American history contains much matter for pride and congratulation, and much matter for regret and humiliation.

When the Promise of American life is conceived as a national ideal, whose fulfillment is a matter of artful and laborious work, the effect thereof is substantially to identify the national purpose with the social problem.

American history contains much matter for pride and congratulation, and much matter for regret and humiliation.

The popular will cannot be taken for granted, it must be created.

The moral and social aspiration proper to American life is, of course, the aspiration vaguely described by the word democratic; and the actual achievement of the American nation points towards an adequate and fruitful definition of the democratic ideal.

To the European immigrant - that is, to the aliens who have been converted into Americans by the advantages of American life - the Promise of America has consisted largely in the opportunity which it offered of economic independence and prosperity.

In Jefferson's mind democracy was tantamount to extreme individualism.