The Portland daily press., 1899-07-14
OBLIGATION no DO RIGHT,
Searching Study fthe Duties of the
United states at This Time.
edwin ID. Mead in Editors Table of New
England Magazine

| England Magazine)
| When Gen. Wheeler. In 1861. felt thai
his cogntry was wrong, he took up arms
against her. -and still declares his caus.
was true and just.
His text In Boston on Memorial day
was, ''My country. right or wrongp' He
was nobler figure far in 1861 than as the
| preacher OF this DEVILS doctrine. There
is no doctrine which Is poisoning the
blood of this republic today like this.
There is 10 man SO hopeless as he who
knows nothing higher than his country
and wro feels IL his duty to stand by his
country in any cause TO which she is COM
mitted, whether it be right or wrong.
This republic Is full today of this paralyz.
ing fataiIsm, full of men who beliese the
country Is In error, even In sir, but who
| believe IL IN ust stiil be- kept on its course,
because the course has been decreed. 1t is
the ultin ats political skepticism; but Ii
| speaks In the homo and on the street,
with the preachers tongue anu the edi.
tors pen. 1t speaks from the chair where
George William Curtis used 10 sit. We
have made great mista ke,-thus it is
written,-we are wrongipg the people of
the Philippines, we are false to ourselvesi
"
principles; hut we must stand by the ad-
| ministration In lighting 1t through. "1he
country is at war. When that is said 4"
this Is the monstfous conclusion, the
duty of every citizen Is at once evident.
he must support the government whether
he differed from 1t Or not as to the propri-
ETY. Of the conduct which brought on the
war. 1t Is inisL oral TO do otherwise
There are men in tn 9 country who be-
lieve that our course In the Philippines is
thoroughly right; that. going there by
accident or sudden military need, We
found an unforeseen opportunity TO de-
strOy Spanish rule, and it was good
thing 20 do 1t; that ths Aguinaldo gov
ernmsnt Is not competent to govern well,
and SO 1t Is good thing to destroy that
and subject the people to ourselves, not
simply in the interests of our industry
and trade, but In the interests Of general
peace and progress. The leaps In the logic
of this position, the astigmatism of Its
look OF fact. its sense OF What is great and
what is small. OF what progress is, and Of
what right and wrong are. are to us ap-
paiiing; but we can reslect the position !;
we do at least respect q hundred noble
men who hold IL. They seem to US faith
full blind men.
But the position of this 'jourual of
civilization, the position Of the multiply
ing thousands of men, in the republic for
whom this journal speaks with boldness
and brutality only one degree greater
than what Ia common isxthe position of
faithless men who see. II Is faithlessns IS
to civilization, faithlessness TO humanity,
faithlessness to our democracy itself,--fo
that higher law through love OF hich
and fear OF which and obedience to which
alone can this democracy or any state
continue to stand at ALL It is state OF
mind, says Ruskin, greatly to be dreaded,
not TO know the devil when you see him.
More dreadful Is the state Of the mind
higher law.
immoral to turn back from recognized
error and undo confessed wrong--immoral
to do right 1t is expedient, Ii Is hard
necessity, 1t Is sometimes solemn duty,
when in some dreadful strait the very
life Of the state is at stake, for she oiti-
2en 10 be silent when he would else pro-
test. because diversion to little wrong