The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1898-07-20
,ity, and not territorial aggrand-

hohtoyt VIM NV bOiiltOllbl hRkldhu-
izement.
AS an illustration of the popular
feeling, may inform you that my COM
mittee have instructed me to procure
an American flag to float simultan-
eously with our union jack on our club
flagstaff July next. This illustration
of fraternity will be manifest in every
town and perhaps in every village in
England.
In strange contrast with these tokens
of respect, coming from unwonted
sources, are few discordant and jar
ring notes which are heard at home.
see that Prof. Norton of Harvard is
quoted as telling the youth of the uni
versity that:
cit is characteristic Of the American
people to be tritling. They
have acquired varnish of civilized
life, but their natures have not been
refined. The Americans are
100000 of good natured people, gift
ed with fatal optimism, with no Be.
rious thought of the grave duties of
life. They have no fine sense of honor.
They cannot distinguish between what
is honest and what is dishonest. 1 feel,
with Horace Walpole, that could be
proud of my country if it were not for
my countrymen."
The Professor, little later, gives us
his opinion that the war is unjust and
dishonest, and advises the youth who
look to him for counsel that it is not
their duty to enter into it. The trouble
with Prof. Norton, who thinks his
countrymen are lacking in sense of
honor, is that there are two things he
cannot in the least comprehensive
cannot comprehend his countrymen,
and he cannot comprehend honor.
In true philosophy the sense of
honor and the sense of duty are one.
Wordsworth says that "honor is but the
finest sense of Justice" There never
was a people on earth who, as to the
great subjects of public conduct, were
actuated by finer, by profounder
| sense of duty and q cleaner sense of
justice than the people of the United
States, in this generation and at this
hour.
Poor Prof. Nortonl Color blind and
music deafl At this day, when the
| North and the South are coming to-
gether, when Mother England is learn
ing to know her daughter and to love
her again, he says that it is character
istic of the American people to be
trifling, and that he feels, with Horace
Walpole, that he should be proud of
his country if it were not for his coun-
trymen.
Heaven knows that / do not say this
from any desire to infict pain. But ii
is due to the youth of the country, it is
due to Harvard that somebody shall
say this. If such utterances are to 60
unreproved from our foremost univer-
sity, manhood and courage and honor
will follow athletics to Yale, or will
follow classical learning to the English
Cambridge.
| have just seen a mother who has
given her frst-born son to this war
He died before Santiago. The boy
went to West Point from under the
roof where dwell. The dwelling and
the grove which shadows it will be even
more sacred and holier for the presence
of that beautiful and pure shade. The
memory Of young Benchley, with that
of Grout and Spur and Haven, is ever
more to be one of the priceless posses
sions of Worcester. They will seem
forever to be walking our streets in
their beautiful and immortal youth.
The passing of their beautiful feet
gladdens the pavement of the street.
What right has any man to tell that
mother that her son died in base
cause, or gave up his life for an I'M
worthy motive?
There can be no worse lesson-it is a
lesson which will never be taught in
Clark University--than to tell the youth
of a country that their country is base
The feeling of dislike and contempt for
us in England, which the utterances of
Prof. Norton and men like him have
done 80 much to foster, is giving way
to better knowledge. do not believe
it can be revived again by such utter.
ances as these.
The best instruction which the youth
of country like ours can have is its
own history, and the best result of that
instruction is good hope.
II any man attempt to tarnish or
destroy either, if it be due to ignor-
ance, it is pitiable; if it be due to ar
rogance or conceit, it is criminal.
If these utterances came from an en-
thusiasm for loftier ideal, from de-
sire to raise the country to nobler or
loftier plane, we might forgive them.
But the men who utter them have
neither enthusiasm nor ideals. II is
the doctrine Of arrogance, of contempt,
of pessimism, of bitterness, of despair.
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| Tho Mast VoIuohIa Taconu