question of states' rights once and for all, and there has never again
been any serious question as to the proper status of states and Union.
American democracy has been found compatible with unity.

Nor has the decentralized character of American government kept us
from presenting a united front in foreign wars. The concentration of
war powers in the hands of President Lincoln during the Civil War was
matched by the temporary dictatorship wielded by President Wilson
during the World War. In both cases, the national executive became,
for the period of the emergency, as powerful and as efficient as the
executive of a highly centralized monarchy. This ability to exhibit
unity of control and singleness of purpose in war-time enables us to
claim for our form of government one of the most important assets of
the centralized monarchy.

39. THE SPIRIT OF PROGRESS.--Certainly one test of good government is
the extent to which it renders the masses of the people happy and
prosperous. American government has not yet exhausted the
possibilities of helpfulness, but one of the chief aims of our
political system is to encourage the individual in every pursuit which
is legal and honorable. Lord Bryce has called America the land of
Hope, because in spite of the defects of American government, a
feeling of buoyancy and optimism is characteristic of our political
institutions. America might also be called the land of Sane Endeavor,
for we lend force and justification to our optimism by consistently
working for the attainment of our ideals. To improve every condition
of American life, and yet to work in harmony with the principles of
constitutional government, that is our ideal. Progress must come
through authorized channels, for, as Abraham Lincoln has said, "a
majority, held in restraint by constitutional checks and limitations,