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The general acceptance of the idea of governmental ( i.e., societal ) responsibility for the economic well-being of the American people is surely one of the two most significant watersheds in American constitutional history.

The other, of course, was the Civil War, the conflict which a century ago insured national unity over fragmentation.

A third, one of at least equal and perhaps even greater importance, is now being traversed: American immersion and involvement in world affairs.