There used to be this feeling under Eisenhower and Kennedy and Roosevelt and Truman that government was a solution. Trust in the presidency fell precipitously under Johnson - real lows. And it's never come back. It's a trend that, if you're liberal, is really discouraging.
It is to them I look, to the rising generation, and not to the one now in power, for these great reformations i. e. , emancipation of slaves and settlement of the Virginia constitution on a firmer and more permanent basis.