The Nation that scatters principalities as a prodigal does his inheritance is too sentimental and moon-shiny for the Nineteenth Century or the Twentieth, and too unpractical for Americans of any period.
Reid critiques the idea of recklessly giving away national assets, arguing it reflects a lack of practicality.
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Give them order and justice, and trust to these to win them in other regards to our ways.
We are all washed under, and the most of us only live peaceable lives by the sufferance of our Rebel neighbors.
Brushing aside, then, these bugbears, gentlemen, what are the obvious duties of the hour?
Suppose it to be merely a war in defense of our own just rights and interests.