30 American Ideals 



strongly felt as antagonistic to the worst tendency 

 of the age. The great writers, who have written in 

 prose or verse, have done much for us. The great 

 orators, whose burning words on behalf of liberty, 

 of union, of honest government, have rung through 

 our legislative halls, have done even more. Most of 

 all has been done by the men who have spoken to us 

 through deeds and not words, or whose words have 

 gathered their especial charm and significance be- 

 cause they came from men who did speak in deeds. 

 A nation's greatness lies in its possibility of achieve- 

 ment in the present, and nothing helps it more than 

 the consciousness of achievement in the past. 



