The Portland gazette. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1818-1824, 1820-09-05
FRoM fHE HALLowFLL GAZETTE
REMARKS
on the Stale Motto If Maine.


notwithstanding the criticisms to the South.
ward. Maine will preserve her star without the
less Of single ray, nor will her motto suffer fur
ther difficulty. Mr. Walsh, the editor oftbs Ma
tional Gazette Acknowledges, that he has " no
design Of formally sbiecting to the positive pro-
priesv Of the star, and the motto - and though
he still calls our motto dir1gs ambitious, IL must
he considered merely as a remnant of his pleas
antry upon Mr.. Holmes, chosen as Of our
Sc aator. to Congress. A person indeed Of Mr.
Walsb's superemiuent talents cannot for an in.
slant seriously suppose. that Maine expects to
be able TO override the other parts Of the Ameri-
can nation. which contain thirty times as many
inhabitan ts ne her own State nor can he dream
that she would be mad enough to arow the pro.
ject in her State Motto, even il she secretly en-
tertainsd such designs. Ambition is commonly
said to Wedr cloak; and ars est cstare ariem !:
an artful man must conceal hi. arti6ce..
The Report adopted by the Maine Legislature
on the subject Of its srmorial bearings. removes
however, every possible room for doubt on the
subject as will appear by the following extract.
"CREST.
Is As in the arms Of the United States, a elns.
ter Of starr represents the States. composing the
nation the NORTH STAR may be considered
particularly applicable to the most northern men,
her Of the confederacy, or az indicating the local
MOTTO.
81 D,rigo,o guide or direct.
As the Polar Star may he considered the
Mariners guide and director in conducting the
ship over the pathless ocean to the desired ha-
ven, and as the centre Of magnetic attraction, as
Il has been hguratively used TO denote the point,
to which all the affections turn and as IL is here
intended TO represent the State it may he con-
sdered the citizens guide, and the object TO
which the patriots best exertions should be d.
rsctsd."
The above extracts present the same capital
letters ard italics used in the copy Of the above
report which was given in the Hallowell Gazette
Of the l4th Of June last, and no more ; and con-
sequently demonstrate, that the star represents
our own State, as a star represents ererv oiher.
even the smallest Of our State. that II addresses
its own eif,fens only this occasion, and not the
other States; and that its best claim upon its own
citizens is founded upon their afFe ation..
4. A classical dispute however is still left for us
"a handle, since Mr.. Walsh ha. introduced crit
id into his newspaper, who tells that the Latin
word dirigo does not mean lsaids, in the sense
" which star is said to guide. The critic far
,ther intimstes, that since il we usea only one
word for our motto, the word ought 10 be used
Properly, in order TO avoid the Of foreign
Critics; he can help Us out of eur difficulty hy
substituting phrase containing three words, fol-
Logged (as we are to supposel by fourth which,
il seems he would have ne consider as understood.
Ia short he would write Quoduean,. diricite
that is, " Where 7 guide, 10 you direct ar point
thus meaning, that the thing to be directed or
ponted is our course.
Mr.. Walsh, though he appears TO wish te shcw
Difference 10 our critic, yet quietly puts him
dawn with his giant arm merely by producing one
classical text, land one is as good as host JUS
tifying the use the word dirigo in the sense a.
dcptcd by the Maine legislature. The Maine
REPORT cited above, had translated the word dir7-
20 for the Of our domestic critics. by following
il with these words, s. guide fairsef :" and
tie quotations we are about to give from some
Of the best Of the Latin classics will shew, that
fhis double sense belongs no. only to the word
dsr'gs, but TO the word dueo thus proving that
oar critic would spoil the simplicity of our motto
without gaining for us one advantage. Accord
ing1y we presume that the simple form ia which
our motto stands, will remain to us without fur
ther dispute, whether from critic. hyper critics
either al home or abroad.
1st. As 20 dtrigo--And since It is by all agreed,
that dirigo MAJ sigRfy to direct, we have only to
prove that il may also signify 10 guide. Guidance,
in s strict sense on the present occasion, implies
intellect in the object Riided. accompanied with
polunf any action and neither OF these proper
ties can be found in inanimate master, our exam
pies must sometimes he ola Eguratsre nature