phical interests have their leaders
and spokesmen, that much Congressional legislation is determined by the
contests, triumphs, or compromises between the rival sections, and that
the real federal relations of the United States are shaped by the
interplay of sectional with national forces rather than by the relation
of State and Nation. As time goes on and the nation adjusts itself more
durably to the conditions of the differing geographic sections which
make it up, they are coming to a new self-consciousness and a revived
self-assertion. Our national character is a composite of these
sections.[322:1]

Obviously in attempting to indicate even a portion of the significant
features of our recent history we have been obliged to take note of a
complex of forces. The times are so close at hand that the relations
between events and tendencies force themselves upon our attention. We
have had to deal with the connections of geography, industrial growth,
politics, and government. With these we must take into consideration the
changing social composition, the inherited beliefs and habitual attitude
of the masses of the people, the psychology of the nation and of the
separate sections, as well as of the leaders. We must see how these
leaders are shaped partly by their time and section, and how they are in
part original, creative, by virtue of their own genius and initiative.
We cannot neglect the moral tendencies and the ideals. All are related
parts of the same subject and can no more be properly understood in
isolation than the movement as a whole can be understood by neglecting
some of these important factors, or by the use of a single method of
investigation. Whatever be the truth regarding European history,
American history is chiefly concerned with social forces, shaping and
reshaping under the conditions of a nation changing as it adjusts to its
environment. And this environment progressively reveals new aspects of
itself, exerts new influences, and calls out new social organs and
functions.

I have undertaken this rapid survey of recent history for two purposes.
First, because it has seemed fitting to emphasize the significance of
American development since the passing of the frontier, and, second,
because in the observation of present conditions we may find assistance
in our study of the past.

It is a familiar doctrine that each age studies its history anew and
with interests determined by the spirit of the time. Each