A great nation is not saved by wars, it is saved "by acts without external picturesqueness;
by speaking, writing, voting reasonably; by smiting corruption swiftly; by good temper between parties;
by the people knowing true men when they see them, and preferring them as leaders to rabid partisans or empty quacks."
.... William James, 1897, at the dedication of a monument to black soldiers serving in the Union army in the war between the states