Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1881-02-25
A DISCRETION on Patriotism.

are often mlsconStrucd aud misinter
preted. Ordinarily, to call man
patriot is form of exalted praise; t,
call him a politician is uncomplimentary
As many crimes have been COMMITTEES
under the guise of patriotism as unde
any other cloak, and as many CRANE
scoundrels have passed as pure patriots
as have risen to distinction any Other
way Because man really has patriot
ism, it does not follow that he is honest
or capable, or trustworthy. Because a
man is politician, the inference that he
is dishonest, or incapable, and not to be
trusted, is unnatural and illogical Pa
triotism in its purest form, considered
merely as love for the spot of earth
where the accident of nativity happened,
does not rank as an exalted virtue. The
most barbarous nations may be, and have
been, eminently patriotic. Cannibals
may be patriots. According to Sir Wal
ter Scott, the only requisite necessary
for patriotism to exist in an animated
being is the possession of a sense:
''Breathes there man with sout so dead
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own--my native land?'
The Greeks, who we're cruel-heartod
enough to expose the famalc and the
puny male babies to perish, were patri-
otto enough to die in their tracks when
the invader came. The Spartan mother
could give the delicate infant to the birds
of the air, 50 devoid was she of maternal
feeling; and the Spartan widow could
arm her only son for the battle and bid
him come back with his shield or on it,
SO intense was her patriotism, Artcmus
Ward, interpreting, in his quaint way,
the patriotism of later days, expressed
his entire willingness to sacrifice all his
/ wifc's relations on the altar of-ais coup
try.
Hamilcar, with all the solemnities the
religion Of Carthage could add to the
scene, consecrating his son Hannibal to
the work Of revenge, was the incarna-
ton of patriotism as it was then UNDER
stood on the shores of the Modterra-
mean, as we'll as on the banks Of the
Tiber "a bloody patriotism it was, in
deed "When Greek meets Greek, then
comes the tug of war;" ana when the
patriotism of Rome come in conflict with
the patriotism of Carthage the contest
lasted until Carthage fuit was written
with blood and fire on the broken columns
and ruined temples of Rome's only rival.
The farther back we go into antiquity,
and the fewer virtues and graces we find
among the people and nations down in
these early days the brighter burns the
patriotic fires, and the more desperate
the struggles when love of country was
the incentive. Diogenes is, perhaps, the
only one of these ancient WORTHLESS that
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