"The four years I put in on "The Life of Abraham Lincoln" did more than provide me with a continuing interest. They aroused my flagging sense that I had a country, that its problems were my problems. This sense had been strong in my years on The Chautauquan, but the period following had dimmed it. Now I was beginning to ask myself why we had gone the way we had since the Civil War. Was there not enough of suffering and of nobility in that calamity to quiet the greed and ambitions of men, to soften their hates, to arouse in them the will to follow Lincoln's last counsels-"With malice toward none; with charity for all... let us ... do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations." But greed and hate and indifference to the sufferings and rights of others had been rampant since the war."