Such as it is, however, the American people are attached to this national tradition; and no part of it could be suddenly or violently transformed or mutilated without wounding large and important classes among the American people, both in their interests and feelings.

They have been accustomed to associate under certain conditions and on certain terms; and to alter in any important way those conditions and terms of association without fair notice, full discussion, a demonstrable need and a sufficient consent of public opinion, would be to drive a wedge into the substance of American national cohesion.

The American nation, no matter how much (or how little) it may be devoted to democratic political and social ideas, cannot uproot any essential element in its national tradition without severe penalties--as the American people discovered when they decided to cut negro slavery out of their national composition.
On the other hand, their national health and consistency were in the long run very much benefited by the surgical operation of the Civil War; and it was benefited because the War eradicated the most flagrant existing contradiction among the various parts of the American national tradition.

This instance sufficiently showed, consequently, that although nationality has its traditional basis, it is far from being merely a conservative principle.

At any one time the current of national public opinion embodies a temporary accommodation among the different traditional ideas, interests, conditions, and institutions.