ABSTRACT
Whoever wishes to understand the secret of that baffling turmoil, the inner mechanism and motive behind all the politically effective forces, must set out from only one point. He must appreciate the yearning of the American heart after self-direction. This self-direction is neither arbitrary nor perverse; least of all does it indicates a love of ease or aversion to toil. When in any people the desire of self-direction dominates all other motives, the form of government of that people is necessarily republican. Self-direction demands the education of the nation. Self-direction begins with the individual or some group of individuals. The true self-direction of society as a whole was not to be allowed to encroach on the rights of the individual, and this was the danger feared. The spirit of self-direction is closely allied with that self-initiative which is the mainspring of the economic life of America.
