"Was it really an important meeting, John ?" she asked.

And to her great surprise John answered, "It would have been hard to make it more important, Jane." "About old Akers! What nonsense!" "Akers gave us no hesitation.

He was elected without a dissenting vote.
Another subject was, however, opened which is of the most vital importance to cotton-spinners." "Whatever is to do, John ?" "America is likely to go to war with herself--the cotton-spinning States of the North, against the cotton-growing States of the South." "What folly!" "In a business point, yes, but there is something grander than business in it--an idea that is universally in the soul of man--the idea of freedom." "Yes, I have read about that quarrel, but men won't fight if it interferes with their business, with their money-making and spinning." "You are wrong, Jane.

Men of the Anglo-Saxon race and breeding will fight more stubbornly for an idea than for conquest, injury, or even for some favorite leader.

Most nations fight for some personality; the English race and its congeners fight for a principle or an idea.