Even the worst enemies of our national integrity, such as the Southern planters, offer in some respects an edifying political example to a disinterested democracy.
Nations do not have to make serious mistakes in order to learn valuable lessons.

Every national action, no matter how trivial, which is scrutinized with candor, may contribute to the stock of national intellectual discipline--the result of which should be to form a constantly more coherent whole out of the several elements in the national composition--out of the social and economic conditions, the stock of national opinions, and the essential national ideal.

And it is this essential national ideal which makes it undesirable for the national consciousness to dwell too much on the past or to depend too much upon the lessons of experience alone.

The great experience given to a democratic nation must be just an incorrigible but patient attempt to realize its democratic ideal--an attempt which must mold history as well as hang upon its lessons.

The function of the patriotic political intelligence in relation to the fulfillment of the national Promise must be to devise means for its redemption--means which have their relations to the past, their suitability to the occasion, and their contribution towards a step in advance.