NA TIONA L GRO WTH A AD NA T10NA L CHA 11 A CTER 203 



the prepotent progeny have gone hack to vitalize the weaker ves- 

 sels with little loss of their own vigor, and each generation has 

 enjoyed that stirring exercise required to raise it above the ances- 

 tral level. More than all else, the generations have been lighted 

 on their way by Freedom's torch : they have been not only per- 

 mitted but constantly encouraged in the development of latent 

 power; they have been educated better than any contempo- 

 raries ; their hands and brains have been developed by the 

 most varied activities of any nation ; they are better fed, better 

 clothed, better housed than peoples of other lands and climes ; 

 their self-respect has been built into a structure so strong (as 

 shown by Texas and California) as to withstand eveiy shock ; 

 and through the combination of all these factors they have be- 

 come fit representatives of humanity, invincible in war yet gen- 

 erous to fallen foes, subjugators of lower nature, and conquerors 

 of the powers of primal darkness — in every way easy bearers of 

 the world's highest culture. 



Such are America and the Americans at this end of the nine- 

 teenth century. 



The progress of the American people has not been effected 

 without opposition from some of their own number. A few of 

 the original colonists deserted and fell back into bondage; the 

 Revolution produced some tories and traitors and more mere 

 doubters; the trans-Appalachian territory was a bone of con- 

 tention in the Continental Congress : the epoch-marking Dec- 

 laration and Constitution were opposed by a minority of the 

 nation-makers. Despite the popular approval, the acquisition 

 of Louisiana aroused some sentiments and words of antagonism, 

 which were repeated when Texas sought admission, again when 

 the Mexican accessions were under consideration, and once 

 more— with the same lugubrious intonation — during the present 

 year 1899; yet in every emergency the stronger have carried 

 the weaker, and progress has gone forward. 



At every stage even unto today the voice of the prophet of 

 evil has been heard. Stolid representatives of Britain's virile 

 stock, from Herbert Spencer to Sir Edwin Arnold, rail against the 

 unseeming celerity of movement of the t} r pical American, and 

 predict hospital or mad-house as his goal ; they forget that the 

 American but moves at a normal pace shaped through his more 

 varied ancestry and richer heritage of successful exercise than 

 his contemporaries, that there is less overwork in America than 



