- end_line
- 5861
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:36.271Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 5829
- text
- But in many things we Americans are driven to a rejection of the maxims
of the Past, seeing that, ere long, the van of the nations must, of
right, belong to ourselves. There are occasions when it is for America
to make precedents, and not to obey them. We should, if possible, prove
a teacher to posterity, instead of being the pupil of by-gone
generations. More shall come after us than have gone before; the world
is not yet middle-aged.
Escaped from the house of bondage, Israel of old did not follow after
the ways of the Egyptians. To her was given an express dispensation; to
her were given new things under the sun. And we Americans are the
peculiar, chosen people—the Israel of our time; we bear the ark of the
liberties of the world. Seventy years ago we escaped from thrall; and,
besides our first birthright—embracing one continent of earth—God has
given to us, for a future inheritance, the broad domains of the
political pagans, that shall yet come and lie down under the shade of
our ark, without bloody hands being lifted. God has predestinated,
mankind expects, great things from our race; and great things we feel
in our souls. The rest of the nations must soon be in our rear. We are
the pioneers of the world; the advance-guard, sent on through the
wilderness of untried things, to break a new path in the New World that
is ours. In our youth is our strength; in our inexperience, our wisdom.
At a period when other nations have but lisped, our deep voice is heard
afar. Long enough, have we been skeptics with regard to ourselves, and
doubted whether, indeed, the political Messiah had come. But he has
come in us, if we would but give utterance to his promptings. And let
us always remember that with ourselves, almost for the first time in
the history of earth, national selfishness is unbounded philanthropy;
for we can not do a good to America but we give alms to the world.
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