Colony: John Winthrop 318 2. An Early Program of Social Security: Thomas Paine 320 3. "All Communities Are Apt to Look to Government for Too Much": Martin Van Buren 323 4. Affectation with a Public Interest: Morrison Waite 324 5. "Liberty, Inequality, Survival of the Fittest": William. Graham Sumner 327 6. The Courts as Guardians of the Status Quo 330 A. "Such Governmental Interferences Disturb the Social Fabric": Robert Earl 331 B. "The Police Power Will Have Been Widened to a Great and Dangerous Degree": George Sutherland 332 7. "The Doctrine of Laissez-Faire Is Unsafe in Politics and Unsound in Morals": Richard T. Ely 335 8. Government Is But One of the Tools of Man: Lester F. Ward 337 Contents xi 9. The Courts Accept Governmental Regulation 342 A. "The Fourteenth Amendment Does Not Enact Her- bert Spencer's Social Statics": Oliver Wendell Holmes 342 B. "The Liberty Safeguarded Is Liberty in a Social Or­ ganization Which Requires Protection": Charles Evans Hughes 344 10. "The Old Order Changeth": Woodrow Wilson 346 11. The Philosophy of Rugged Individualism: Herbert Hoover 349 12. "Whether Men Serve Government or Whether Government Exists to Serve Men": Franklin D. Roosevelt 351 13. The Succeeds the : Harry S. Truman 357 14. "The Agenda of ": Walter Lippmann 360 CHAPTER 8. LIBERTY AND ORDER 366 1. The Massachusetts Body of Liberties : Nathaniel Ward 369 2. "A True Picture of a Commonwealth": Roger Williams 371 3. "The Public Judgment Will Correct False Reasoning": Thomas Jefferson 373 4. On the Murder of Elijah Lovejoy: Wendell Phillips 374 5. The Duty of Civil Disobedience: 379 6. Huck and Jim on the Raft: Mark Twain 384 7. The Constitutional Limits of Free Speech 389 A. "A Clear and Present Danger": Oliver Wendell Holmes 390 B. "Free Trade in Ideas": Oliver Wendell Holmes 392 8. "It Is the Function of Speech to Free Men from the Bondage of Irrational Fear": Louis D. Brandeis 394 9. "To the End That Changes May Be Obtained by Peaceful Means": Charles Evans Hughes 395 10. "To An Anxious Friend": William Allen White 3~ 11. "The Indispensable Opposition": Walter Lippmann 400 12. "You Cannot Create Loyalty by Compulsion": Zechariah Chafee, Jr. 403 13. The Loyalty Program: Harry S. Truman 407 14. "Who Is Loyal to America?": Henry Steele Commager 4IO 15. "Due Notice to the FBI": Bernard De Voto 417 16. Civil Rights in 's Capital: Robert Carr 424 17. A Universal Declaration of Human Rights: General Assem- bly of the U nited Nations 430

I xii Contents CHAPTER 9. THE TRADITION OF CHANGE AND REFORM 436 1. Every Generation Has a Right to Make Its Own Constitution 439 A. "Some Men Look at Constitutions with Sanctimonious Reverence": Thomas Jefferson 439 B. "All Eyes Are Open to the Rights of Man": Thomas Jefferson 441 2 The Declaration of Independence and the Spirit of Reform 443 A. "The Standard of Emancipation Is Now Unfurled": William Lloyd Garrison 443 B. "All Men and Women Are Created Equal": Elizabeth C. Stanton and Susan B. Anthony 445 3. The Ferment of Reform: 447 4. Man the Reformer: 451 5. The Search for Utopia 453 A. The Constitution of the Brook Farm Association 454 B. Blithedale: Nathaniel Hawthorne 456 6. "We Meet in the Midst of a Nation Brought to the Verge of Ruin": Ignatius Donnelly 458 7. "We Need an Annual Supplement to the Decalogue": Ed~ ward A. Ross 463 8. Portrait of the American as Reformer 466 A. at Hull House: Jane Addams 466 B. Mayor Jones Preaches the Golden Rule: Brand Whit- lock 468 C. Lincoln Steffens Is Won over by Bob LaFollette: Lin~ coin Steffens 470 D. "To Live in Mankind Is Far More Than to Live in a Name": Vachel Lindsay 472 9. "The Old Formulas Do Not Fit Present Problems": W ood~ row Wilson 473 10. "Wanted: American Radicals": James Bryant Conant 479 11. Not a Revolution But a New Deal: Henry Steele Commager 486 CHAPTER 10. CHURCH AND STATE 493 1. Religious Conformity in the Bay Colony: John Winthrop 495 2. "God Requireth Not a Uniformity of Religion": Roger Wil~ ~~ m 3. Maryland Toleration Act 501 4. "The Great Case of Liberty of Conscience": William Penn 502 •

Contents xiii 5. "All Christians Are Equally Entitled to Protection": Consti.. tution of Maryland 506 6. "If We Contract the Bonds of Religious Freedom, No Name Will Too Severely Reproach Our Folly": James Madison 507 7. Virginia Statute of Religious Liberty: Thomas Jefferson 514 8. The Socialization of Christianity 517 A. "The Social Creed of the Churches" : Federal Council of Churches 517 B. "A Christian Social Order": Edwin O'Hara 518 9. "My Creed as an American Catholic": Alfred E. Smith 520 10. "A Wall Between Church and State ... High and Impreg.. nable": Hugo Black 527 11. Religious Freedom and the Flag Salute 53! A. "The Flag Is the Symbol of Our National Unity: Felix Frankfurter 532 B. "No Official, High or Petty, Can Prescribe What Shall Be Orthodox in • . • Matters of Opinion": Robert Jackson 538 CHAPTER 11. SCHOOL AND SOCIETY 546 1. "To Advance Learning and Perpetuate It to Posterity" 548 2. "That Learning May Not Be Buried in the Grave of Our Fathers" 550 A. "Ye Ould Deluder, Satan": Massachusetts School Law of 1647 551 B. "A Grand Mental and Moral Experiment": Mann 551 3. "To Render the People Safe, Their Minds Must Be 1m.. proved": Thomas Jefferson 553 4. "Why Send an American Youth to Europe for Education?": Thomas Jefferson 556 5. The Education Proper in a Republic: Benjamin Rush 559 6. The Education of Women: Catherine Beecher 563 7. "Education Is the Balance Wheel of the Social Machinery": Horace Mann 566 8. "The Scholar Is to Think with the Sage But Talk with Common Men": Theodore Parker 568

~ xiv Contents 9. The First Great Public Library 571 A. "The Increase and Perpetuation of Public Libraries": Proposed Massachusetts Library Act 572 B. "If It Can Be Done Anywhere, It Can Be Done Here, in Boston": Trustees of the Public Library of the City of Boston 573 10. The Laboratory of Democracy 5']6 A. School Life on the Prairie: Hamlin Garland 576 B. The Beginnings of Tuskegee: Booker T. Washington 578 C. The Promised Land Fulfills Its Promise: Mary Antin 580 11. "To Promote the Liberal ... Education of the Industrial Classes": T he Morrill Act 582 12. "The Worthy Fruit of Academic Culture Is an Open Mind": Charles W. Eliot 583 13. "Make Each One of Our Schools an Embryonic Community Life": 586 14. "The Chief Characteristic of the Higher Learning Is Disor- der": Robert Maynard Hutchins 589 15. The Nature and Function of Academic Freedom 592 A. "The Fortress of Our Liberties": James Bryant Conant 592 B. "Subversion from Within by the Whittling Away of the Very Pillars of Our Freedom": Judge Peek 596 16. "Libraries Are the Vessels in Which the Seed Corn for the Future Is Stored"; Dorothy Canfield Fisher 599

PART THREE: AMERICA AS A WORLD POWER CHAPTER 12. PEACE AND WAR 605 1. Lexington and Concord 609 A. American Account of the Battle of Lexington: The Provincial Congress 609 B. "Concord Hymn": Ralph Waldo Emerson 6II 2. "Had This Day Been Wanting, the World Had Never Seen the Last Stage of Perfection": George Washington 6II 3. "I Shall Never Surrender Nor Retreat": William Barret Travis 616 4. The Character of the American Soldier: William F. G. Shanks 617 Contents xv 5. General McClellan Tries to Take Charge of the War: George B. McClellan 619 6. "In Victory Magnanimity, in Peace Good Will" 622 A. "With Malice toward None, with Charity for All": Abraham Lincoln 622 B. "Avoid the U~eless Sacrifice": Robert E. Lee 624 C. "Bury Contention with the War": Robert E. Lee 624 7. "The Most Fearful Atrocities ... That Was Ever Heard Of": E. W. Wynkoop 626 8. "The Hay Fleet": Finley Peter Dunne 628 9. "Turn Not Their New-World Victories to Gainl": William Vaughn Moody 631 10. "Proper Language for a Subordinate to Use to a Superior": Henry L. Stimson and McGeorge Bundy 634 11. "A Great Principle Was Never Lost So Casually": Eugene V. Rostow 637 12. "The Moral Equivalent of War": William James 642 CHAPTER 13. ISOLATION, INTERVENTION AND WORLD POWER 648 1. The Bases of Isolationism 653 A. "The Insidious Wiles of Foreign Influence": George Washington 654 B. "America Has a Hemisphere to Itself": Thomas Jefferson 655 2. The Monroe Doctrine 656 A. The Monroe Doctrine: James Monroe 656 B. "The American System of Government Is Entirely Different from That of Europe": James K. Polk 658 3. "Turning the Eyes Outward Instead of Inward": Alfred Mahan 660 4. The Acquisition of the Philippines: William McKinley 665 5. The Open Door in China: John Hay 667 6. "God . . . Has Made Us the Master Organizers of the World": Albert J. Beveridge 670 7. The Platt Amendment 673 A. Treaty with Cuba, Embodying the Platt Amendment 673 B. Abrogation of the Platt Amendment: U. S. Statutes at Large 674 8. "We Must Prove Ourselves ... Friends ... upon Terms of Equality and Honor": Woodrow Wilson 676 xvi Contents 9. The Policy of the Good Neighbor: Franklin D. Roosevelt 678 10. "The World Must Be Made Safe for Democracy": Woodrow Wilson 680 11. The Fourteen Points: Woodrow Wilson 683 12. "We Do Not Profess to Be Champions of Liberty and Then Consent to See Liberty Destroyed": Woodrow Wilson 687 13. A Quarantine Against Aggressor Nations: Franklin D. Roosevelt 692 14. The Four Freedoms: Franklin D. Roosevelt 694 15. Charter: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill 698 16. "The True Goal We Seek Is ... Above and Beyond the Ugly Field of Battle": Franklin D. Roosevelt 700 17. "Power Must Be Linked with Responsibility": Franklin D. Roosevelt 702 18. The Abiding Principles of American Foreign Policy: Harry S. Truman 705 19. "The Greatest Opportunity Ever Offered a Single Nation": Henry L. Stimson 706 20. The Control of Atomic Energy 713 A. "A Choice Between the Quick and the Dead": Bernard Baruch 714 B. "One of Those Great Mountain Peaks of History": David E. Lilienthal 719 21. "To the Rescue and Liberation of the Old" 72I A. The Truman Doctrine: Harry S. Truman 722 B. The Marshall Plan: George C. Marshall 723 C. Point Four: Harry S. Truman 725 22. The Atlantic Community 726 A. "A Great Community ... from Which No Member Can Be Excluded and None Can Resign": Walter Lippmann 727 B. The American Destiny: Walter Lippmann 731