Few Americans will deny that it is the manifest destiny of the United
States to demonstrate that a democratic republic is the best form of
government yet devised, and that the ideals and institutions of the
great republic taken together must and do work out in a prosperous,
contented, peaceful, and righteous people; and also to exercise, through
precept and example, an influence for good among the nations of the
world. That destiny seems to us brighter and more certain of realization
to-day than ever before. It is true that in population, in wealth, in
knowledge, in national efficiency generally, we have reached a place far
beyond the farthest hopes of the founders of the Republic. Are the
causes which have led to our marvellous development likely to be
repeated indefinitely in the future, or is there a reasonable
possibility, or even a probability, that conditions may arise which will
check our growth?
Danger to a nation comes either from without or from within. In the
first great crisis of our history, the Revolution, another people
attempted from without to halt the march of our destiny by refusing to
us liberty.
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