The Wonderful Story of Washington Part 12

CHAPTER XVI

STANDARDS OF AMERICAN PATRIOTISM

I. FOUNDATIONS

The fundamental statement of American democracy and freedom is to be found in the first two paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence and in the preamble of the Const.i.tution. That keynote of humanity there expressed is as follows:

"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 inst.i.tuted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to inst.i.tute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

The unity of purpose, hereditary in responsibility to all native Americans, and sworn to as the accepted duty of all naturalized citizens, is expressed in the last sentence of the Declaration:

"And, for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."

The preamble of the Const.i.tution reaffirms and reinforces the American ideal of a progressive and perfective striving toward a government "of the people, by the people and for the people."

It is as follows:

"We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Const.i.tution of the United States of America."

The oath of allegiance into which we are born, and which becomes the measure of every possible American, contains the following inescapable responsibility:

"I, ----, do solemnly affirm that I will support and defend the Const.i.tution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office which I am about to enter: So help me G.o.d."

II. FREEDOM OF THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE

The Farewell Address of Was.h.i.+ngton to Congress contains advice on our foreign relations which is part of any study of his life. The most important of this is as follows: "The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is, in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop.

"Europe has a set of primary interests which to us have none, or a very remote, relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves by artificial ties in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friends.h.i.+ps or enmities.

"Our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to pursue a different course. If we remain one people, under an efficient government, the period is not far off when we may defy material injury from external annoyance; when we may take such an att.i.tude as will cause the neutrality we may at any time resolve upon to be scrupulously respected; when belligerent nations, under the impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not lightly hazard the giving us provocation; when we may choose peace or war, as our interest, guided by justice, shall counsel.

"Why forego the advantages of as peculiar a situation? Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivals.h.i.+p, interest, humor or caprice?

"It is our duty to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world; so far, I mean, as we are now at liberty to do it; for let me not be understood as capable of patronizing infidelity to existing engagements. I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs that honesty is always the best policy.

"Taking care always to keep ourselves, by suitable establishments, on a respectable defensive posture, we may safely trust to temporary alliances for extraordinary emergencies."

Was.h.i.+ngton in his will, disposing of his swords, says, "These swords are accompanied with an injunction not to unsheath them for the purpose of shedding blood except it be for self-defense, or in defense of their country and its rights, and in the latter case to keep them unsheathed, and prefer falling with them in their hands to the relinquishment thereof."

Related to the Farewell Address and as a corollary to it is what is known as "The Monroe Doctrine."

The "Monroe Doctrine" as a policy of the United States is founded upon two pa.s.sages in President Monroe's message to Congress on Dec. 2, 1823. These pa.s.sages follow:

"In the discussion to which this interest has given rise, and in the arrangements by which they may terminate, the occasion has been deemed proper for a.s.serting, as a principle in which rights and interests of the United States are involved, that the American continents, by the free and independent condition which they have a.s.sumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European power....

"We owe it, therefore, to candor and to the amicable relations existing between the United States and those powers to declare that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. With the existing colonies or dependencies of any European power we have not interfered and shall not interfere. But with the governments who have declared their independence and maintain it, and whose independence we have, on great consideration and on just principles, acknowledged, we could not view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them or controlling in any other manner their destiny by any European power in any other light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States."

Two notable explanations have been given, as follows:

Secretary of State Olney in his dispatch of July 20, 1895, on the Venezuelan boundary dispute, said:

"It (the Monroe Doctrine) does not establish any general protectorate by the United States over other American States.

It does not relieve any American State from its obligations as fixed by international law, nor prevent any European power directly interested from enforcing such obligations or from inflicting merited punishment for the breach of them."

President Roosevelt, in a speech in 1902 upon the results of the Spanish-American war, said:

"The Monroe Doctrine is simply a statement of our very firm belief that the nations now existing on this continent must be left to work out their own destinies among themselves, and that this continent is no longer to be regarded as the colonizing ground of any European power. The one power on the continent that can make the power effective is, of course, ourselves; for in the world as it is, a nation which advances a given doctrine, likely to interfere in any way with other nations, must possess the power to back it up, if it wishes the doctrine to be respected."

President Wilson in an address to the Senate of the United States, Jan. 22, 1917, advised an American interest in an extension of the Monroe Doctrine. The main points were as follows:

"No peace can last, or ought to last, which does not recognize and accept the principle that governments derive all their just powers from the consent of the governed, and that no right anywhere exists to hand people about from sovereignty to sovereignty as if they were property.

"I am proposing, as it were, that the nations should with one accord adopt the doctrine of President Monroe as the doctrine of the world: That no nation should seek to extend its policy over any other nation or people, but that every people should be left free to determine its own policy, its own way of development, unhindered, unthreatened, unafraid, the little along with the great."

III. THE LOYALTY OF YOUTH

Rome and Greece in their age of world dominion were great because of the loyalty and n.o.bility of their youth. Patriotism is by no means a modern virtue, and it is often wondered if the youth of the new world is alive to their country's honor equal to the youth of the ancient world.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Was.h.i.+ngton Tomb--Mount Vernon, Virginia.]

An example of that ancient patriotism may be shown in the oath of the young men of Athens. It is as follows:

"We will never bring disgrace to this our city by any act of dishonesty or cowardice, nor ever desert our suffering comrades in the ranks. We will fight for the ideals and sacred things of the city, both alone and with many; we will revere and obey the city's laws and do our best to incite a like respect and reverence in those about us who are p.r.o.ne to annul or set them at naught; we will strive unceasingly to quicken the public's sense of civic duty. Thus in all these ways we will transmit this city not only not less but greater, better and more beautiful than it was transmitted to us."

The young men of revolutionary times were full of "the Spirit of '76."

During the troublous days of near-war with France, in the administration of John Adams, the young men were eager to sustain their country's honor. As a good example, we may read with profit the address of the Harvard College students, which was published in _The Boston Centinel_, May 19, 1798:

"ADDRESS TO HIS EXCELLENCY JOHN ADAMS, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

"Sir: We flatter ourselves you will not be displeased at hearing that the walls of your native seminary are now inhabited by youth possessing sentiments congenial with your own. We do not pretend to great political sagacity; we wish only to convince mankind that we inherit the intrepid spirit of our ancestors and disdain submission to the will of a rapacious, lawless and imperious nation. Though removed from active life, we have watched with anxiety the interests of our country. We have seen a nation in Europe grasping at universal conquest, trampling on the laws of G.o.d and nations, systematizing rapine and plunder, destroying foreign governments by the strength of her arms or the pestilence of her embraces and scattering principles which subvert social order, raise the storms of domestic faction and perpetuate the horrors of revolution. We have seen this same nation violating our neutral rights, spurning our pacific proposals, her piratical citizens sweeping our s.h.i.+ps from the seas and venal presses under her control pouring out torrents of abuse on men who have grown gray in our service. We have seen her ministers in this country insulting our government by a daring, unprecedented and contemptuous appeal to the people, and her agents at home offering conditions which slaves whose necks have grown to the yoke would reject with indignation. We have seen this, sir, and our youthful blood has boiled within us.

When, in opposition to such conduct, we contemplate the measures of our own government, we cannot but admire and venerate the unsullied integrity, the decisive prudence and dignified firmness which have uniformly characterized your administration. Impressed with these sentiments, we now solemnly offer the unwasted ardor and unimpaired energies of our youth to the service of our country. Our lives are our only property; and we were not the sons of those who sealed our liberties with their blood if we would not defend with these lives that soil which now affords a peaceful grave to the mouldering bones of our forefathers."

That address lets us into the feeling of patriotism that animated the people in the days of Was.h.i.+ngton and the making of America. We can easily imagine the makers of that address as being fired with fervor from the eloquence of Patrick Henry, the bold a.s.sertions of Thomas Paine, and the unanswerable logic of Thomas Jefferson.

Only a few years before, in the dark hours of his country, Thomas Paine had put new life into the sorely pressed people by his patriotic pamphlets, from one of which we quote these words:

"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the suns.h.i.+ne patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it _now_ deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like h.e.l.l, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.

What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: 'tis dearness only that gives everything its value.

"Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial article as _freedom_ should not be highly rated."

Was.h.i.+ngton's labor was likewise lightened by the inspiring patriotism of many other n.o.ble makers of the new America.

Thomas Jefferson, who became the third president, was of priceless service. His call to American patriotism may be well ill.u.s.trated in a few of his most quoted statements:

"The man who loves his country on its own account, and not merely for its trappings of interest or power, can never be divorced from it, can never refuse to come forward when he finds that it is engaged in dangers which he has the means of warding off."