Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1864-05-05
NATIONAL INTELLIG ENCER.
A MORBID PATRIOTISM,

by the Heads of the present. Executive DePafe
,nents If the Government, congratulates itself on
the annearance in the New York Evening Post OF
certain financial views which concur with Its own
views of sound policy in the premises, and then
nrooeeds to express the hope that it will soon be
permissible for a friend of the Government to be
illogical without being suspected of disoy-
atty" It says:
"Tbe Evening Post before the began, honorably
conspicuous the ranks Of journalism for It's loyalty 10
the great modern ideas Of political economy Under the
influence of partisan perhaps patriotic passion gra
duay suffered itself to be dred from the only safe and
sure Of political principle We hail ITS return TO
that course its abdcaon OF poetry and passion III favor
OF prose and sign OF returning .aniV
in the community at large and we should rejoice 10 De-
lieSe it the dawn of day when to be logical SHAH no
longer considered dsoya and to tell the PLAIN truth
shall once be regarded as compatible win pa
triotism"
Another of our contemporaries, the Boston
Recorder one Of the least political of modern re-
ligous journals, in its number for the last week,
paintvely observes that dit is difficult nowadays
tc say some things which very much need to be
said again and again. without subjecting ones self
to serious msconstruction," and adds:
"Tbe public is nervous and impatient of bad news 1t
watches the bulletin boards and devours the daies with
an almost determination 10 know nothing which 10
not faterng to its wishes our natural no
ard possibly fears all help to increase this morbid
condition. until to not few mans patriotism has come
To be by the stream OF smooth words ana nope
full prophecies which he keeps necessarily playing upon the
popular Unless are thanking the LORD ana oar
selves all the while, (Fastdays not excepted that every
thing is going just right and that we at the North are
az near the limit of political sanc6cation as possible IN
war times there is forthwith grave and suspicious sDaK
ing of heads the love of country were growing luxe
warm, or some part oil the underPnnn8 oi sIauncn
Sueb infrrences, of course come of irrated
rather than of eAconsidered Judgments Gr1molng Is
always scoldng temper hateful In puoc
az well as in private ers But there Is no excuse Tor
not seeing the broad difference between this
dspost ~ and honest manly Christian mention OF the
upayorable aspects of especially as THESE IN
vove our own derectons, and press on US the motives
of more hearty and righteous devotion to the work OF
national salvation.
There can be no doubt that the Recorder has In
these remarks laid tender hand upon very sore
and sensitive spot in our body polite. 1t is
quite true, as it says, that the public mind, IN
der the influence of feverish patriotism, has be-
come morbid and nervous, insomuch that many
persons, in their impotence of aughs that dlsap-
points their hopes or wounds their political and
personal pride in the official representatives of the
nation, whether in the cabinet or the field, have
become intoerant of all dissent from the wisdom
of official proceedings, however candidly that dis
sent may be cherished, however moderately 1t may
be expressed, or however gross and glazing may be
the official mistakes and abuses which provoke re-
monstrance And SO it has come to pass, as our
Boston contemporary suggests, that IN tae case OF
not few, a mans patriotism is "measured by the
stream of smooth words and hopeful prophecies
which he keeps necessarily playing upon the popu-
lar ear"
And this honest but perverted patriotism is only
. very small part of the evil which makes up the
morbid condition of the public mind. For when
mems minds are in this state of nervous sensibiiity
there is always class of venal, mercenary, and
unprincipled time.servers who simulate just that
slspecies of patriotism which they know will pass
current with their dupes. These are the men
who think to ingratate themselves alike in the
favor Of the people and of the peoples rulers by
exhausting their ingenuity in inventing new pos
tures of pliabity to meet every fresh exaction on
the spirit Of manly independence.
Discerning minds need no warning to guard
them against this spurious patriotism. They know
how to discriminate between judicious criticism,
inspired by love of country, and the mock homage
which defes the hand it fawns upon. And the
President Of the United States, in the letter ad-
dressed to the Hon. MONTGOMERY BLAIR, which
we printed yesterday, shows that he is familiar
with the moral status Of this class when he ex-
pressed the hope that Gen. Blair would not "alow
the provocatons offered him by insincere time
seryers to drive him from the house Of his own
building" The President is skilled to discern
and frank to despise this spirit when it is betrayed
by those who, he assumes, thought to please their
Immediate official superior by uDjustly assailing
Gen. Blair, And we may be sure that he is
equally skilled to discern, and may hope equally
frank to despso, this same in,incerity, when it
puts itself forward in the pretended defence Of hi,
official impeccability or in furtherance Of his poll
tical aspirations. The good name Of no Admins
tration can be preserved by such appliances, and
the present Administration has suffered infinitely
more from the injudicious support of its protested
adherents than from the injudicious attacks of its
protested opponents.
Ii has been well and truly said bya distinguish
ed member Of the last Congress from the State Of
Mas.achusetts-we allude to The Hon Benjamin
r Tbonas-that !" the citizen owes to the country,