It is obvious that this problem of national
integration meets peculiar obstacles in the United States.
Divergencies of race, tradition, and social theory, and clashing
interests of different sections have been felt from the beginning
of the nation's life. There was well-nigh complete solidarity in
the single province of New England during a portion of the
seventeenth century, and under the leadership of the great
Virginians there was sufficient national fusion to make the
Revolution successful. But early in the nineteenth century, the
opening of the new West, and the increasing economic importance
of Slavery as a peculiar institution of the South, provoked again
the ominous question of the possibility of an enduring Union.
>From 1820 until the end of the Civil War, it was the chief
political issue of the United States. The aim of the present
chapter is to show how the theme of Union and Liberty affected
our literature.
To appreciate the significance of this theme we must remind
ourselves again of what many persons have called the civic note
in our national writing.
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