s proclaimed
itself invincible because its army could shake the earth with its tread
and its ships could fill the seas, but these nations are dead, and we
must build upon a different foundation if we would avoid their fate.

Carlyle, in the closing chapters of his "French Revolution" says
that thought is stronger than artillery parks and at last molds the
world like soft clay, and then he adds that back of thought is love.
Carlyle is right. Love is the greatest power in the world. The
nations that are dead boasted that their flag was feared; let it be
our boast that our flag is loved. The nations that are dead boasted
that people bowed before their flag, let us not be content until our
flag represents sentiments so high and holy that the opprest of every
land will turn their faces toward that flag and thank God that there
is one flag that stands for self-government and for the rights of man.

The enlightened conscience of our nation should proclaim as the
country's creed that "righteousness exalteth a nation" and that
justice is a nation's surest defense. If there ever was a nation it
is ours--if there ever was a time it is now--to put God's truth to
the test. With an ocean rolling on either side and a mountain range
along either coast that all the armies of the world could never climb
we ought not to be afraid to trust in "the wisdom of doing right."

Our government, conceived in liberty and purchased with blood, can be
preserved only by constant vigilance. May we guard it as our children's
richest legacy, for what shall it profit our nation if it shall gain the
whole world and lose "the spirit that prizes liberty as the heritage of
all men in all lands everywhere"?

End of Project Gutenberg's The Price of a Soul, by William Jennings Bryan

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