American is the first democratic nation-state.

Andrew Johnson was a Southerner generally who proclaimed that his native state of Tennessee was a country for white men.

Reading your own material aloud forces you to listen.

Friends never cheat on each other, or take advantage, or lie. Friends do not spy on one another, yet they have no secrets. Friends glory in each other's successes and are downcast by the failures. Friends minister to each other, nurse each other. Friends give to each other, worry about each other, stand always ready to help. Perfect friendship is rarely achieved, but at its height it is an ecstasy.

Trial by jury. Live wherever you can make a living. How could a government based on such principles fail?

It is through history that we learn who we are and how we got that way, why and how we changed, why the good sometimes prevailed and sometimes did not.

World War II, the atomic bomb, the Cold War, made it hard for Americans to continue their optimism.