9 III. This war is making us wiser, as a nation. The people have always possessed a large share of intelligence. In most respects they have managed their affairs well. But they have not been wise respecting the essentials of nationality. They have flattered themselves that the days of violence were over. Time spent in military discipline was counted lost. Money expended for this end was worse than wasted. Many advocated the breaking up of our military schools. Whatever added material force to the nation was granted only in the smallest possible measure. Men showed what they called patriotism, and desire for the interests of the people, by opposing everything of the kind. We labored under the mistake that a great and prosperous people, excelling in the arts of peace, was ipso facto, a great and prosperous nation. This would not have been a mistake, but a blessed reality, if men everywhere would do as they would be done by. But while we have not fallen on any such happy time, to act as if we had, was to peril everything. This war has made us wiser. We understand better what is essential to nationality. And I do not see how anything short of just such a war as this, would have availed to wake us up to the requirements of the times. Massachusetts owes the enviable position as foremost in defence of the national capital, not to the wisdom of the people,
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