Excerpt from The Heroic Periods in a Nation's History: An Appeal to the Soldiers of the American Armies

A nation is born, a league is made. The one is a natural and historical product, the other an outward and artificial construction. The one has an inward organic power making its organization what it is, the other is made by its organization as a purely outward adjustment. In other words, a nation has a true life, vivifying every part, and felt in every part, a league is a mere balance of power, an equilibrium of mechanical forces. Hence a nation has a true political personality, it has a conscience, an accountability, a league is the creature of diplomacy, it can have, at the highest, no other principle for its inward or outward action than a time-serving expediency, there can enter in its history no high question of right, for anything of the kind would be a disturbing instead of a conserving element. A nation claims a true allegiance, a league has no higher obligation than a temporary contract, which each party may put an end to, with no other consideration than its own safety in so doing. A nation is an historical power ordained of God, and representing God upon earth, a league is a purely human thing, a contrivance of politicians, often the lowest contrivance of the lowest politicians. Such political alliances have often appeared in history.

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