The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-02-20
THE QUALITY or PATRIOTISM.


George Washington, the anniversary of
whose birth will be celebrated this week.
and Abraham Lincoln are held up to the
people of this country as two typical pa
triots. 1t is right that it should be done,
and well that they should be considered to-
gether, to the end that we may learn the
lesson that real patriotism, which means
an intelligent love of country and its
institutions is not q quality confined to
what may be called one class.
Washington and Lincoln represented ele-
ments of the American people as wide
apart as they can well be. Washington was
born aristocrat. From beyond the sea
he inherited a coat of arms, and for gem
erations before his birth his family had be-
was brought into social relations with the
titled Englishmen sent to Virginia Years
before the revolution he held official rela-
tons with the officers of the crown. Under
such conditions it would haye been natural
for Washington to have joined the British
rather than the colonists, yet he never
thought of such a thing. From the first he
lea. That he did so with elaboration made
his assistance to the cause none the less
effective. This elaboration was rather the
proof of his staying quality. No one who
reads history can deny the high quality of
Washington's patriotism. No man in the
struggle for independence sacrificed or
rsked more. He sacrificed the favor of
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the really most conspicuous man in America
aleader. For the cause of independence he
risked all, since the foes of America would
have given fortunes for his capture. That
he chung as he did to what for the greater
part of seven years seemed a forlorn cause
is evidence of the steadfastness of his pa
triotic loyalty to the cause. If it had been
lost he would have died the death of
traitor. At the end he could have been pro-
claimed supreme ruler if he had wished, but
he simply surrendered his command when
he was no longer needed. Yet George
Washington was an aristocrat and one of
the wealthiest men of his time. He did not
mingle with the masses. He was accus-
toned to coach and four. If he We're liv-
private car. He was a cold man whose
reserve did not inspire enthusiasm. He was
denounced by an element which had inn
bibed the socialistic heresies of the French
revolution. If he were living to-day, dem
agogues whose trade it is to set the poor
against the rich, and who argue with such
phrases as ''bIoated aristocrats," would be
ecessors in that wretched business. Wash
ington grasped the idea of a republic in
which people in every station in life should
have liberty and justice under institutions
based upon equal rights in government. To
the founding of that Republic he devoted
the best years of his life as unselfshy as
any man ever gave himself to a public
cause.
Abraham Lincoln came from a people
who had no aristocratic traditions. They
were the very poor, struggling to exist in
new country. He grew up in sympathy
with the poor-the masses of the country
AS he rose to distinction he never failed to
recognize the element from which he came
the plain people His desire to improve
the condition of the peoINe and his intense
conviction that liberty and intelligence fur
nished the best conditions for human prog
ress made him the patriot he was. He
loved his country because it was the only
land in which human rights and equality
were recognized. Born and bred under diff
ferent conditions than was Washington, he
understood the difficulties and the sorrows
of the masses; his great heart went out to
them, and the masses knew and loved him.
To their cause he displayed greater de-
votion than did Washington but his nature
was more sympathetic and he knew the
people as Washington could not The
quality of his patriotism was the same. 1t
found expression in different ways, but
both found their inspiration in the love Of
country based upon free institutions.
The greatest champion of the rights of the
masses in the centuries, Abraham Lincoln
never appealed to class prejudice. When
he became President he called upon all TO
serve the country He appealed always to
1.-The better angels of our nature to make
the Union secure by fusing all elements into
a people with a common purpose.
Washington and Lincoln were alike in the
high quality of their love of country--the
one an aristocrat by birth, the other one of
the most lowly of the masses, We're alike
patriots The patriotism Of the one was as
lofty and pure that of the other. In both
it was a patriotism which embraced the
whole country and the whole people. The
patriotism of BOTH the patrician and the
poor, was alike blessing to the country
and the ages. At time when miscellaneous
demagogy is rampant it is well to consider
this topic.