“America, if eligible at all to downfall and ruin, is eligible within herself, not without; for I see clearly that the combined foreign world could not beat her down. But these savage, wolfish parties alarm me. Owning no law but theirOWIl will, more and more combative, less and less tolerant of the idea of ensemble and of equal brotherhood, t.he perfect equality of the States, the ever-overarching American ideas, it behooves you to convey yourself implicitly to no party, nor submit blindly to their dictators, but steadily hold yourself judge and mastery over all of them.”   — Walt Whitman