Page:Masterpieces of American Humor (Little Blue Book 959).djvu/65

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MASTERPIECES OF AMERICAN HUMOR
63

glory and perfection of the federal principle is vindicated. But without you and just these incentives we never would have had an American Republic as great and glorious as it is.

But with all your selfishness, with all your desire for profit, for pelf, for gain, there is this underlying principle in the Yankee: in every community which he founds, in every State which he builds, he carries with him the church; he carries with him the school-house. He may want money, and he will get it if he can; he may want property, and he will get it if he can; but, first and foremost, he must have liberty of conscience, liberty of thought, liberty of speechall of liberty that belongs to a man, consonant with the liberty of others; and he must have that same liberty for every man beside himself.