centralized
tyranny. We are but a few years removed from its curse. As we grow in
years, the temptation to make Washington the gilded Capital of an Empire
becomes more and more apparent. Unless we control this tendency to lapse
into the past, we are lost and the story of our fallen Republic will be
but one more added to the failures of history. Unless we can preserve
the sovereignty of our States, the Union will become an Empire, not a
Republic of republics. It's a difficult thing for men to govern
themselves, though they can do it better than anyone else has ever done
it for them. We are making this wonderful experiment here in the new
world. The fate of unborn millions hangs on its success. You're done
with self and self-seeking. Ambition is a dream that is passed. Good!
Lay your life in unselfish sacrifice on the altar of your country. Only
the man who has given up ambition is fit for great leadership. He alone
dares to seek and know and speak the Truth!"

The tired spirit rose with a new view of human life, its aim and
purpose. For eight years he buried himself in the library on his
brother's estate. Through the long winter nights the two brilliant minds
fought over in friendly contests the battles of the ages until the
passion for Truth grew into the one purpose of a great soul.

When the first rumblings of the storm that was to shake a continent
broke over the Republic, he stepped forth to take his place in the world
of action--the best equipped, most thoroughly trained, most perfectly
poised man who had ever entered the arena of American politics.

His rise was brilliant and unprecedented. In his first contest he met
the foremost orator of the age, Sergeant Prentiss, and vanquished him on
his own ground. In two years he took his seat in Congress, the favorite
son of Mississippi.

He had scarcely begun his career, as a lawmaker, when war was declared
against Mexico. He resigned his high office, raised a regiment and once
more found himself a soldier under the orders of stern old Zachary
Taylor.

On his first battle field at the head of his Mississippi regiment, he
planted the flag of the Republic on the Grand Plaza of Monterey. And in
the supreme crisis of the battle of Buena Vista, with the blood
streaming from his wounds, he led his men in a charge against
overwhelming odds, turned the tide from defeat to victory and gave the
Presidency to the man who had denied to him his daughter's hand.

He hobbled bac