Author Description

From the Introduction.The lectures hitherto given under the auspices of the Dodge Foundation for Citizenship have embodied the thought of distinguished men, famous in some field of public service, -in law, in state administration, or in church organization. These men, speaking from personal experience, have been able to present in didactic form, ethical standards of conduct. The teacher of American history will certainly affirm that he also has standards of conduct and he naturally turns to history itself, seeking in the experience of the past great principles of national progress. If it can be shown that the American people have been largely influenced in their development by moral principles, or by ideals, it is at least a safe presumption that ideals still animate this nation.I wish then to recall to your remembrance certain leading ideals, powerful in their influence upon our history, in the past one hundred years. Before undertaking this, however, permit me an explanation of the reason for my choice of subject. There is today a very decided tendency to seek purely material reasons for historical development, and especially so, apparently, in American history. The causes of the American Revolution are asserted to have been almost wholly commercial, to the exclusion of those ideals of political and religious freedom which our forefathers loudly voiced, and which their descendants have accepted as a creed. Upon this period of our history I do not propose to touch, but it is interesting to observe that the modern interpretation differs little from the contemporary accusations of British writers, -as in the words of Thomas Moore, expressing contempt for sordid motives hidden under the guise of liberty."Those vaunted demagogues, who nobly rose From England's debtors to be England's foes, Who could their monarch in their purse forget, And break allegiance, but to cancel debt."