harvey mansfield is goodn that and other things besides.e talks about spiritedness and other things. but it is a wonder in the present age with american power what it is, could we speak about american national psence? does it matter whether we have one? harvey mansfield suggest we not only practice liberty, but with diane's important qualification, we advertise it and recommended to others because we believe it is good. i was going to ask the others if they thought that this was not imperials and, but a way of life and we encourage others to follow it. it makes sense for a mighty nation. what are you about? it also seems to make sense to asof the citizens, what is the guiding spirit as well as what abstract positions do you hold? haut jassim steeley -- it seems to me to be worth a few minutes on that. >> and we have to go back to when that nation was at its greatest risk, during the civil war. the question was whether the people who had lived to see the nation born would still be alive when it died. lincoln told us what our national purpose

i think in that her -- the fellow who has put his finger on it is harvey mansfield. he said that when america practices at freedom is liberty. there is applied mathematics and the abstract mathematics and liberty can be described in abstract said, to be sure. but i think harvey is right. it is a characteristic of everyday practice in the body and it doesn't within the context of the declaration of independence and the concert -- it does fit within the context of the declaration of independence and constitution. we were given this extraordinary template by the founders. almost every day one can think how really lucky we were that those guys were who they worked back in those times. -- who they were back in those times. america just lucked out with that incredible group of men called the fall -- the founding fathers who gave us this incredible template. it affects things down to the level of school boards, local elections and national elections. we constantly crosses our liberty, but within a structured they give us. -- we constantly practice our liberty, but within a s

editor of "the wall street journal," charles krauthammer, a pulitzer prize-winning columnist, harvey mansfieldy and a winner of the bradley prize, which will be given out tonight, a professor of history at the university of tennessee, paul singer, founder of elliott associates, juan williams, journalist and fox news analyst, a co-editor of this new volume. our conversation will be guided by and diana's two other coeditors, and teachers at the university of chicago and now with us in washington. amy will get us started this morning. with no further ado, amy katz. [applause] >> thank you. can anybody hear me? at one point in his essay "true americanism," theodore roosevelt suggested that americans who choose to live in europe never become europeans. they only cease to be american and become nothing. centuries -- a century later, at the university of chicago, i saw this assertion turned upside down. a few weeks after 9/11 in the first week of my course on human beings and citizens, i began by asking the 28 eager freshmen to identify themselves by name and say a few words about who they were broug