The rage for being patriots hath really so much of the ridiculous in it that it is difficult to treat it seriously. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place. Perhaps as a people, we are not morally strong enough to be free. But this will not prove that our free way of life was not the best way. It will only prove that we were not worthy of it.
Patriotism is easy to understand in America.
It means looking out for yourself by looking out for your country. In no other nation on earth does this principle have such complete application. It comes naturally from the fundamental doctrine of our land that the people are supreme. Patriotism depends as much on mutual suffering as on mutual success, and it is by that experience of all fortunes and all feelings that a great national character is created. On that day for the first time in all history, a political society of people occupying a definite territory, formally declared the purpose of their new civil government.