The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1894-04-19
PURE PATRIOTISM.
II Is Not the Kind That Prompts One to
Seek Only Personal Advantage.

I L
Seek Only Personal Advantage.
There is much in this world which
goes by the general name of patriot
ISM which in point of fact is little
more than habit of enthusing over
party ideas and accepting party utter
Rnces. While factions and party rival
ry have salutary effect in checking
excuses and restraining unwise or ex-
travagant legislation, the broad and
important principles which are the
basis of all political bodies must not be
lost sight of.
AS the body without the spirit is but
a bit of useless clay, so a party organ
ization which has outlived its purpose
or has discarded or ignored the ideas
and principles which crystallized it
into existence is a worthless and cum
bersome thing to which it is the SUI
premest folly to cling. Partyism and
patriotism are too often COMPOUNDED by
the unthinking and careless, and it is
not unusual to find fairly intelligent
men who have no clearly defined ideas
as to what constitutes either.
The constitution of the United States
and the declaration of independence
should be part of the education of
every child who gets its tuition at the
expense of the public-school fund. The
fact that it is so taught places it under
obligation TO the educating power,
which obligation should be cancelled
only by perfect understanding of
those most interesting and important
documents.
AS the case now stands the young
people and children are allowed to
learn that this is a free country, that
the liberty of speech and of the press
must not be abridged that they have
rights which everybody is bound to re-
spect, and that self-assertive spirit is
most becoming in an American citizen.
But what they do not learn, and
what would be the most useful for
them to know, not only for their own
prosperity and growth but for the
good of the nation which is quite likely
some day to require their services, is
their personal obligations to the nation,
the state and their fellow-citizens.
The rights of the individual are but
small part of the patriotic education
of child. As a member of society and
a citizen, he is entitled to life, liberty.
the pursuit of happiness $50 long as
that pursuit does not interfere with
the rights of others, the right to
labor unmolested, TO earn livelihood
whenever and wherever he chooses
and at the wages he may find it con-
venient or eXpedient to accept, and to
do all this without the interference or
question of the other members OF the
community. Those who are not al
lowed to do this are not living up to
their privileges, and those who pre-
vent this freedom or obstruct its exer-
else in any way are acting in direct de-
tiance of law and order and the princi-
pies and teachings of the constitution.
Personal liberty is a very compre-
hensive term but does not by any
means include personal license. Liberty
is by many construed as the absence
of law, when il is. in fact, the presence
of it. Personal safety and personal
liberty are almost unknown in com
munities where there is no law. Good
laws, strictly enforced, guarantee the
well-being of society, and the highest
degree of patriotism is found where
such laws are enacted and respected.
One of the first lessons in life should
be that the rights of every living being
must be respected, but that there is no
such thing license without endanger-
ing not only the safety of the indi-
vidual as well as that of the state.
The best way to secure peace and pros
perity in the community is to impress
upon the minds of children and youth
the need of respectful submission to
existing authority and so to impress
upon their minds the principles of the
constitution and the declaration of in
dependence that it shall become part
of their daily habit of life to insist
upon their own rights without inter-
fering with the rights of others.-N. Y.
Ledger.