“This nation was foreordained to conflict from its incipiency. Its elements were predestined from their birth to an irrepressible class followed by the stable equilibrium of opposition. Exclusive possession belongs to none. There never was a point in history when it did. There was never a time since America became a nation when there were not more than one race, more than one party, more than one belief contending for supremacy. Hence no one is or can be supreme.”  (128)