ABSTRACT
The genius of the American people is political. The one truly saintly figure this country has produced, the one name that symbolizes the 'fulfilled life' to most Americans, the one man whose very life was dedicated toward directing human activity onto a higher goal, was a politician: Abraham Lincoln. The American nation itself has been formed out of a multitude of diverse national traditions not by imposing on the newcomer a uniform religion, uniform customs, a new culture, not even by imposing on him the American language. In the political sphere lie the American ideas and institutions which are peculiar to this country and which give it its distinction. There is, first, the peculiarly American symbiosis of secular state and religious society which is the cornerstone of the American commonwealth. Peculiarly American also is the political view of education. The real achievement of American history in the first half of this century also lay in the political sphere.
