. The wonderful story of Washington and the meaning of his life for the youth and patriotism of America . ight that wrongs no one. To theserights of man/ they gave the last full measure ofdevotion, as Lincoln defined patriotism, for thebirth of a new freedom under God. The public-school youth, who is not in one way oranother familiar with the Americanism of Washing-ton and Lincoln, is not yet prepared either for col-lege or for life, and, still more clearly, is not preparedto be an American. The number of un-Americans inAmerica may, in some crisis, become appalling, if, infact, they do not suc
. The wonderful story of Washington and the meaning of his life for the youth and patriotism of America . ight that wrongs no one. To theserights of man/ they gave the last full measure ofdevotion, as Lincoln defined patriotism, for thebirth of a new freedom under God. The public-school youth, who is not in one way oranother familiar with the Americanism of Washing-ton and Lincoln, is not yet prepared either for col-lege or for life, and, still more clearly, is not preparedto be an American. The number of un-Americans inAmerica may, in some crisis, become appalling, if, infact, they do not succeed in Europeanizing that possibility there is nothing to save us,if we do not save ourselves as our hereditary task ofAmerican patriotism. Washington and Lincoln are the two incomparableconstructive ideals of American liberty and man-hood. The two lives together complete the meaningof America. Washington began his life with a super-abundance of everything aristocratic in his age. Lin-coln began his life in worldly nothingness that hadindeed nothing for him but the democratic wilder-. o be O oO INTRODUCTORY CONSIDERATIONS 3 ness till lie became a man. And yet both became thesame great soul in the same great cause, the makerand preserver of American civilization, as the morallaw of man and God. American life and its ideal humanity cannot beunderstood by American youth until the wonderfulcharacter and struggle of these two supremely typi-cal Americans are understood as the expression ofthe meaning of America, and even no less as a mean-ing for the world. The Great Teacher said, Greater love hath noman than this, that he will lay down his life for afriend, and no man on earth has a greater friendthan the America of Washington and Lincoln. ii. Washingtons early surroundings We cannot think with a true vision, in estimatingthe meaning of colonial and revolutionary days, if weallow the glamor of fame and the idolatry of colonialpatriotism to obscure our view of those
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