It was the first attempt in the history of the world, to
apply on a grand scale to the relations between states the same legal
methods of procedure which, as long applied in all civilized countries
to the relations between individuals, have rendered private warfare
obsolete. And it was so far successful that, during a period of
seventy-two years in which the United States increased fourfold in
extent, tenfold in population, and more than tenfold in wealth and
power, the federal union maintained a state of peace more profound than
the _pax romana._
Twenty years ago this unexampled state of peace was suddenly interrupted
by a tremendous war, which in its results, however, has served only to
bring out with fresh emphasis the pacific implications of federalism.
With the eleven revolted states at first completely conquered and then
reinstated with full rights and privileges in the federal union, with
their people accepting in good faith the results of the contest, with
their leaders not executed as traitors but admitted again to seats in
Congress and in the Cabinet, and with all this accomplished without any
violent constitutional changes,--I think we may fairly claim that the
strength of the pacific implications of federalism has been more
strikingly demonstrated than if there had been no war at all.
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