USA > California > Addresses delivered before the California Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, 1917 > Part 4
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The nation generally has heeded this advice, and one magnificent result is that today we have three million more pupils in our Publie Schools, than there were votes cast in the last Presidential election. Continuing he said: "As a very important source of strength and security, cherish public credit." No comfort in that for repudiators or fiat money demagogues. "One method of preserving public credit is to use it as sparingly as possible (no suggestion of the Pork Barrel here), avoid occasions of expense by cultivating peace, but remember, also, that timely disbursements to prepare for danger, frequently prevent much greater disbursements to repel it."
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No militarism in this but wise counsel that will be heeded by every American not blinded by the idiotic sentimentality that would rely upon the altruism, amiability and unselfishness of other nations for protection, and if these were not potent, then welcome the in- vaders with hymns of praise and wreaths of victory while they forced their attentions upon our loved ones, shot those of us who objected, looted our treasure and plundered our homes.
It seems strange to me and beyond my understanding how men, and women, too, outside of lunatic asylums or homes for the feeble minded, can advocate such a reception for our country's foes. Cer- tainly the Daughters and Sons of the American Revolution, who glory in the valor, sacrifice and achievements of their sires, should not keep quiet when the paid apostles of the Peace-at-any-Price propa- ganda are ranting up and down our land and across the ocean, ex- posing us to the scorn and contempt of peoples who are freely, will- ingly pouring out their blood in defense of their several Fatherlands.
If Washington, first in peace, was alive today, these peace fanatics would brand him as allied to the Ammunition Factories and a tool of the Armor Trust.
He urged us to "Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with a * * * In the ex- . ecution of such a plan, nothing is more essential than that perma- nent inveterate antipathies against particular nations, and passionate attachment for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated. * . Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to believe me, fellow citizens), the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake; since history and experience prove the foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of Republican Government. But that jealousy, to be useful, must be impartial; else it becomes the instrument of the very influence to be avoided, instead of a defense against it."
The prophetic wisdom and absolute need of this caution has been constantly before us for the past eighteen months-let each of you consider whether individually you have not had "antipathies against" and "attachment for" some of the belligerents, that was due to the wiles of foreign influence. We shall need his counsel more and more as the tragic events of this great war continue.
Lack of time prevents but one more extended quotation from this great paper : !
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"The great rule of conduct for us is, in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible.
* Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us has none, or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the courses of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate our- selves, by artificial ties in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary combinations and collusions of her friendship or enmity. Our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to pursue a different course. If we remain one people, under an efficient gov- ernment, the period is not far off when we may defy material injury from external annoyance; when we may take such an attitude as will cause the neutrality we may at any time resolve upon to be scrupu- lously respected; when belligerent nations, under the impossibility of making acquisitions, will not lightly hazard the giving us provocation ; when we may choose peace or war, as our interest, guided by our justice, shall counsel. * * Constantly keeping in view, that it is
folly in one nation to look for disinterested favor from another. #. There can be no greater error than to expect or calculate upon real favors from nation to nation. It is an illusion which ex- perience must cure, which a just pride ought to discard."
These are all golden words, expressing pearls of wisdom. Let us not trample them in the mire or mawkish sentimentality.
Today, our country, which seems so secure, so peaceful, so pros- perous, with tremendous potential strength, is facing dangers and re- sponsibilities equal to those of '61.
We have now, perhaps through no fault of our own, the hatred of every belligerent nation of Europe and Asia. They know our wealth; they know our present available military strength in soldiers, arms, ships, ammunition and military supplies generally; they know how long it takes to make soldiers out of raw levies; they know that we have a vigorous, vocal and busy Peace-at-any-Price party who for years have been teaching the Psychology of Treason, endeavoring to undermine all national spirit, to destroy national ideals and hold patriotism up to ridicule. Knowing these facts, and they do know them, do you imagine any one of the five principal powers would hesi- tate to invade us, with the hope and expectation of recouping their financial losses in this war, if they were not held in check by fear of some of their late adversaries or allies ?
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Are we willing to have our peace and security rest upon the un- stable foundation of international alliances, which make as strange bed-fellows as do corrupt politics? Such was not Washington's opin- ion. He expected his fellow citizens to be self-reliant and not depend upon the fickle favor of other nations. He thought then that "there is a rank due the United States, among nations, which will be with- held, if not absolutely lost, by a reputation for weakness. If we would avoid insult we must be able to repel it, if we desire peace it must be known that we are at all times ready for war."
Are we able to repel insult ?
Are we ready for war?
With bowed head and blushing cheeks we must answer, we are not able to repel insult and we are not ready for war.
Tonight mine's the task to tell you why we are not, why we have neglected Washington's advice, supported as it was by Grant, who, eighty-nine years later when the Angel of Death was hovering over him, said, in the conclusion of his memoirs; "To maintain peace in the future it is necessary to be prepared for war, and unless we are prepared for it we may be in danger of a combined movement being some day made to crush us out." And supported also by all experience since the dawn of history.
At the close of the Civil War, we had the strongest navy and the most invincible army of the world and our people were animated by & spirit of devotion to principle and national honor, so strong as to take little account of personal sacrifice; for four years we had battled until there was hardly a real American home that had not offered loved ones as a sacrifice upon some bloody field of glorious endeavor and our people were tired of war. Few realize that in our Civil War the percentum of killed in the United States, North and South, in proportion to the population, was just about the same as that suffered by Germany up to the present time. Grant's "Let us have peace," struck a responsive chord in every heart and we only thought of peace and money. Beneficial as both are, too much of either is enervating.
Then sprung up the Professional Peace Advocate. People liked to hear them talk of universal and perpetual. peace; didn't stop to con- sider their logic and didn't think they could do any harm.
Many sensible people do not stop to think that fourteen per cent of our white population were foreign born, with a natural, undying love
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for the land of their birth which naturalization cannot change, and twenty per cent more have foreign-born parents, this does not in- clude Negroes or Asiatics, who comprise eleven per cent more, and that their American Nationalism might need stimulation rather than obliteration, that these people needed to be impressed with intelligent pride in our country's history, and that they, and all other Americans should be made to understand that our country has a just right to demand of every citizen, when necessary, the supreme sacrifice, and that true patriotism knows no hyphen. In war, that State is pro- portionately strongest which has the most homogeneous population, un- fortunately ours is a heterogeneous people.
Today the most powerful factor in the strength of the states at war is their homogeneity, a love of fatherland which places every drop of blood and every dollar at the disposal of their several governments.
This vigorous, vocal and busy Peace-at-any-Price League, while fighting viciously for mental and material unpreparedness, are also teaching the Psychology of Treason, endeavoring to undermine all national spirit, whereas I have shown it is none too strong, trying to destroy national traditions and ideals, and hold patriotism up to ridicule.
Theories, not conditions, interested them. Before the close of the last century they had proclaimed that there could be no more war. Then came the Boxer war and the invasion of China by the civilized world, and excepting the United States, every nation intended to commit grand larceny upon Chinese territory. This was explained as a mere outburst of the heathen which must be crushed and was, like Patti's farewell tours, positively the last. Then came the gigantie Russo-Japanese contest. This really didn't count, and, anyway, was absolutely the last. Then came the awful mixup of Christian and Turk, followed by the more diabolical and fiendish quarrel of the Christians among themselves over the division of the loot. These wars were each in turn to be the final windup of all war. Strange as it may seem, these false prophecies acted like persecution upon religion; each was the seed of the ultra-pacifist propaganda; after each exposure they became more vigorous, more vocal, if possible, and more positive. Then came the greatest war of history and these militant pacifists almost welcomed it as the unmistakable sign that war would be obliterated and peace forever reign in a regenerated world.
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Of course, during all these years a few thinking men modestly advised some preparedness for preserving peace, but they were either laughed to scorn as old fogies or abused as soldiers who loved war, or as corrupt agents of those who expected to profit by any preparedness for preventing war, and the result of this campaign has been to create in the minds of many a hatred of the doctrine of self-defense, an an- tagonism against any preparation to avoid war, the creation of a mental desire for peace so strong as to obliterate patriotism, national pride, honor, and self-reliance and create a flabby people destitute of moral stamina and all the heroic virtues that have distinguished Americans since 1776.
My compatriots, friends :
We all deplore war as did our greatest compatriot, but like him, let us love, honor and cherish our self-respect more. Let the farewell words of Washington guide us in peace and if we must uphold na- tional integrity by arms, must defend our civilization, our institutions, our laws, loved ones, homes and all that manly men and womanly women hold dear, animate our people with patriotism, humanity, faith in the justice of our cause, a spirit of willing sacrifice if need be, and then, if we are prepared, as Washington always expected us to be, the world will not prevail against us.
"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends," saith the Lord-Greater patriotism hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his country.
Let us each and all strive to create such a national feeling that if ever the time should come, which may God forbid, that we must go to war:
"We'll prepare, If they dare, You will go just like your daddy did before You'll be there, You'll be there, For our race was never known to run.
Should they come, we'll meet them gun to gun, North and South, yes, every mother's son, You'll be there, You'll be there."
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THE SPIRIT OF 1776
By Harold McMurry, Class of 1917, Turlock High School.
This essay won the first prize of $25 offered the students of the High Schools of California by California Society Sons of the Ameri- can Revolution in 1916, for the best essay written on the subject.
"The glory of the Present is to make the Future free."
In these simple words of Van Dyke are concentrated the essential spirit of America, which has always marked her actions as a Nation, and which first reached its full significance at the period under con- sideration. In all the actions and writings of the patriots the opposi- tion was not directed so much against the acts of the British govern- ment, trivial as most of them in themselves were, as against the spirit which prompted those acts, which might in future times act more harshly upon those ideals which the colonists had justly set up for themselves.
The Revolution was no common strife of momentary interest. It marked the appearance on the horizon of the world's political ideals of a brilliant star which has constantly become brighter and which opposition has only made more luminous. The Revolution was no mere complaint of a few people against paltry taxes. It represented the noble disapproval of the underlying political and economic soph- isms which were concretely expressed by seeming unimportant taxes.
We must not, however, in considering this subject, regard England as the enemy. This wrong attitude of mind has caused much bitter feeling in times past. It was not a struggle between two nations, but a strife between two parties, representing different economic and political systems. Some in America upheld England's policy as firmly as did the administrators at Westminister and some in England, represented by Fox, Chatham and Burke were as much patriots as John Adams and George Washington.
Nor must we look upon the Revolution selfishly, as our own struggle for independence. If we call it a struggle for independence then in its results it belongs rather to Britain than us, for it caused the English people to regain their freedom, while with us it was a contest to preserve freedom. It was as though the wheel of British liberty, which had begun revolving in 1215 and had whirled back and
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forth between two ideas of government, had, during its revolution, loosed from its circumference a new conception of liberty in the col- onists, which being freed from its orbit had traveled in a straight line to its natural evolution, while the wheel, which had thrown it into that straight path, had traveled back again in its limited orbit. Then came the clash when that government tried to assert its power over the people who, for more than a century, had not realized its growing dominance. The Liberty of the colonies, whirled from its mother wheel had not become aware that that wheel had whirled again to the opposite extreme.
As is hardly necessary to say, the predominating spirit of the colonies was freedom. From this keystone branched all other feelings- all actions led to this main ideal. But remember it was Freedom- not Independence-perhaps even as late as 1776. For in spite of the fact that independence was always latent in the colonies, and though that was the year of our immortal Declaration, had England suggested some means toward freedom with some guarantee that it would be carried out, the Revolution would probably have ceased.
Because of this very spirit, the patriots have been subjected to at- tacks by numerous historians. They have been called double-faced, for with all their protestations of loyalty they showed their insincerity by rebelling and some who had been most prominent in assuring Eng- land of their loyalty signed the Declaration. But these charges are false. The Declaration was adopted by these leaders when they saw that the administrators at Westminster were too thick-headed to ever appreciate the real spirit of the colonies. They saw that what they at first looked upon as a tragedy was now a necessity.
There are five causes for the spirit of Freedom in the colonies which show how this spirit evolved and, in a measure, show its nature and define it. The first of these is the colonist's descent. They were Anglo-Saxon and had Anglo-Saxon ideals of freedom. Large num- bers had emigrated from Britain when this spirit was at its maximum, and in them the very highest. Now the Anglo-Saxon ideal has some- how always been concretely summed up in the idea of inseparability of taxation and representation. So in taxing the colonists without their consent the home government struck the tap-root of their liberty.
The energy of the religion of the northern colonists was one of the greatest forces for independence. The relation of these religious principles to political affairs is rather hazy and difficult to trace as compared with the distinct and positive agencies in secular affairs, but there is no doubt that it was present. Protestantism, always a re-
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ligion of dissent, was here crystallized into a dissidence of dissent. They had left England when this spirit was highest and in them the highest of all. They represented the Protestants of the Protestants. It was not fanatical, but always held the patriots in check and gave a peculiar religious color to their actions never before or after mani- fested in any political revolution. All was attempted with a sublime solemnity which has since given a peculiar altruistic attitude to all our governmental transactions with other nations.
In the South where this religious power was not present another took its place. The slave system which had grown up there had given a peculiar regard for freedom to those not in slavery. They looked upon their freedom as a privilege, and while this sentiment was not as noble as that animating the North, it was as powerful, and lent a certain degree of necessary and proper pride to the total of good national qualities given by this period to future generations.
The provincial assemblies also built up this spirit. The colonists had a share in their own government which they had never had at home. They were gradually inspired with lofty sentiments and they formed a strong aversion to whatever tended to deprive them of their rights.
From this arose a more common education than was known in any other country. Their part in the government inspired a desire for education in those things which would best fit them to their task. It is said that more books on law were sold in the colonies at this period than in all Britain herself. By this education they were able to gain an acute sagacity and an inquisitive spirit which soon en- abled them to see the underlying danger of the taxes which on the surface looked harmless and just.
Nothing strikes us with more force when we study this period than the sanity with which the patriots undertook their great enter- prise. The common sympathy of the colonists was shown in the ex- pression of condolence which Virginia formally rendered to Massa- chusetts in the closing of Boston. It did not last very long, true, but it served its purpose at the time of greatest affliction and it is re- markable that it was ever present when the difficulty of communica- tion and the conflicting interests are considered. There was a danger of anarchy, yet in spite of it there was made the noblest government created by man. There was no common passion; there were no petty outbursts of hate; there was a serious, religious attitude of mind; an example was set for future Americans.
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We see in it all a just pride in freedom, a singular moderation, a shrewd sagacity mocking shams, a skepticism of traditions, an essen- tial religiousness, a sublime nobleness of purpose, an assumption of spiritual, intellectual, and individual liberty, which, although in our national spirit and ideals still, seems increasingly difficult to find, it being so covered up by the sordid mercenary ideals which seem to characterize us today.
ADDRESS AT THE PRESENTATION OF THE HOUDON STATUE OF GEORGE WASHINGTON at the Palace of Fine Arts. By GEORGE C. SARGENT
San Francisco, May 30, 1917.
The personality of Washington does not suffer with the lapse of time. He is like a great mountain that grows higher and higher, and broader and broader, as one places mile after mile between one's self and its base. The forests and foothills that hide the top on nearer view, fade away until nothing is left but one great, towering over- powering mass that dominates the landscape, so that one can neither look at nor think of anything else. Such was Washington. The men of his time who fought and struggled and schemed and hoped and feared, have sunk into the oblivion from which they came; and the few really great names which have come down to us, serve only to make manifest the greater greatness of Washington himself. He was a colossal figure in the history of his time. He is a colossal figure in the history of the Anglo-Saxon race-a colossal figure in the history of the world.
Wherever the Caucasian race exists, his name is honored. There is hardly an important town in Italy that has not its Hotel Washing- ton. In France his name, associated with that of Lafayette, means liberty and death to the ancient regime. I venture to say that in the Duma his name is often upon the lips of those who are trying to bring that distracted country to liberty and to light. In Germany it is honored by the liberal classes; and even in court circles he is looked upon with mingled admiration and surprise-surprise that anyone should let such opportunities slip. In England he is better under-
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stood; and there is not a reflecting Englishman who does not realize that he was fighting their battles; that on Long Island, at Trenton, on the Brandywine, and a Yorktown his victory meant their victory, and his defeat, the death of parliamentary government in England. It is altogether fitting, therefore, that the former prime minister of Eng- land, as soon as possible after his arrival in this country, should make a pilgrimage to Mount Vernon, and there bare-headed lay chaplet of flowers upon the modest tomb that contains the remains of the greatest man the Anglo-Saxon race ever produced.
Washington had a wonderfully rounded character. There are few men like him in history. The only one of whom I can think was Shakespeare, whose character was well developed in all directions. Washington might be called the Shakespeare of state-craft.
He was a great soldier. No one less than a genius could have kept together an army which retreated from defeat to defeat; no one possessed of less than the highest military talent could have kept the army together at Valley Forge. There are many generals who can march from victory to victory and carry on a spectacular career of conquest when they have the force with which to do it. There are some generals who can so delay the enemy that he will ultimately suc- cumb-such was Fabius. But there are few generals who can pass suddenly from a most discouraging defensive to a cyclonic offensive, as Washington did when he found himself temporarily in superior force and rushed to Yorktown to bottle up Cornwallis, force his sur- render and bring the Revolution to a glorious end.
It was knowledge of these things that made Frederick the Great send Washington a sword with the message that it was from the oldest living general to the greatest living general.
Washington was not only a soldier, but a great statesman. It is rare that one finds these traits combined in the same man. After the Revolution, the Continental Congress was overwhelmed with' debt. It could borrow, but it could not pay ; it could not raise a dollar by taxation-it could not raise a man for its army. Public credit, there was none; business had stagnated and anarchy was impending. In this state of things, it was felt necessary that a Constitution should be adopted in order that a better government might be created; and Washington by unanimous consent was called to preside over the convention. There is no doubt that his moderation of character and wisdom contributed in no small degree to moderate the debates of that convention which at times were stormy to the point of shipwreck.
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