Manual of Patriotism
SELECTIONS IN PROSE AND POETRY
ON
No efforts to cultivate the spirit of loyalty and patriotism can, we believe, be more beneficial in their influence or lasting in their results than those which are directed towards the rising generation which is preparing for the duties of citizenship. Whatever can be done to create in the minds of the young an enthusiastic devotion to their country will contribute much to the well-being of the republic. We believe that the cultivation of this spirit should form a necessary part of every system of education. But it seems especially fitting that efforts of this kind should be made in connection with that part of our educational system which is supported by the public. Our public schools are an essential part of the American system. In them are being trained the reserve forces of our country; and they afford the best field, not only for diffusing an intelligent knowledge of our institutions, but also for cultivating that deep, patriotic impulse without which no nation can long exist.—From Report of Committee, New York Department, G. A. R., on “The Teachings of Civics and History.”—Prof. W. C. Morey, Chairman.
The one who would appreciate the greatness and true significance of American civilization must understand the sources of its development, the conditions of its growth, and the process of its evolution. He must imbibe the spirit of liberty, which in great measure prompted the colonization of this land. He must study the foundations of our local governments as they were laid by the early colonists, and follow these pioneers of the new world through the vicissitudes of their industrial, religious and political life. He must understand the nature of those constitutional rights to which they tenaciously clung and from which arose the majestic fabric of our free institutions. He must be translated to the days of 1776 and comprehend the great questions involved in the War of Independence. He must enter into the struggles which attended the formation of the Constitution. He must understand the terrific issues which culminated in the Civil War, and the political principles which by that war became established. He must, in fine, see in the successive stages of our history the progressive growth of a great republic, stretching from ocean to ocean, which is at once democratic, representative and federative, “an indissoluble Union of indestructible States.” To eliminate emotion from the study of our country's history would be as difficult as to repress the feeling of awe when contemplating the grandeur of its natural scenery. There are elements of greatness and sublimity in the expanding life of our nation which cannot fail to touch the soul of any sympathetic student.—Report, G. A. R., as above.
The kind of patriotism which we, as survivors of the Civil War, would seek to promote and foster in the young is not a spirit born of discord and strife, but a sentiment inspired by the love of our common country, and a desire that all its citizens may be bound together by the possession of common rights and the recognition of common duties. It was for the preservation of the Union and the integrity of American institutions that we once fought, and it is for the same objects that we would still continue to labor. We are proud of the records of the war for the Union, but we are more proud of the Union which that war made perpetual. Not in the humiliation of the men who were defeated, but in the vindication of the principles which were triumphant, do we most sincerely rejoice. “ With malice towards none, but with charity for all,” we would maintain the unity and the honor of our great republic, the supremacy of its laws, and the spirit of absolute loyalty which must everywhere form an element of the truest citizenship. With all due respect for the bonds of local interest and the obligation of party ties, we believe in a patriotism which is not confined to any section or to any party, but which is as broad as the boundaries of our great nation, and which comprehends in its scope the highest welfare of the whole American people.—Report, G. A. R., as above.
The power that guided our fathers across the water and planted their feet on Plymouth Rock; the power that gave victory against the mother country, and assured our independence; the power that kept our Union from being torn asunder in civil strife, and freed the slave, and made us in fact, as in name, a nation; the power that gave us Manila Bay and Santiago Harbor, and the fertile island of Porto Rico, with loss of life so small that the story seems like the record of a miracle in the far Judean age: that selfsame power will keep and guide our flag in its goings across the Pacific seas, if we go, not for conquest, but for humanity, for civilization, and for Liberty.—Stewart L. Woodford, Speech at New England Dinner, in New York.
We cannot honor our country with too deep a reverence; we cannot love her with an affection too pure and fervent; we cannot serve her with an energy of purpose or a faithfulness of zeal too stead—fast and ardent. And what is our country? It is not the East, with her hills and her valleys, with her countless sails, and the rocky ramparts of her shore. It is not the North, with her thousand villages, and her harvest-home, with her frontiers of the lake and the ocean. It is not the West, with her forest-sea and her inland isles, with her luxuriant expanses, clothed in the verdant corn, with her beautiful Ohio, and her majestic Missouri. Nor is it yet the South, opulent in the mimic snow of the cotton, in the rich plantations of the rustling cane, and in the golden robes of the rice-field. What are these but the sister families of one greater, better, holier family, our country? Be assured that we cannot, as patriot scholars, think too highly of that country, or sacrifice too much for her.—Thomas S. Grimke.
With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphans—to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.—Abraham Lincoln.
A man's country is not a certain area of land, but it is a principle, and patriotism is loyalty to that principle. So, with passionate heroism of which tradition is never weary of tenderly telling, Arnold von Winkelried gathers into his bosom the sheaf of foreign spears. So Nathan Hale, disdaining no service his country demands, perishes untimely, with no other friend than God and a satisfied sense of duty. So George Washington, at once comprehending the scope of the destiny to which his country was devoted, with one hand puts aside the crown, and with the other sets his slaves free. So, through all history, from the beginning, a noble army of martyrs has fought fiercely, and fallen bravely for that unseen mistress, their country. So, through all history to the end, as long as men believe in God, that army must still march, and fight and fall,—recruited only from the flower of mankind, cheered only by their own hope of humanity, strong only in their confidence in their cause.—George William Curtis.
Observe good faith and justice toward all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all. Religion and morality enjoin this conduct; and can it be that good policy does not equally enjoin it? It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and, at no distant period, a great nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by exalted justice and benevolence. Who can doubt that, in the course of time and things, the fruits of such a plan would richly repay any temporary advantages which might be lost by a steady adherence to it? Can it be that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a nation with its virtue? The experiment, at least, is recommended by every sentiment which ennobles human nature.—George Washington.
Is patriotism a narrow affection for the spot where a man was born? Are the very clods where we tread entitled to this ardent preference because they are greener? No, this is not the character of the virtue, and it soars higher for its object. It is an extended selflove, mingling with all the enjoyments of life, and twisting itself with the minutest filaments of the heart. It is thus we obey the laws of society, because they are the laws of virtue. In their authority we see, not the array of force and terror, but the venerable image of our country's honor. Every good citizen makes that honor his own, and cherishes it, not only as precious but as sacred. He is willing to risk his life in its defense, and is conscious that he gains protection while he gives it.—Fisher Ames.
What is it to be an American? Putting aside all the outer shows of dress and manners, social customs and physical peculiarities, is it ( not to believe in America, and in the American people? Is it not to have an abiding and moving faith in the future and in the destiny of America?—something above and beyond the patriotism and love which every man whose soul is not dead within him feels toward the land of his birth? Is it not to be national, and not sectional, independent, and not colonial? Is it not to have a high conception of what this great new country should be, and to follow out that ideal with loyalty and truth?—Henry Cabot Lodge.
And how is the spirit of a free people to be formed and animated and cheered, but out of the storehouse of its historic recollections? Are we to be eternally ringing the changes upon Marathon and Thermopylae; and going back to read in obscure texts of Greek and Latin of the exemplars of patriotic virtue? I thank God that we can find them nearer home, in our own country, on our own soil; that strains of the noblest sentiment that ever swelled in the breast of man are breathing to us out of every page of our country's history, in the native eloquence of our native tongue; that the colonial and provincial councils of America exhibit to us models of the spirit and character which gave Greece and Rome their name and their praise among nations. Here we may go for our instruction; the lesson is plain, it is clear, it is applicable.—Edward Everett.
Have we not learned that not stocks nor bonds nor stately houses nor lands nor the product of the mill is our country? It is a spiritual thought that is in our minds. It is the flag and what it stands for. It is its glorious history. It is the fireside and the home. It is the high thoughts that are in the heart, born of the inspiration which comes by the stories of their fathers, the martyrs to liberty; it is the graveyards into which our careful country has gathered the unconscious dust of those who have died. Here, in these things, is that which we love and call our country, rather than in anything that can be touched or handled.—Benjamin Harrison.
I was born an American; I live an American; I shall die an American; and I intend to perform the duties incumbent upon me in that chatacter to the end of my career. I mean to do this With absolute disregard of personal consequences. What are personal consequences? What is the individual man, with all the good or evil that may betide him, in comparison with the good or evil which may befall a great country, and in the midst of great transactions which concern that country's fate? Let the consequences be what they will, I am careless. No man can suffer too much, and no man can fall too soon, if he suffer, or if he fall, in the defense of the liberties and constitution of his country.—Daniel Webster.
I have seen my countrymen, and I have been with them, a fellow wanderer, in other lands; and little did I see or feel to warrant the apprhension, sometimes expressed, that foreign travel would weaken our patriotic attachments. One sigh for home—home, arose from all hearts. And why, from palaces and courts, why, from galleries of the arts, where the marble softened into life, and painting shed an almost Jiving presence of beauty around it, why, from the mountain's awful brow, and the lonely valleys and lakes touched with the sunset hlles of old romance, why, from those venerable and touching ruins to which our very heart grows, why, from all these scenes, were they looking beyond the swellings of the Atlantic wave, to a dearer and holier spot on earth,—their own country? Doubtless, it was, in part, because it is their country! But it was also, as everyone's experience will testify, because they knew that there was no oppression, no pitiful exaction of petty tyranny; because that tlzere they knew was no accredited and irresistible religious domination; because that there they knew they should not meet the odious soldier at every corner, nor swarms of imploring beggars, the victims of misrule; that there no curse causeless did fall, and no blight worse than plague and pestilence did descend amidst the pure dews of heaven; because, in fine, that there they knew was liberty—upon all the green hills and amidst all the peaceful villages—liberty, the wall of fire around the humblest home; the crown of glory, studded with her ever-blazing stars, upon the proudest mansion.—Orville Deiuey.
Here in this sylvan seclusion, amid the sunshine and the singing of birds, we raise the statue of the Pilgrim, that in this changeless form the long procession of the generations which shall follow us may see what manner of man he was to the outward eye, whom history and tradition have so often flouted and traduced, but who walked undismayed the solitary heights of duty and of everlasting service to mankind. Here let him stand, the soldier of a free church, calmly defyiµg the hierarchy, the builder of a free state serenely confronting the continent which he shall settle and subdue. The unspeaking lips shall chide our unworthiness, the lofty mien exalt our littleness, the unblenching eye invigorate our weakness, and the whole poised and firmly planted form reveal the unconquerable moral energy—the master force of American civilization. So stood the sentinel on Sabbath morning, guarding the plain house of prayer while wife and child and neighbor worshipped within. So mused the Pilgrim in the rapt sunset hour on the New England shore, his soul caught up into the dazzling vision of the future, beholding the glory of the nation that should be. And so may that nation stand, forever and forever, the mighty guardian of human liberty, of godlike justice, of Christlike brother hood.—George William Curtis, from oration on “The Pilgrim.”
Fourscore and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that 1;1ation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place. for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.—Abraham Lincoln, Speech at Gettysburg.
Believe in your country,—be Americans. Give what you can of your time and thought to your country's service. Give as much as you can, but in any event take an interest in public affairs and do something. Whether partisan or independent, strive to be just, and to see things as they are. The men who are doing the work of the world are not perfect, and their work is not perfect, but it is under their impulse that the world moves.
Live the life of your time, and take your share in its battles. You will be made, thereby, not only more effective, but more manly and more generous.—Henry Cabot Lodge.
I believe in that old-fashioned patriotism which places America before all the world beside. I believe that the man who is the best father of a family is the best citizen, that a man who is the best patriot does the best service to his fellow-man.
I remember reading, a short time ago, a little story about a Celtic regiment called the “Black Watch,” which had been gone from home for many years, and when it landed upon the shores again the men sprang from the boats and immediately kneeled down and kissed the sands of Galway. That's the kind of patriotism we want nowadays. The patriotism that loves the soil upon which we tread, that loves the air that surrounds us here in America, that loves the Stars and Stripes because they represent this great republic. The patriotism that not only seeks to defend our institutions, but which seeks to elevate our manhood and womanhood. The institutions under which we live are, after all, but men. Our institutions are but the hearts, intelligence and conscience of the American people, and their permanence depends upon the quality of American manhood.—Hon. Charles T. Saxton, Lieutenant-Governor of the State of New York, Albany, N. Y., Lincoln's Birthday, 1895.
Patriotism has come rather generally to be interpreted as a willingness to fight and die for one's country and its institutions. That answers very well for a definition of patriotism during times of war, but is generally deficient in that it allows no room for patriotism in times of peace.
If a man loves his country, and is true to her institutions, and affectionately concerned for their quality and permanence, there will be something which he will be all the time doing in her behalf. Shooting our national enemies is only a small and accidental part of the matter. What ou.r country needs most is men who will live for her rather than die foc her, but live for her while there is no shooting to be done.—Rev. Charles H. Parkhurst.
And for your country, boy, and for that flag, never dream but of serving her as she bids you. No matter what happens to you, no matter who flatters you or abuses you, never look at another flag, never let a night pass but you pray God to bless that flag. Remember, that behind all these men you have to do with, behind officers, and government, and people even, there is the Country Herself, your Country, and that you belong to Her as you do belong to your own mother. Stand by her as you would stand by your own mother.—Edward Everett Hale, in “The Man without a Country.”
Patriotism is not only a legitimate sentiment, but a duty. There v are countless reasons why, as Americans, we should love our native land. We may feel no scruples as Christians in welcoming and nourishing a peculiar affection for its winds and soil, its coast and hills, its memories and its flag. We cannot more efficiently labor for the good of all men than by pledging heart, brain, and hands to the service of keeping our country true to its mission, obedient to its idea. Our patriotism must draw its nutriment and derive its impulse from knowledge and love of the ideal America, as yet but partially reflected in our institutions, or in the general mind of the Republic. Thus quickened it will be both pure and practical.—T. Starr King.
In this extraordinary war, extraordinary developments have manifested themselves, such as have not been seen in former wars; and, among these manifestations, nothing has been more remarkable than these fairs for the relief of suffering soldiers and their families, and the chief agen~ts in these fairs are the women of America!
I am not accustomed to the use of language of eulogy. I have never studied the art of paying compliments to women; but I must say that, if all that has been said by orators and poets since the creation of the world in praise of women were applied to the women of America, it would not do them justice for their conduct during the war.
I will close by saying, God bless the women of America!—Abraham Lincoln.
A man's country is not merely that of his birth, so often a matter of chance, but the land of his happiness. Born in one quarter of the globe, without attachment for its associations, he may become so bound up and identified with that of his adoption as to hold it in every respect as his own true native land. In this light do very many of our citizens consider America. It has afforded shelter and refuge; it has recognized the liberty that is theirs through a common humanity. In no other land is there like freedom in matters of conscience, such recognition and appreciation of the great principles of religion, and the universal obligation of all men to seek the highest happiness of all.—Raphael Lasker.
The first two words of the national motto are as much a part of it as the last. They have never been changed since their use began. They have been borne in every battle and on every march, by land or sea, in defeat as in victory. They are still blazoned on our escutcheon, and copied in every seal of office. May that motto never be mutilated or disowned. It should be written on the walls of the Capitol and on every statehouse. Its three words contain a faithful history; may they .abide for ages, pledges of the future, as they are witnesses of the past.—David Dudley Field.
Give us but a part of that devotion which glowed in the heart of the younger Pitt and of our own elder Adams, who, in the midst of their agonies, forgot not the countries they had lived for, but mingled with the spasms of their dying hour a last and imploring appeal to the Parent of all mercies that He would remember, in eternal blessings, the land of their birth. Give us their devotion, give us that of the young enthusiast of Paris, who, listening to Mirabeau in one of his surpassing vindications of human rights, and, seeing him falling from his stand, dying, as a physician proclaimed, for the want of blood, rushed to the spot, and, as he bent over the expiring man, bared his arm for the lancet, and cried again and again, with impassioned voice, “ Here, take it, oh! take it from me! let me die so that Mirabeau and the liberties of my country may not perish!” Give us something only of such a love of country, and we are safe, forever safe; the troubles which shadow over and oppress us now will pass away like a summer cloud. Give us this and we can thank God and say, “These, these, are my brethren, and Oh! this, this too, is my country!—J. McDowell.
The peace we have won is not a selfish truce of arms, but one whose conditions presage good to humanity. At Bunker Hill liberty was at stake, at Gettysburg the Union was the issue, before Manila and Santiago our armies fought, not for gain or revenge, but for human rights. They contended for the freedom of the oppressed, for whose welfare the United States has never failed to lend a hand to establish and uphold, and, I believe, never will. The glories of the war cannot be dimmed, but the result will be incomplete and unworthy of us unless supplemented by civil victories harder possibly to win, in their way not less indispensable. We will have our difficulties and our embarrassments. They follow all victories and accompany all great responsibilities. They are inseparable from every great movement of reform. But American capacity has triumphed over all in the past. Doubts have in the end vanished. Apparent dangers have been averted or avoided, and our own history shows that progress has come so naturally and steadily on the heels of new and grave responsibilities that, as we look back upon the acquisition of territory by our fathers, we are filled with wonder that any doubt could have existed, or any apprehension could have been felt of the wfadom of their action or their capacity to grapple with the then untried and mighty problems. The Republic is to-day larger, stronger, and better prepared than ever before for wise and profitable developments. Forever in the right, following the best impulses and clinging to high purposes, using properly and within right limits our power and opportunities, honorable reward must inevitably follow.—William McKinley.
Let me say a word for a little more patriotism m the schools. We have little in our every-day life to arouse patriotic ardor. We have no frequent or great exhibitions of power; no army to stand in awe of; no royalty to worship; no emblems or ribbons to dazzle the eye; and but few national airs. We have elections so frequently, and then say such terribly hard things of each other, and about the management of government, that I imagine the children wonder what kind of a country this is that they have been born into. There is no such inculcation of patriotism among our children as among the children of some other lands. If I had my way, I would hang the flag in every schoolroom, and I would spend an occasional hour in singing our best patriotic songs, in declaiming the masterpieces of our national oratory, and in rehearsing the proud story of our national life.—Andrew S. Drayer.
In the van of the progressive movement of civilization, our country alike greets the most ancient of nations, and the social fabric whose many centuries know no change. Further, she has garnered within her borders all colors, creeds, and minds. Providence has bidden America to train, educate, uplift, blend in fraternity, eastern and western, northern and southern humanity. Here, in these United States, is the grandest school of the brotherhood of man! Here, the conscience and religion are free! Here, the Fatherhood of God is best illustrated in church, in government, and in the human institutions which interpret Him! In the old countries, the people are feared and despised; here, the people are trusted, made responsible, allowed to govern themselves. Here, in marvellous harmony, local forms of freedom are blended with central power.—William. E. Griffis.
Bereft of Patriotism, the he2.rt of a nation will be cold and cramped and sordid; the arts will have no enduring impulse, and commerce no invigorating soul; society will degenerate and the mean and viciQus triumph. Patriotism is not a wild and glittering passion, 'but a glorious reality. The virtue that gave to Paganism its dazzling lustre, to Barbarism its redeeming trait, to Christianity its heroic form, is not dead. It still lives to console, to sanctify humanity. It has its altar in every clime; its worship and festivities.—Thomas F. Meagher.
The name of Republic is inscribed upon the most imperishable monuments of the species, and it is probable that it will continue to be associated, as it has been in all past ages, with whatever is heroic in character, sublime in genius, and elegant and brilliant in the cultivation of art and letters. What land has ever been visited vrith the influence of liberty that did not flourish like the spring? What people has ever worshipped at her altars without kindling with a loftier spirit, and putting forth more noble energies? Where has she ever acted that her deeds have not been heroic? Where has she ever spoken that her eloquence has not been triumphant and sublime?—Hugh S. Legare.
The sheet anchor of the ship of state is the common school. Teach, first and last, Americanism. Let no youth leave the school without being thoroughly grounded in the history, the principles, and the incalculable blessings of American liberty. Let the boys be the trained soldiers of constitutional freedom, the girls the intelligent lovers of freemen.—Chauncey M. Depew.
No phrase ever embodied more truth than the oft-repeated one that “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty,” and our work as patriots is no less binding to-day than in the days when we wore the army blue. Let it be our lofty aim to emulate the patriotism of those who gave their lives that Government of the People, by the People, and for the People, might not perish from the earth.—Oscar D. Robinson.
Patriotism is one of the positive lessons to be taught in every school. Everything learned should be flavored with a genuine love of country. Every glorious fact in the nation's history should be emphasized, and lovingly dwelt upon. The names of her illustrious citizens should be treasured in the memory. Every child should feel that he is entitled to a share, not only in the blessings conferred by a free government, but also in the rich memories and glorious achievements of his country.—Richard Edwards.
A man's country is not a certain area of land, of mountains, rivers, and woods, but it is principle; and patriotism is loyalty to that principle. In poetic minds and in popular enthusiasm, this feeling becomes closely associated with the soil and the symbols of the country. But the secret sanctification of the soil and the symbol is the idea which they represent; and this idea the patriot worships, through the name and I the symbol, as a lover kisses with rapture the glove of his mistress and wears a lock of her hair upon his heart.—George W. Curtis.
I am no pessimist as to this Republic. I always bet on sunshine l v in America. I know that my country has reached the point of perilous greatness, and that strange forces, not to be measured or comprehended, are hurrying her to heights that dazzle and blind all mortal eyes, but I know that beyond the uttermost glory is enthroned the Lord God Almighty, and that when the hour of her trial has come He will lift up his everlasting gates and bend down above her in mercy and in love. For with her He has surely lodged the ark of His covenant with the sons of men. And the Republic will endure. Centralism will be checked, and liberty saved—plutocracy overthrown and equality restored. The struggle for human rights never goes backward among English-speaking people. The trend of the times is with us.—Henry W. Grady.
The time has come when the history of our own country should stand among the fundamental studies to be pursued in our schools. In the teaching of history, we need not attach first importance to the dates of battles, the number of men engaged upon each side, or the number killed and wounded. These are but incidents in history. We should teach causes and results. We need not teach that the soldiers on one side were braver than the soldiers on the other. The “boys in gray" who stood up against you at Gettysburg and a hundred other battlefields were as brave as you were. We know that they were mistaken, but they were brave, and they were Americans. They have done their share in rinking American history, and one happy result of the war with Spain is that sectional lines have been wiped out and no longer is there any North and South in the consideration of American bravery. We need not spend any time in demonstrating the bravery of the American people. It has been thoroughly tested and the whole world knows it. I believe that we should teach these things to our children.—Hon. Charles R. Skinner, Speech before G. A. R. Committee.
One of the definitions of patriotism is “love of country.” If we do not teach our boys and girls to love their country, how can we teach them to be patriotic? Patriotism is sometimes misunderstood. Patriotism is not an impulse or a sentiment, but a conviction. Where the heart is right, there you will find true patriotism. I want a patriotism that does not wait for the firing of a gun on a national holiday to manifest itself. I want a patriotism which is good every day in the year, and which means an understanding of public duty and a determination to perform that duty.—Hon. Charles R. Skinner, Speech before G. A. R. Committee.
Here, at last, is its sacred secret revealed! It is in the patriotic instinct which has brought to this field the army of Northern Virginia and the army of the Potomac. It lies in the manly emotion with which the generous soldier sees only the sincerity and courage of his ancient foe and scorns suspicion of a lingering enmity. It lies in the perfect freedom of speech, and perfect fraternity of spirit, which now for three days have glowed in these heroic hearts, and echoed in this enchanted air. These are the forces that assure the future of our beloved country! May they go before us on our mighty march, a pillar of cloud by day, of fire by night! Happy for us, happy for mankind, if we and our children shall comprehend that they are the fundamental conditions of the life of the Republic! Then, long after, when, in a country whose vast population, covering the continent with the glory of a civilization which the imagination cannot forecast, the completed century of the great battle shall be celebrated, the generation which shall gather here, in our places, will rise up and call us blessed! Then, indeed, the fleeting angel of this hour will have yielded his most precious benediction; a·nd in the field of Gettysburg, as we now behold it, the blue and the gray blending in happy harmony, like the mingling hues of the summer landscape, we may see the radiant symbol of the triumphant America of our pride, our hope, and our joy!—George William Curtis.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” There is the origin of Popular Sovereignty. Who, then, shall come in at this day and claim that he invented it? That is the electric cord in the Declaration that links the hearts of patriotic and liberty-loving men together; that will link those patriotic hearts as long as the love oi freedom exists in the minds of men throughout the world.—Abraham Lincoln.
It is in vain for demagogism to raise its short arms against the truth of history. The Declaration of Independence stands there. No candid man ever read it without seeing and feeling that every word of it was dictated by deep and earnest thought, and that every sentence of it bears the stamp of philosophic generality. It is the summing up of the results of the philosophical development of the age; the practical embodiment of the progressive ideas which, far from being confined to the narrow limits of the English colonies, pervaded the atmosphere of all civilized nations.—Carl Schurz.
I have never had a feeling, politically, that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence. I have often pondered over the dangers which were incurred by the men who assembled here and framed and adopted the Declaration of Independence. I have pondered over the toils that were endured by the officers and soldiers of the army who achieved that independence. I have often inquired of myself what great principle or idea it was that kept this confederacy so long together. It was not the mere matter of the separation of the colonies from the motherland, but that sentiment in the Declaration of Independence which gave liberty, not alone to the people of this country, but, I hope, to the world for all future time. It was that which you promised, that in due time the weight would be
I lifted from the shoulders of all men. This is the sentiment embodied in the Declaration of Independence.—Abraham Lincoln.
On the fourth of July, 1776, the representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, declared that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states. This Declaration, made by most patriotic and resolute men, trusting in the justice of their cause and the protection of Providence—and yet not without deep solicitude·and anxiety—has stood for seventyfive years, and still stands. It was sealed in blood. It has met dangers and overcome them; it has had enemies and it has conquered them; it has had detractors and it has abashed them all; it has had doubting friends, but it has cleared all doubts away; and, now, to-day, raising its august form higher than the clouds, twenty millions of people contemplate it with hallowed love, and the world beholds it, and the consequences which have followed, with profound admiration.—Daniel Webster.
The Declaration of Independence is the grandest, the bravest, and the profoundest political document that was ever signed by the representatives of the people. It is the embodiment of physical and moral courage and of political wisdom. I say physical courage because it was a declaration of war against the most powerful nation then on the globe; a declaration of war by thirteen weak, unorganized colonies; a declaration of war by a few people, without military stores, without wealth, without strength, against the most powerful kingdom on the earth; a declaration of war made when the British navy, at that day the mistress of every sea, was hovering along the coast of America, looking after defenceless towns and villages to ravage and destroy. It was made when thousands of English soldiers were upon our soil, and
When the principal cities of America were in the substantial possession of the enemy. And so I say, all things considered, it was the bravest political document ever signed by man.—Robert G. Ingersoll.
We can give up everything but our Constitution, which is the sun of our system. As the natural sun dispels fogs, heats the air, and vivifies and illumines the world, even so does the Constitution, in days of adversity and gloom, come out for our rescue and our enlightening. If the luminary which now sheds its light upon us and invigorates our sphere should sink forever in his ocean bed, clouds, cold, and perpetual death would environ us; and if we suffer our other sun, the Constitution, to be turned from us, if we neglect or disregard its benefits, if its beams disappear but once in the west, anarchy and chaos will have come again, and we shall grope out in darkness and despair the remainder of a miserable existence.—Daniel Webster.
In order to understand the theory of the American Government, the most serious, calm, persistent study should be given to the Constitution of the United States. I don't mean learning it by heart, committing it to memory. What you want is to understand it; to know the principles at the bottom of it; to feel the impulse of it; to feel the heart-beat that thrills through the whole American people. That is the vitality that is worth knowing; that is the sort of politics that excels all the mysteries of ward elections, and lifts you up into a view where you can see the clear skies, the unknown expanse of the future.—Charles A. Dana.
Every free government is necessarily complicated, becanse all such governments establish restraints, as well on the power of government itself as on that of individuals. If we will abolish the distinction of branches and have but one branch; if we will abolish jury trials, and leave all to the judge; and if we place the executive power in the same hands, we may readily simplify government. We may easily bring it to the simplest of all possible forms,— a pure despotism. But a separation of departments, so far as practicable, and the preservation of clear lines of division between them, is the fundamental idea in the creation of all our constitutions; and, doubtless, the continuance of regulated liberty depends on maintaining these boundaries.—Daniel Webster.
There never existed an example before of a free community spreading over such an extent of territory; and the ablest and profoundest thinkers, at the time, believed it to be utterly impracticable that there should be. Yet this difficult problem was solved— successfully solved— by the wise and sagacious men who framed our Constitution. No; it was above unaided human wisdom—abo,ve the sagacity of the _most enlightened. It was the result of a fortunate combination of circumstances co-operating and leading the way to its formation, directed by that kind Providence which has so often and so signally disposed events in our favor.—John C. Calhoun.
The Constitution of the United States, the nearest approach of mortal to perfect political wisdom, was the work of men who purchased liberty with their blood, but who found that, without organization, freedom was not a blessing. They formed it, and the people, in their intelligence, adopted it. And what has been its history? Has it trodden down any man's rights? Has it circumscribed the liberty of the press? Has it stopped the mouth of any man? Has it held us up as objects of disgrace abroad? How much the reverse! It has given us character abroad; and when, with Washington at its head, it went forth to the world, this young country at once became the most interesting an
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Is it nothing, then, to be free? Is it nothing that we are Republicans? Can anything be more striking and sublime than the idea of an Imperial Republic, spreading over an extent of territory more immense than the empire of the Caesars in the accumulated conquests of a thousand years, without prefects, or proconsuls, or publicans, founded in the maxims of common sense, employing within itself no arms but those of reason, and known to its subjects only by the blessings it bestows or perpetuates, yet capable of directing against a foreign foe all the energies of a military despotism,—a Republic in ,vhich men are completely insignificant, and principles and laws exercise throughout its vast dominion a peaceful and irresistible sway, blending in one divine harmony, such various habits and conflicting opinions; and mingling in our institutions the light of philosophy with ali that is dazzling in the associations of heroic achievement and extended domination, and deep-seated and formidable power!—Hugh S. Legare.
A government founded upon anything except liberty and justice cannot and ought not to stand. All the wrecks on either side of the stream of time, all the wrecks of the great cities, and all the nations that have passed away— all are a warning that no nation founded upon injustice can stand. From the sand-enshrouded Egypt, from the marble wilderness of Athens, and from every fallen, crumbling stone of the once mighty Rome, comes a wail, as it were, the cry that no nation founded upon injustice can permanently stand.—Robert G. Ingersoll.
Liberty has been the battle-cry which has led to victory on a thousand battlefields; it wrung from King John the Magna Charta; it razed the Bastile to the ground; it peopled the solitudes of America with a hardy race of pilgrims; it led VI ashington and his faithful army through the perils and sufferings of a seven years' war. It has been the presiding genius which, age after age, in Greece, Rome, Switzerland, England, France, America, and in the South Seas, has molded constitutions, framed laws, and elaborated institutions, all seeking to secure to the individual the highest possible liberty.—Thomas J. Morgan.
All who stand beneath our banner are free. Ours is the only flag that has in reality written upon it “ Liberty, Equality, Fraternity"the three grandest words in all the languages of men. Liberty: give to every man the fruit of his own labor—the labor of his hand and of his brain. Fraternity: every man in the right is my brother. Equaljty: the rights of all are equal. No race, no color, no prev1ous condition, can change the rights of men. The Declaration of Independence has at least been carried out in letter and in spirit. To-day, the black man looks upon his child and says: “ The avenues of distinction are open to you—upon your brow may fall the civic wreath.” We-;;_re celebrating the courage and wisdom of olir fathers, and the glad shout of a free people, the anthem of a grand nation, commencing at the Atlantic, is following the sun to the Pacific, across a continent of happy homes.—Robert G. Ingersoll.
In relation to the principle that all men are created equal, let it be as nearly reached as we can. If we cannot give freedom to every creature, let us do nothing that will impose slavery upon any other creature. I leave you, hoping that the lamp of liberty will burn in your bosoms until there shall be no longer a doubt that all men are created free and equal.—Abraham Lincoln.
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I profess, sir, in my career hitherto, to have kept steadily in view the prosperity and honor of the whole country, and the preservation of our Federal Union. It is to that Union we owe our safety at home, and our consideration and dignity abroad. It is to that Union that we are chiefly indebted for whatever makes us most proud of our country. That Union we reached only by the discipline of our virtue in the severe school of adversity. It had its origin in the necessities of disordered finance, prostrate commerce and ruined credit. Under its benign influences, these great interests immediately awoke, as from the dead, and sprang forth with newness of life. Every year of its duration has teemed with fresh proof of its utility and its blessings, and although our country has stretched out, wider and wider, and our population spread farther and farther, they have not outrun its protection or its benefits. It has been to us all a copious fountain of national, social, and personal happiness.—Daniel Webster.
There are four things which I humbly conceive are essential to the well-being—I may even venture to say, to the existence—of the United States, as an independent power.
First. An indissoluble Union of the states under one Federal head.
Second. A sacred regard to public justice.
Third. The adoption of a proper peace establishment.
Fourth. The prevalence of that pacific and friendly disposition among the people of the United States which will induce them to forget their local prejudices and politics; to make those mutual con-• cessions which are requisite to the general prosperity; and, in some instances, to sacrifice their individual advantages to the interest of the community.
These are the pillars on which the glorious fabric of our independence and national character must be supported. Liberty is the basis. And whoever would dare to sap the foundation, or overturn the structure, under whatever specious pretext he may attempt it, will" merit the bitterest execration and the severest punishment which can be inflicted by his injured country.—George Washington.
While every part of our country feels an immediate and particular interest in Union, all the parts combined cannot fail to find, in the united mass of means and efforts, greater strength, greater resource, proportionably greater security from external danger, a less frequent interruption of their peace by foreign nations; and, what is of inestimable value, they must derive from the Union an exemption from those broils and wars between themselves which so frequently afflict neighboring countries not tied together by the same government, which their own rivalships alone would be sufficient to produce, but which opposite foreign alliances, attachments, and intrigues would stimulate and embitter. Hence, likewise, they will avoid the necessity of those overgrown military establishments which, under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to Republican Liberty. In this sense it is, that your Union ought to be considered as a main prop of your liberty, and that the love of the one ought to endear to you the preservation of the other.—George Washington.
If Washington were noW amongst us, and if he could draw around him the shades of the great public men of his own days—patriots and warriors, orators and statesmen— and were to address us in their presence, would he not say to us: “ Ye men of this generation, I rejoice ancf thank God for being able to see that our labors and toils and sacrifices were not in vain. The fire of liberty burns brightly and steadily in your hearts, while duty and the law restrain it from bursting forth in wild and destructive conflagration. Cherish liberty as you love it, cherish its securities as you wish to preserve it. Maintain the Constitution which we labored so painfully to establish, and which has been to you such a source of inestimable blessings. Preserve the Union of the States, cemented as it was by our prayers, our tears, and our blood.
Be true to God, your country, and your duty. So shall that Almighty Power, which so graciously protected us, and which now protects you, shower its everlasting blessings upon you and your posterity.“—Daniel Webster.
A nation may be said to consist of its territory, its people, and its laws. The territory is the only part which is of certain durability. “One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh, but the earth abideth forever.” It is of the first importance to duly consider and estimate this ever-enduring part. That portion of the earth's surface. which is owned and inhabited by the people of the United States is well adapted to be the home of one national family, and it is not well adapted for two or more. Its vast extent, and its variety of climate and productions, are of advantage in this age for one people, whatever they might have been in former ages. Steai.-n, telegraphs, and intelligence have brought these to be an advantageous combination for one united people. There is no line, straight or crooked, suitable for a national boundary, upon which to divide. Trace through from East to West upon the line between the free and slave country, and we shall find a little more than one-third of its length are rivers, easy to be crossed and populated, or soon to be populated thickly upon both sides; while nearly all its remaining length are merely surveyor's lines, over which people may walk back and forth without any consciousness of their presence. No part of this line can be made any more difficult to pass by writing it down on paper or parchment as a national boundary.—Abraham Lincoln.
For my part, I have never believed 111 isothermal lines, air lines and water lines separating distinct races. I no more believe that that river yonder, dividing Indiana and Kentucky, marks off two distinct species than I believe that the great Hudson, flowing through the state of New York, marks off distinct species. Such theories only live in the fancy of morbid minds. We are all one people. Commercially, financially, morally, we are one people. Divide as we will into parties, we are one people.
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The silken folds that twine about us here, for all their soft and careless grace, are yet as strong as hooks of steel. They hold together a united people and a great nation. The South says to the North, as simply and as truly as was said three thousand years ago in that far away meadow by the side of the mystic sea: “ Thy peopie shall be my people, and thy God, my God.”—Henry Watterson.
My fellow countrymen of the North, we join you in setting apart this land as an enduring monument of peace, brotherhood, and perpetual union. I repeat the thought, with additional emphasis, with singleness of heart and of purpose, in the name of a common coun_try, and of universal human liberty; and, by the blood of our fallen brothers,
We unite in the solemn consecration of these hallowed hills, as a holy eternal pledge of fidelity to the life, freedom, and unity of this cherished Republic.—John B. Gordon.
What the sun is in the heavens, diffusing light and warmth, and, by its subtle influence, holding the planets in their orbits, and preserving the harmony of the universe, such is the sentiment of nationality in a people, diffusing life and protection in every direction, holding the faces of Americans always toward their homes, protecting the states in the exercise of their just powers, and preserving the harmony of all. We must have a Nation. It is a necessity of our political existence.
We should cherish the idea that, while the states have their rights, sacred and inviolable, which we should guard with untiring vigilance, never permitting an encroachment upon them, and ever remembering that such encroachment is as much a violation of the Constitution of the United States as to encroach upon the rights of the general government, still bear in mind that the states are but subordinate parts of one great nation; that the nation is over all, even as God is over the universe.—Oliver P. Morton.
There is nothing more national in all this Republic than the spirit that saved the Union. The soldiers fought for the whole Union, and the spirit that animated us was the spirit of nationality against the spirit of sectionalism, and, in defending the truths for which we fought, we were national to the core and sectional in nothing. It was the spirit of sectionalism against which we fought, and the spirit of broad, united nationality which we defended, and will defend while we live * * *
What could be more national as a material thing than the MississippiRiver? We made that the river of one people, from Fort Benton, far up under the British line, down to the gulf; and every wave, every drop from the lakes at the far north goes singing of the Union all the way down till it joins the tropical ocean, and we made the song of the Union ring along its banks, and the people that inhabit its shores, one people, I trust, forever. The mountain chains that God made are one, and we made the people and the government that dwell on these mountains, in these valleys,—one, like the ocean,—one, like the everlasting hills, and one will we be with them forevermore.—James A. Garfield, Address at a Reunion.
The drama of the Revolution opened in New England, culminated in New Yark, and closed in Virginia. It was a happy fortune that the three colonies which represented the various territorial sections of the settled continent were each in turn the chief seat of war. The common sacrifice, the common struggle, the common triumph, tended to weld them locally, politically, and morally together. * * * The voice of Patrick Henry from the mountains answered that of James Otis by the sea. Paul Revere's lantern shone through the valley of the Hudson, and flashed along the cliffs of the Blue Ridge. The scattering volley of Lexington Green swelled to the triumphant thunder of Saratoga, and the reverberation of Burgoyne's falling arms ih New York shook those of Cornwallis in Virginia from his hands. Doubts, jealousies, prejudices, were merged in one common devotion. The union of the colonies to secure liberty foretold the union of the states to maintain it, and wherever we stand on revolutionary fields, or inhale the sweetness of revolutionary memories, we tread the ground and breathe the air of invincible national union.—George William Curtis, Oration on Burgoyne's Surrender.
While the Union lasts, we have high, exciting, gratifying prospects spread out before us, for us and our children. Beyond that, I seek not to penetrate the veil. God grant that in my day, at least, that curtain may not rise! God grant that on my v1s1on never may be opened what lies behind! When my eyes shall be turned to behold for the last time the sun in heaven, may I not see him shining on the broken and dishonored fragments of a once glorious Union; on states, dis• severed, discordant, belligerent; on a land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it may be, with fraternal blood! Let their last feeble and lingering glance rather behold the glorious ensign of the Republic, now known and honored throughout the earth, still full high advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in their original lustre, not a stripe erased or polluted, nor a single star obscured, bearing for its motto no such miserable interrogatory as—What is all this worth?—nor those other words of delusion and folly—Liberty first and Union afterwards—but everywhere, spread all over in characters of living light, blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the sea and over the land, and in every wind under the whole heavens, that other sentiment, dear to every true American heart—Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable.—Daniel Webster.
We cannot escape history. We of this Congress. and this administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation. We say that we are for the Union. The world wili not forget that we say this. We know how to save the Union. The world knows we do know how to save it. We—even we here—hold the power and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free—honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve. We shall nobly save or meanly lose the last hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not, cannot, fail. This way is plain, peaceful, generous, just—a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless.—Abraham Lincoln.
The nation has been at war, not vrithin its own shores, but with a foreign power, a war waged not for revenge or aggrandizement, but for our oppressed neighbors, for their freedom and amelioration. It was short, but decisive. It recorded a succession of significant victories on land and on sea. It gave new honors to American arms. It has brought new problems to the Republic, whose solution will tax the genius of our people. United we will meet and solve them, with honor to ourselves, and to the lasting benefit of all concerned. The war brought us together; its settlement will keep us together.
Reunited! Glorious realization! It expresses the thought of my mind, and the long deferred consummation of my heart's desire as I stand in this presence. It interprets the hearty demonstration here witnessed, and is the patriotic refrain of all sections and all lovers of the Republic.
Reunited, one country again and one country forever. Proclaim it from the press and pulpit; teach it in the schools; write it across the skies. The world sees and feels it. It cheers every heart, North and South, and brightens the life of every American home. Let nothing ev½r strain it again. At peace with all the world and with each other, wh t can stand in the pathway of our progress and prosperity?—William McKinley.
UNION AND LIBERTY.
Flag of the heroes who left us their glory,
Borne through their battlefield's thunder and flame, Blazoned in song and illumined in story,
Wave o'er us all who inherit their fame!
Up with our banner bright, Sprinkled with starry light,
Spread its fair emblems from mountain to shore, While through the sounding sky
Loud rings the Nation's cry, Union and Liberty! One Evermore!
Light of our firmament, guide of our Nation, Pride of her children, and honored afar,
Let the wide beams of thy full constellation Scatter each cloud that would darken a star!
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Lord of the Universe! Shield us and guide us, Trusting Thee always, through shadow and sun!
Thou hast united us, who shall divide us? Keep us, 0 keep us, the MANY IN ONE.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes.
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Citizens by birth or choice, of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of AMERICAN, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local discriminations. \i\Tith slight shades of difference, you have the same religion, manners, habits,.and political principles. You have, in a common cause, fought and triumphed together. The independence and liberty you possess are the work of joint counsels, and joint efforts, of common dangers, sufferings and successes.
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From the gallantry and fortitude of her citizens, under the auspices of Heaven, America has derived her independence. To their industry, and the natural advantages of the country, she is indebted for her prosperous situation. From their virtue, she may expect long to share the protection of a free and equal government, which their wisdom has established, and which experience justifies, as admirably adapted to our social wants nd individual felicity.—George Washington.
The virtue, moderation, and patriotism which marked the steps of the American people, in framing, adopting, and thus far carrying into effect our present system of government, have excited the admiration of nations. It only now remains for us to act up to those principles which should characterize a free and enlightened people, that we may gain respect abroad, and insure happiness to ourselves and our posterity.—George Washington.
To complete the American character, it remams for the citizens of the United States to show to the world that the reproach heretofore cast on Republican governments, for their want of stability, is without foundation when that government is the deliberate choice of an enlightened people. And I am fully persuaded that every well-wisher to the happiness and prosperity of this country will evince, by his conduct, that we live under a government of laws, and that, while we preserve inviolate our national faith, we are de·sirous to live in amity with all mankind.—George Washington.
There can be no such thing, in the highest sense, as a home, unless you own it. There must be an incentive to plant trees, to beautify the grounds, to preserve and improve. It elevates a man to own a home. It gives a certain independence, a force of character, that is obtained in no other way. Homes make patriots. He who has sat by his own fireside, with wife and children, will defend it. Few men have been patriotic enough to shoulder a musket in defense of a boarding-house. The prosperity and glory of our country depend upon the number of people who are the owners of homes.
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A man does not vote in this country simply because he is rich; he does not vote in this country simply because he has an education; he does not vote simply because he has talent o,r genius; we say that he votes because he is a man, and that he has his manhood to support; and we admit in this country that nothing can be more valuable to any human being than his manhood, and for that reason we put poverty on an equality with wealth. If you are a German, remember that this country is kinder to you than your fatherland,—no matter what country you came from, remember that this country is an asylum, and vote, as in your conscience you believe you ought to vote, to keep this flag in heaven. I beg every American to stand with that part of the country that believes in law, in freedom of speech, in an honest vote, in civilization, in progress, in human liberty, and in universal justice.Robert G. Ingersoll.
It is the work of this generation to prove to the nineteenth ce::i.tury, in the face of Christendom, and for the race, the fact that the people do actually govern, and that what twenty millions of freemen determine, shall be done. The American Republic must live! Popular commotion and partisan fury may dash their mad wars against it, but they shall roll back shattered, spent. Persecution shall not shake it, fanaticism disturb it, nor revolutions change it. But it shall stand towering sublime, like the last mountain in the deluge, while the earth rocks at its feet and the thunders peal over its head,—majestic, immutable, magnificent!—Wendell Phillips.
It is hard to believe that there is any necessity to warn Americans that, when they seek to model themselves on the lines of other civilizations, they make themselves the butts of all right-thinking men; and yet the necessity certainly exists to give this warning to many of our citizens who pride themselves on their standing in the world of art and letters, or, perchance, on what they would style their social leadership in the community. We Americans can only do our alloted task well if we face it steadily and bravely, seeing, but not fearing, the dangers. Above all, we must stand shoulder to shoulder, not asking as to the ancestry or creed of our comrades, but only demanding that they be in very truth Americans, and that we all work together, heart, hand, and head,—for the honor and the greatness of our common country.—Theodore Roosevelt.
In the efforts of the people—of the people struggling for their rights—moving, not in organized disciplined masses, but in their spontaneous action, man for man and heart for heart, there is something glorious. The people always conquer. They always must conquer. Armies may be defeated, kings may be overthrown, and new dynasties be imposed, by foreign arms on an ignorant and slavish 'race, that care not in what language the covenant of their subjugation runs, nor in whose name the deed of their barter and sale is made out. But the people never invade; and, when they rise against the invader, are never subdued. If they are driven from the plains, they fly to the mountains. Steep rocks and everlasting hills are their castles; the tangled, pathless thicket their palisade, and nature, God, is their ally. Now He overwhelms the hosts of their enemies beneath His drifting mountains of sand; now He buries them beneath a falling atmosphere of polar snows; He lets loose His tempests on their fleets; He puts a folly into /, their counsels, a madness into the hearts of their leaders; and He never ) gave, and never will give, a final triumph over a virtuous and gallant people, resolved to be free.—Edward Everett.
The faith of our people in the stability and permanence of their institutions was like their faith in the eternal course of nature. Peace, liberty and personal security were blessings as common and universal as sunshine and showers and fruitful seasons; and all sprang from a single source, the principle declared in the Pilgrim Covenant of 1620, that all owed due submission and obedience to the lawfully expressed will of the majority. This is not one of the doctrines of our political system, it is the system itself. It is our political firmament, in which all other truths are set, as stars in the heaven. It is the encasing air, the breath of the Nation's life.—James A. Garfield.
Have you thought what the government has cost? Do you realize what free government means? Do you remember, as you have read the story of ages gone, how the barons met at Runnymede? Do you remember how they ,vrested a charter from the king? Do you remember how the Ironsides went into battle? Do you remember the psalm that rang out at the shock of the conflict? Do you remember Faneuil Hall, and Massachusetts, and John Hancock? Do you remember Carpenter's Hall and Benjamin Franklin? Do you remember Virginia and George \i\Tashington? Do you remember what the liberty we have has cost, and are you willing, because of fashion, because of ease, because of social enjoyment, are you willing to let the Republic get into the rapids simply because there are not strong men straining at the oars and keeping us back in the midstream of safety?—Stewart L. Woodford.
The supreme glory of our heroism in the Civil War was founded on the greatness of the common people. Do you tell me that they were unknown—that they commanded no battalions, determined no policies, sat in no military councils, rode at the head of no regiments? Be it so. All the more are they the fitting representatives of you and the people. Never in all history was there a war, whose aims, whose policy, whose sacrifices were so absolutely determined by the people, that great body of the unknown, in which, after all, lay the strength and power of the Republic. When some one reproached Lincoln for the seeming hesitancy of his policy, he answered, “ I stand for the people. I am going just as fast and as far as I can feel them behind me.”—Henry C. Potter.
I can most religiously aver, I have no wish that is incompatible with the dignity, happiness, and true interest of the people of this country. My ardent desire is, and my aim has been, so far as depended upon the Executive Department, to comply strictly with all our engagement, foreign and domestic: but to keep the United States free from political connections with every other country, to see them independent of all, and under the influence of none. In a word, I want an AMERICAN CHARACTER, that the powers of Europe may be convinced we act for ourselves, and not for others. This, in my judgment, is the only way to be respected abroad, and happy at home.—George Washington.
There was never a time when we had a right to feel prouder of our country. We take, every ten years, a census of our material advancement. I wish we might take, once in a while, a census of brave deeds and brave thoughts; a census which would show the progress of the people of our Republic in heroism, in patriotism, in the instinct of honor, in the sense of duty. I know that our history at this hour is full of good hope.
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There never was a people who, as to the great subjects of public conduct, were actuated by a finer, by a profounder sense of duty and a clearer sense of justice than the people of the United States in this generation and at this hour.—George F. Hoar.
We shall never be successful over the dangers that confront us; we shall never achieve true greatness, nor reach the lofty ideal which the founders and preservers of our mighty Federal Republic have set before us, unless we are Americans in heart and soul, in spirit and purpose, keenly alive to the responsibility implied in the very name of American, and proud beyond measure of the glorious privilege of bearing it.—Theodore Roosevelt. I
We know as well as any other class of American citizens where our duties belong. We will work for our country in time of peace and fight for it in time of war, if a time of war should ever come. When I say our country, I mean, of course, our adopted country. I mean the United States of America. After passing through the crucible of naturalization we are no longer Germans; we are Americans. Our attachment to America cannot be measured by the length of our residence here. We are Americans from the moment ,ve touch the American shore until we are laid in American graves. We will fight for America whenever necessary. America, first, last, and all the time. America against Germany, America against the world; America, right or wrong; always America. We are Americans.—Richard Guenther, of Wisconsin, in a speech at the time of the Samoan trouble.
Men who wish to work for decent politics must work practically, v and yet must not swerve from their devotion to a high ideal. They must actually do things, and not merely confine themselves to criticising those who do them. They must work disinterestedly, and appeal to the disinterested element in others, although they must also do work which will result in the material betterment of the community. They must act as Americans through and through, in spirit and hope and purpose, and, while being disinterested, unselfish and generous in their dealings with others, they must also show that they possess the essen—tial manly virtues of energy, of resolution. and of indomitable personal courage.—Theodore Roosevelt.
Citizenship has its duties as well as its privileges. The first is that we give our energies and influence to the enactment of just, equal and beneficent laws. The second is like unto it: that we loyally reverence and obey the will of the majority, whether we are of the majority or not; the law throws the aegis of its protection over us all. There is an open avenue through the ballot-box for the modification or repeal of laws that are unjust or oppressive. To the law we bow with reverence. It is the one king that commands our allegiance.—Benjamin Harrison.
Constitutions do not make people; people make constitutions. Our constitution is great and admirable, because the men who made it were so and the people who ratified it and have lived under it were and are brave, intelligent, and lovers of liberty. There is a higher sanction and a surer protection to life and liberty, to the right of free speech and trial by jury, to justice and humanity, in the traditions, the beliefs, the habits of mind, and the character of the American people than any which can be afforded by any constitution, no matter how wisely drawn. If the American people were disposed to tyranny, injustice and oppression, a constitution would offer but a temporary barrier to their ambitions, and the reverence for the constitution, and for law and justice, grows out of the fact that the American people believe in freedom and humanity, in equal justice to all men and in equal rights before the law, and while they so believe the great doctrine of the Declaration of Independence and of the Constitution will never be in peril.—Henry Cabot Lodge, Speech on the adoption of the SpanishAmerican Treaty, United States Senate, January 24, 1899.
Let reverence of the law be breathed by every mother to the lisping babe that prattles on her lap; let it be taught in schools, seminarie , and colleges; let it be written in primers, spelling-books, and almanacs; let it be preached from pulpits, and proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice; in short, let it become the political religion of the Nation.—Abraham Lincoln.