The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1854-10-13
LOVE OF COUNTRY.

~ SN'NS'J NhOiC a man was UOIIl,
whether amid the frost and snow of Polar re-
gions, or in Southern climes where the verdure
ofearth is perennial, he loves, and to the last
hour of his life will he love his native land.
1t may be bleak and inhospitable; its gov
ernment may be oppressive, still he clings to
the soil on which he was born with an unfal-
tering affection, and withersoever he may go
into other and more beautiful countries, his
memory in waking hours and in dreams, wan
ders to his childhood's home-he loves it
though it exiles him, and is proud of its
name and fame while its yoke sits CALLING on
his neck. Love of country is life-mplant-
ed sentiment, belonging, alike, to the rudest
savage and the most polished civilized man.
And it is beautiful ordinance in our ma
ture that we are al-peryaded by this senti-
ment. From this springs the fraternity of
race and nation; the cohesion of individuals
into communities, and the inclination of COM
muites to "loca habitation and name."
From this, too, spring the strongest manifes-
tions of brotherhood caring first for
himself, family and kindred; then for the COM
munity and nation to which he belongs
Through this isolate fraternity, man, rising
in intelligence, extends the brotherhood of
communities to the human race. From this,
too, springs patriotism, which, without a
country endeared by peculiar associations, to
love and defend, would not exist If man
was bound in mind and heart to no particu-
lar spot of earth; if the birthplace, the
hearths, the affairs, and the graves of kim
dred were no bond, his sentiment, from first
to last, would be unmitigated selishness, and
instead of meeting and defying danger by
his hearth and altar, he would fly to other
spaces of earth. He would be continually
Wanderers nomad-careleess where he
pitched his tent, or where his grave was
scooped.
And since this sentiment is so strong, so
essential, and so beautiful for the develop
ment and brotherhood of our common race,
how steadily intelligent people and nations
should strive to render their native lands
their countres-worthy of their love and
praise. The Roman of to-day is abject and
bowed down. because his country is desecra-
ted and shorn of the beauty and glory which
inspired the conquerng legions Of C@sars.-
He may love his country as devoted as did
Fabius ora Brutus, but it is not the love
which springs from pride in her power, her
virtue and her greatness; it is rather love
compounded Of grief and pity that she has
so degenerated. The virtue and patriotism of
a people depend much upon the condition
of the country to which they belong. 1t
may be easy to-day to impose fet.ers upon
the inheritors of the ''eternal city," but the
world could not enslave Roman in the age
of Coraanus.
But the love of country, simply, is not
enough to inspire the noblest potriotism; it
must, to stimulate the loftiest virtue and he
roism, be love born OF just pride. 1t
must be love that will not permit people
to forego the guardianship of their own
soil, institutions and laws. A love that will
make them eternaly vigant in the defence
of their own hearths, altars and graves
A love, jealous as devoted, and relying upon
native hands and hearts, and not upon for
eign auxilliaries-upon Pretorian Guards
A people may be hospitable and give shelter
as they will, but the sword, the treasure and
the laws of their land must not be placed
in the hands of strangers. All history, in in
lines, is craven with warning to
this end.