426 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
another way of saying that the great body of the people did not believe in democracy. Though they had left themselves without any means of government except democ- racy, they had rejected democracy. They were trusting to accident, to tricks of con- stitutional barriers, to the facile recourse of running away from political responsibility and taking refuge in the wilderness. Lincoln, as a typical democrat, called his countrymen back to the elemental principles of free government. He made them see that upon every public question it was both their right and their duty to think, to be anxious, and so to express their convictions as to control the conduct of their govern- ment. He started American democracy upon a new and more hopeful career, because guided by more logical and consistent principles.
A. W. S.
