Whither
no other souls of the earth's teeming millions come, thither these two
alone, of all the world beside, are, as if helplessly impelled, to
settle their quarrel by the death of one or the other. Thus singular and
inexplicable does it at first sight seem--this juxtaposition of freedom
and slavery on the shores of the new world.
On second thoughts, however, we shall find this apparent singularity and
mystery to disappear. We are surprised only because we see a familiar
fact under a new aspect, and do not at once recognize it. What we see
before us in this great event is only an underlying fact of every
individual's _personal_ experience, expanded into the gigantic
proportions of a _nation's_ experience. In every child of Adam are the
seeds of good and of evil. Side by side they lie together in the same
soil; they are nourished and developed together; they become more and
more marked and individualized with advancing years, swaying the child
and the youth, hither and thither, according as one or the other
prevails; until at some period in the full rationality of riper age
comes the deadly contest between the power of darkness and the power of
light--one or the other conquers; the man's character is fixed; and he
travels along the path he has chosen, upward or downward.
So it is now with the great collective individual, the American
republic. So it is and has been with every other nation. The powers of
good and evil contend no less in communities and nations than in the
individuals who compose them; and, according as one or the other
influence prevails in rulers or in ruled, have human civilization and
human welfare been advanced or retarded.
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