That is a persistent misunderstanding of my opponents. Everywhere, along
with the reprobation of Government intrusion into various spheres where
private activities should be left to themselves, I have contended that
in its special sphere, the maintenance of equitable relations among
citizens, governmental action should be extended and elaborated.

To return to your various criticisms, must I then understand that you
think unfavourably of our future?

No one can form anything more than vague and general conclusions
respecting your future. The factors are too numerous, too vast, too far
beyond measure in their quantities and intensities. The world has never
before seen social phenomena at all comparable with those presented in
the United States. A society spreading over enormous tracts, while still
preserving its political continuity, is a new thing. This progressive
incorporation of vast bodies of immigrants of various bloods, has never
occurred on such a scale before. Large empires, composed of different
peoples, have, in previous cases, been formed by conquest and
annexation. Then your immense _plexus_ of railways and telegraphs tends
to consolidate this vast aggregate of States in a way that no such
aggregate has ever before been consolidated. And there are many minor
co-operating causes, unlike those hitherto known. No one can say how it
is all going to work out. That there will come hereafter troubles of
various kinds, and very grave ones, seems highly probable; but all
nations have had, and will have, their troubles. Already you have
triumphed over one great trouble, and may reasonably hope to triumph
over others. It may, I think, be concluded that, both because of its
size and the heterogeneity of its components, the American nation will
be a long time in evolving its ultimate form, but that its ultimate form
will be high. One great result is, I think, tolerably clear. From
biological truths it is to be inferred that the eventual mixture of the
allied varieties of the Aryan race forming the population, will produce
a finer type of man than has hitherto existed; and a type of man more
plastic, more adaptable, more capable of undergoing the modifications
needful for complete social life. I think that whatever difficulties
they may have to surmount, and whatever tribulations they may have to
pass through, the Americans may reasonably look forward to a time when
they will have produced a civilization grander than an