USA > Washington DC > Washington DC > The Society of the Sons of the Revolution in the District of Columbia > Part 3
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We have the duty to preserve the inherited covenant of the fathers; we have the obligation to hand on to succeeding genera- tions the very Republic which we inherited. If this generation will not sacrifice and suffer in this crisis of the world, the Republic is doomed. If this fortunate people can not prove popular govern- ment capable of defense in a war for national rights, popular government fails. If the impudent assumption of world domin- ation is not thwarted by the entente allies and this people, then civilization itself is defeated. Never since the world began has any nation been able to dominate the world. A mighty, righteous people may influence and help mankind, and I have wished that noble task for this Republic, but domination is for God alone, and His agency is the universal brotherhood of man.
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There is one compensation in the very beginning. We are finding ourselves. From this day henceforth we are to be an American people in fact as well as name. Consecration to America is the deliberate and unalterable decree. The dedicating altars are erected and are free as liberty itself. Now and hereafter the individual, no matter who he is or whence he comes, who proclaims himself an American and fattens his existence on American oppor- tunity, must be an American in his heart and soul. More, the American of to-day, to-morrow, and so long as the Republic endures and triumphs, must be schooled to the duties of citizen- ship which go with the privileges and advantages thereof, and men and women of America are to find what they can do for orderly government instead of seeking what it can do for them.
Solemnly, my countrymen, this is an epoch in human affairs. The world is in upheaval. There is more than war and its meas- ureless cost. Civilization is in a fluid state. All existent forms of government are being tested, and the very fundamentals of human achievement are in question. In this hour of reverent memory for the beloved Father of our Country, in this wholesome retro- spection of the miracle wrought by the founders, in the hurried contemplation of the marvelous achievements of our people to whom they gave an immortal beginning, let us strive to appreciate their wisdom and our good fortune and commit ourselves anew to the essential preservation.
I wonder what the great Washington would utter in warning, in his passionate love of the Republic and his deep concern about future welfare, if he could know the drift of to-day? In his undying farewell address his repeated anxiety was concerning jealousies and heartburnings which spring from distrust and factional mis- representations-"they tend to rend alien to each other those who ought to be bound together by fraternal affection."
And he warned us that "respect for authority, compliance with its laws, acquiescence in its measures are duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims of true liberty." "Liberty itself will find in such a government, with powers properly distributed and adjusted, its surest guardian. It is, indeed, little less than a name where the government is too feeble to withstand the enterprises of faction * * and to maintain all in the secure and tranquil enjoyment of rights and property."
Alluding to parties, more comparable to factions in our citizen- ship of the present day, he warned against "the spirit having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled or repressed, but in those of popular form it is seen in its greatest rankness and is truly their worst enemy."
In our mighty development we have added to the perils of which Washington warned. The danger has not been in party
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association, but in party appeal or surrender to faction. There has been no partisan politics in our war preparation. On the con- trary, partisan lines have been effaced, to close up the ranks in patriotic devotion. But factions have grown more menacing and hold their factional designs more necessary than patriotic con- secration.
It is characteristic of popular government, and its weakness, that there is more appeal to popularity than concern for the common weal. Too many men in public life are more concerned about ballots than the bulwarks of free institutions. Our growth, our diversification, our Nation-wide communication, our profit- bearing selfishness-these have filled the land with organized factions, not geographical, as Washington so much feared, but commercial, industrial, agricultural, and professional, each seeking to promote the interests of its own, not without justification at times, but often a menace, in exacting privilege or favor through the utterance of political threats. If popular government is to survive it must grant exact justice to all men and fear none. If law is to be respected and government remain supreme, legislation must be for all the people, not for the few of vast fortune or its influences, or the few of commanding activity and their assump- tions, or the many who may assert political power in accordance with numerical strength. The Republic is of all the people, equal in their claims to civil liberty and the grant of opportunity, aye, and its righteous rewards. The anxieties of world conflict and the inevitable alterations must not blind us to the tasks of preservation.
If the war is to make of us, or of any national votary of modified democracy, an impotent people, paralyzed by revolutionary re- form, it is not worth the winning. If this world tumult is to leave wrecked hopes like that of chaotic Russia to prove that autocracy and unintelligent democracy have a common infamy, then civiliza- tion must have its purification in a penitence of failure and wrecked hopes and unspeakable sacrifices, until God in His mercy and wisdom restores sanity to mankind and admonishes men to achieve- ment over the proven paths of human progress. No thinking man can ignore the changes which war is working. But surely there is a righteous mean between the extremes of the expiring adherents of autocracy and the intoxicated radicals of deceived and demor- alized democracy. Let us prove the Republic the highest agency of humanity's just aspirations.
My countrymen, I am not crying out in a wilderness of pessimism, I am uttering a warning that comes of love for the Republic. Let us go on, no matter what betides, to the dependable establishment of our national rights and the safety of our peoples; yes, and the sustained hands of justice among the peoples of the earth. We are no longer able to hold aloof, and the world must
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be made safe to live in. Let us prove our unity-the common purpose and the unalterable purpose of all Americans to do that, and then let us dedicate ourselves in unity and concord and the same unalterable resolution to the preservation of the inherited Republic. I could utter a prayer for an American benediction, to bestow on us the wisdom, the devotion, the faith, and the willingness to sacrifice, which strengthened the fathers in their mighty tasks. I wish we might dwell in their simplicity and frugality and the freedom from envy which attended. I wish I might end the extravagence of government and of individual life which adds to unrest and rends our strength. It is our besetting sin. We need as much sober thought about what we spend as we need agitation about what we earn in every walk of life. No people shod in eighteen dollar shoes is equipped for the conquer- ing march of civilization.
We do not proclaim ours the perfect Republic, nor yet the ideal popular Government, but we do maintain it is the best and the freest that the world has ever known, and under it mankind has advanced and achieved as under none other since civilization dawned, and in good conscience and consecrated citizenship and abiding faith and high hope we mean, with God's good guidance, to go on to the fulfillment of the highest American destiny.
HEAD OF GEORGE WASHINGTON, AFTER SARGENT'S ENGRAVING OF GILBERT STUART'S PAINTING, USED ON PROGRAMS OF JOINT CELEBRATIONS OF WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY
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A CHALLENGE!
I AM an American. My father belongs to the Sons of the Revolution; My mother, to the Colonial Dames.
One of my ancestors pitched tea overboard in Boston Har- bor;
Another stood his ground with Warren;
Another hungered with Wash- ington at Valley Forge.
My forefathers were America in the making:
They spoke in her council halls; They died on her battle-fields;
They commanded her ships; They cleared her forests. Dawns reddened and paled.
Staunch hearts of mine beat fast at each new star
In the nation's flag.
Keen eyes of mine foresaw her greater glory: The sweep of her seas,
The plenty of her plains,
The man-hives in her billion- wired cities.
Every drop of blood in me holds a heritage of patriotism.
I am proud of my past. I am an American.
Ii AM an American. My father was an atom of of dust.
My mother a straw in the wind, To His Serene Majesty.
One of my ancestors died in the mines of Siberia;
Another was crippled for life by twenty blows of the knout; Another was killed defending his home during the massa- cres.
The history of my ancestors is a trail of blood
To the palace-gate of the Great White Czar.
But then the dream came --- The dream of America.
In the light of the Liberty torch The atom of dust became a man And the straw in the wind be- came a woman For the first time.
"See," said my father, pointing to the flag that fluttered near,
"That flag of stars and stripes is yours;
It is the emblem of the promised land.
It means, my son, the hope of humanity. Live for it-die for it!"
Under the open sky of my new country I swore to do so; And every drop of blood in me will keep that vow. I am proud of my future. I am an American.
-Elias Lieberman.
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THE ANSWER
Delivered on July 4, 1918, as an address of welcome by the President of the Sons of the Revolution to newly naturalized citizens at the Ameri- canization Day Ceremonies at the Washington Monument.
We are gathered here today for a Public Celebration of our Nat- ional Birthday. Following the annual custom of these Patriotic Societies, we have made especial effort to secure the attendance of many new citizens of foreign birth. We wish fittingly to observe this day as an Americanization Day. To you who have left your kindred in foreign lands to become Americans, we extend a hearty welcome. Since the coming here of the Pilgrim Fathers, and even before, a great experiment has been working on American shores. People of different races, creeds, conditions and aspirations have flocked here to found their homes. Here there is being fashioned a new people, all races of the civilized world are being blended under one banner.
President Wilson has said that America has not grown by multipli- cation from its original stock of the days preceding the Revolution. American stock, he says, has been constantly renewed, augmented and replenished by that of peoples who did not originate or even carry with them the same principles that moved those who established this Republic. A better understanding of those principles is, therefore, highly important to all of us. America should be a composite pur- poseful nation. America should attain that ideal under no other force than the compelling influence of affection, sympathy, and under- standing amongst all Americans.
We, the Sons of the Revolution and the Sons of the American Revo- lution, were founded, among other things, to maintain in our com- munities the proper appreciation and respect for the principles for which our patriot fathers contended. We stand today for what they stood-for freedom and equal opportunity for all. We have a plan or purpose for the future. In commemorating with you, our citizens of alien birth, this Independence Day, we have a solemn responsibility to meet, a sacred duty to fulfill.
We are descendants of immigrants like you, who came to these shores more than a century and a half ago-they came for much the same reason as you have more recently come. They did not believe in the Divine right of Kings; they were more concerned with the inalienable right of man. That dynastic conception of the state as a thing whose power and glory are the chief concern of the subject, regardless of the subject's individual happiness, was no part of their creed. The Government they founded is one where the people are citizens, not subjects; where the state is created for the people as their servant responsible for its acts directly to them.
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Now there are two constructive fundamental emotions upon which law, order and government can be based. One is love. The other is fear. Some of you know better than others how the cringing Prussian fears those in authority over him and you can believe, with me, that the throne of the Hohenzollerns is built upon a rock of universal fear, a fear engendered through generations of Germans by every conceivable means which organized Prussian oppression can invent. Today the German fights merely to have a chance to live. If he stops fighting in the hope of escaping death in front, punishment by death from behind awaits him. The German army is but an army of slaves. Against such an army America is sending a host of free men, animated by love for that representative government bequeathed to us by our fathers, with personal liberty as its guiding principle. The American effort and that of all peoples allied with them is one to preserve for posterity the government our fathers' blood purchased for us. We would endeavor to make clear on this Americanization Day, that America fights for one fundamental purpose-to maintain in this world free government. No class of citizens has a greater interest in such a defense of democratic principles than you, the alien born. Many of you know, better than the native American, the evils of the system from which we would escape. Our President has said "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." This war is to be prosecuted until peoples having the right to govern themselves shall obtain and exercise that right in per- fect safety. America never has fought for nor does she now seek to be a world power. But America has nothing to live for if Prussia becomes the one dominant power of the world.
And so it has come to pass that this great Nation, the people of this land of our birth and your choice with all that they have and all that we ever hope to have, has been pledged in this struggle against an attempt of brute force to rule the world. We who were born free with you who sought here to be free have willed that we all shall die free. Let us, therefore, highly resolve, on this Americanization Day, that the Old World and the New by the decision of this War shall become one world of freedom, justice and kindness, with love as its guiding principle. Only under such an inspiration and with the requisite force, can we hope to escape a World of Prussian tyranny, greed and brutality, founded upon hatred and fear.
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CONSTITUTION
1415249
Preamble
WHEREAS, It has become evident from the decline of proper cele- bration of such national holidays as the Fourth of July, Washington's Birthday, and the like, that popular interest in the events and men of the War of the Revolution is less than in the earlier days of the Republic; and
WHEREAS, This lack of interest is to be attributed not so much to lapse of time as to the neglect on the part of descendants of Revolu- tionary heroes to perform their duty of keeping before the public mind the memory of the services of their ancestors, and of the times in which they lived, and of the principles for which they contended ;
THEREFORE, The Society of the "Sons of the Revolution" has been instituted, to perpetuate the memory of the men who, in military, naval or civil service, by their acts or counsel, achieved American Independence; to promote and assist in the proper celebration of the anniversaries of Washington's Birthday, the Battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill, the Fourth of July, the Capitulations of Saratoga and Yorktown, the formal Evacuation of New York by the British Army, on the 3d of December, 1783, as a relinquishment of territorial sov- ereignty, and other prominent events relating to or connected with the War of the Revolution; to collect and secure for preservation the manuscript rolls, records and other documents and memorials relating to that War; to inspire among the members and their descendants the patriotic spirit of their forefathers; to inculcate in the community in general sentiments of nationality and respect for the' principles for which the patriots of the Revolution contended ; to assist in the com- memorative celebration of other great historical events of National importance, and to promote social intercourse and the feeling of fellow- ship among its members.
ARTICLE I. NAME OF SOCIETY.
The Society shall be known by the name, style and title of "The Sons of the Revolution in the District of Columbia."
ARTICLE II. MEMBERSHIP.
Any male person above the age of twenty-one years shall be eligible to membership in the "Sons of the Revolution" who is descended from
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an ancestor, as the propositus, who, either as a military, naval or marine officer, soldier, sailor, or marine, or official in the service of any one of the thirteen original Colonies or States, or of the National Government representing or composed of those Colonies or States, assisted in establishing American Independence during the War of the Revolution, between the 19th day of April, 1775, when hostilities commenced, and the 19th day of April, 1783, when they were ordered to cease.
Provided, That when the claim of eligibility is based on the service of an ancestor in the "minute-men" or "militia," it must be satisfac- torily shown that such ancestor was actually called into the service of the State or United States, and performed garrison or field duty; and
Provided further, That when the claim of eligibility is based on the service of an ancestor as a "sailor" or "marine," it must in like manner be shown that such service was other than shore duty and regularly performed in the Continental Navy, or the Navy of one of the original thirteen States, or on an armed vessel, other than a merchant ship, which sailed under letters of marque and reprisal, and that such ancestor of the applicant was duly enrolled in the ship's company, either as an officer, seaman, or otherwise than as a passenger ; and
Provided further, That when the claim of eligibility is based on the service of an ancestor as an "official," such service must have been per- formed in the Civil Service of the United States, or of one of the thirteen original States, and must have been sufficiently important in character to have rendered the official specially liable to arrest and im- prisonment, the same as a combatant, if captured by the enemy, as well as liable to conviction of treason against the Government of Great Britain.
Service in the ordinary duties of a civil office, the performance of which did not particularly and effectively aid the American Cause, shall not constitute eligibility.
In the construction of this article, the Volunteer Aides-de-Camp of General Officers in Continental Service, who were duly announced as such and who actually served in the field during a campaign, shall be comprehended as having performed qualifying service.
The civil officials and military forces of the State of Vermont, dur- ing the War of the Revolution, shall also be comprehended in the same manner as if they had belonged to one of the thirteen original States.
No service of an ancestor shall be deemed as qualifying service for membership in the "Sons of the Revolution" where such ancestor, after assisting in the cause of American Independence, shall have sub- sequently either adhered to the enemy, or failed to maintain an hon- orable record throughout the War of the Revolution.
No person shall be admitted unless he be eligible under one of the provisions of this Article nor unless he be of good moral character and be judged worthy of becoming a member.
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ARTICLE III. OFFICERS.
The officers of the Society of "The Sons of the Revolution" shall be a President, a Vice-President, a Secretary, a Treasurer, a Registrar, and a Chaplain, who shall be chosen by ballot at every annual meeting from among the members thereof.
ARTICLE IV. BOARD OF MANAGERS.
The Board of Managers of the Society shall be fifteen, namely: The President, the Vice-President, the Secretary, the Treasurer, the Registrar, and the Chaplain, ex-officio, and nine others, who shall be chosen by ballot at every annual meeting from among the members of the Society.
ARTICLE V. ADMISSION OF MEMBERS.
Every application for membership shall be made in writing, sub- scribed by the applicant and approved by two members over their signatures. Applications shall contain, or be accompanied by, proof of eligibility, and such applications and proof shall be submitted to the Board of Managers, who shall have full power to determine the quali- fications of the applicant.
Payment of the initiation fee and subscription to the declaration required by the Constitution of this Society shall be a prerequisite of membership.
ARTICLE VI. DECLARATION.
Every member shall declare upon honor that he will endeavor to promote the purposes of this Institution and observe the "Constitu- tion" and "By-Laws" of this Society, and, if he be a citizen of the United States, shall declare that he will support the Constitution of the United States. Such a declaration shall be in writing, and sub- scribed by the member making it.
ARTICLE VII. INSTITUTION CONSIDERED.
At every meeting the purposes of the Institution will be fully con- sidered and the best measures to promote them adopted. No question, however, involving the party politics of the day within the United States shall ever be discussed or considered in any meeting of "The Sons of the Revolution."
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ARTICLE VIII. COMMEMORATIONS.
It shall be a standing regulation that the members shall, when practicable, hold a commemorative celebration at least once every year.
ARTICLE IX. SEAL.
The seal of the Society of "The Sons of the Revolution" shall be one and seven-eighths of an inch in diameter, and shall consist of the figure of a "Minute-man" in Continental uniform, standing on a ladder leading to a belfry, and holding in his left hand a musket and an olive branch, and grasping in his right hand a bell-rope. Above the cracked "Liberty bell," issuing therefrom a ribbon, bearing the motto of the "Sons of the Revolution," "Exegi monumentum aere perennius." Across the top of the ladder, on a ribbon, the figures "1776," and at the left of the Minute-man, and also on a ribbon, the figures "1883," the year of the Centennial commemoration of the permanent evacuation by the British army of American territory ; the whole encircled by a band three-eighths of an inch wide; thereon at the top thirteen stars of five points each, and at the bottom the legend, "Sons of the Revolution."
The Secretary shall be the custodian of the seal, which shall be identical in every particular with this description.
ARTICLE X. INSIGNIA.
The insignia of "The Sons of the Revolution" shall consist of a badge pendent from a ribbon by a ring of gold.
The badge shall be elliptical in form, with escalloped edges, one and one-quarter inches in length, and one and one-eighth inches in width; the whole surmounted by a gold eagle, with wings displayed, inverted. On the obverse side a medallion of gold in the center, elliptical in form, bearing on its face the figure of a soldier in Con- tinental uniform, with musket slung. Beneath the figures "1775," the medallion surrounded by thirteen raised gold stars of five points each upon a border of dark blue enamel.
On the reverse side, in the center, a medallion, corresponding in form to that on the obverse, and also in gold, bearing on its face Houdon's portrait of Washington in bas-relief, encircled by the legend, "Sons of the Revolution." Beneath the figures "1883," and upon the reverse of the eagle, the number of the particular badge engraved ; the medallion surrounded by a plain gold border conforming in dimen- sions to the obverse, upon which members may have their names en- graved in script.
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The ribbon shall be dark blue, ribbed and watered, edged with buff, one and one-half inches wide and one and one-half inches in display length.
The insignia shall be worn by the members conspicuously and only on the left breast, on all occasions when they shall assemble as such for any stated purpose or celebration. The badge shall never be worn as an article of jewelry.
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