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That the United States is a great and powerful nation, and has arisen in a wonderful manner, are facts familiar to all intelligent people. Perhaps but few, however, have paused to reflect upon the unique position occupied by the great republic of North America among all the powers that have ever arisen upon the earth. For it is a fact that this nation, both in its history and character, has had no parallel among earthly governments since time began.Never before has the political history of mankind furnished a spectacle to compare with the growth of this nation, from infancy at the beginning of the nineteenth century, to the giant proportions which it presents to-day. Considering its extent of territory, its population, the educational and political privileges enjoyed by all its people, and its wealth and resources, it may well be argued that the United States is the greatest nation upon the earth to-day, or, for that matter, the greatest that earth has ever known. Certainly, the fact that its present position of eminence, if not of preeminence, has been attained by this nation in but little more than a century of time from its birth, must be counted indisputably as the political phenomenon of the ages.And this greatness has been attained in a quiet and peaceful manner, in contrast with the wars of conquest which have marked the rise of other powerful nations either of the present or of the past.Nor has there been any other nation which was dedicated at its birth to the proposition that all men are created equal.
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