ABSTRACT
Theories of the nature of the political community vary with conditions. Just as political pluralism was a phase of the late mellowness of liberalism, so the organic theory of the state is suited for more heroic moments. The social contract, the consent of all to government, was suitable in the American Revolution, since protest was being made against the specific arbitrary actions of the British government, animated it would seem by a total conception of Empire. History, Providence, the finger of destiny—all indicated that the territory to the north and south, east and west, should become a part of the United States. Nationalism leans toward the subordination of the individual to the historic experience of a people. Most political leaders have moved in the direction of the organic nation. The morality of a national society expresses itself in a unified will—a unification which may be far beyond the conventional principle of federal decentralization embodied in the old but remodeled Constitution.
