Excerpt from Idealism in National Character: Essays and Addresses
The doctrine that the State is a non-moral institution is dead. That was the theory of the Prussian professors. The war has killed it. If a state endeavours to compass only non-moral ends in a non-moral way the inevitable result will be that it will become immoral and its individual members will be corrupted. But this evil doctrine was not exclusively German. Men were found in our midst bold enough to argue that the State stands by itself in a position in which the distinctions of right and wrong do not apply; that expediency alone is to be taken into account, and when individuals enter its service or take part in political affairs they may let questions of conscience stand aside if need be. But that is not the principle of Democracy. We believe that the State consists of the individuals who compose it, and that a person"s life is such a consistent unity that when he performs his duties to the State he can only fulfil them as a moral citizen.
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