Chapter III

America, my country!
Brothers all!
What is that Liberty of which you sing?
Which impelled the first settlers to seek your soil?
For which they offered up their blood?
Which you sent abroad in your calls of love?
Which brought the nations of the earth to you?
Singing, singing, singing!
Which you have stamped upon your documents and silver coins?
The sunlight spread out over the States?--
What is that Liberty?
You say it is your life-principle.
Yes: it is your life-principle;
The igniting spark that keeps your fires, O America!
That feeds your Soul, your Spirit, your Being:
As your Liberty is, so is your Soul;
As your Soul is, so is your Liberty.

You are not merely dwellers on this continent;
You are no longer a province;
No longer in the leading strings of a parent land.
Not now!
You are a new land,--
New, because of a new era started;
New, because you are not a land of just one race,
But a company of races,
Held together by a secret bond,
By a _sacred_ bond,
Sacred as a consecrated altar,
The link between you and your destiny,--
Your very Soul, your Spirit, your Being.
Are you conscious of that?
Do you feel it as you feel the pulsing of your heart?
Do you feel it strike the tablet of your mind as a conviction?
Do you feel it quiver through your body when the word “American” is
uttered?
What then is Liberty?
What does the uplifted torch mean?
The wreath about her brow?
What is this Soul I am speaking about?

Brother, ask yourself that question.
Ask yourself at night in the hour of rest.
And in the morning when a new day dawns.
Ask yourself now!
For it is the time of a new consecration.
To-day! To-day!
Ask yourself a thousand times,
For America’s To-morrow depends upon your answer!
Yea, the world’s To-morrow depends upon your answer!