Americans now held in common memories which they shared with no one else; for they held ever in mind the feats of a dozen crowded years.

Theirs was the history of all that had been done by the Continental Congress and the Continental armies; theirs the memory of the toil and the suffering and the splendid ultimate triumph.

They cherished in common the winged words of their statesmen, the edged deeds of their soldiers; they yielded to the spell of mighty names which sounded alien to all men save themselves.

But though the successful struggle had laid deep the foundations of a new nation, it had also of necessity stirred and developed many of the traits most hostile to assured national life.

All civil wars loosen the bands of orderly liberty, and leave in their train disorder and evil.