Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1899-07-28
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS
FACTS AND OPINIONS GATHERED
FROM CONTEMPORARIES.
THE OBLIGATION TO DO RIGHT.


against her,-and still declares his cause
was true and just. His text In Boston
on Memorial day was, "NTy country, right
or wrongv He was nobler figure far in
1851 than as the preacher of this DEVILS
doctrine. There is no doctrine which is
poisoning the blood of this republic to-
day like this. There is no man so hope
less as he who knows nothing higher than
his country and who feels it is his duty
to stand by his country in any cause TO
which she is committed, whether 1t be
right or wrong. This republic Is full
today of this paralyzing fatallsm, full of
men who believe the country is in error,
even in sin, but who believe it must still
be kept on its course, because the course
has been decreed 1t is the ultimate
political skeptcism; but it speaks in the
home and on the street, with the
preachers tongue and the editors pen.
1t speaks from the chair where George
William Curtis used to sit. We have
made great mistake thus it is writ
ten,-we are wronging the people of the
Philippines, we are false to ourselves, we
have turned our backs upon American
principles ;but we must stand by the adj
ministration in fighting it through.
1.-The country is at war. When that is
said, this is the monstrous conclu-
sion,-"the duty of every citizen is at
once evident. He must support the gov
eminent, whether he differed from it or
not as to the propriety of the conduct
which brought on the war. 1t is immoral
to do otherwise"
There are men in this 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
destroy Spanish rule, and it was good
thing to do it; that the Aguinaldo gov
eminent is not competent to govern well,
and so it is a 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 astlgmatism of
its look at facts, its sense of what is
great and what is small, of what pro-
gress is, and of what right and wrong
are, are to us appalling; but we can
respect the position; we do at least
ANSDCCI ubDlC llltl WIN ilOlNl IL
They seem to US faithful blind men.
But the position of this "iournal Of
civilization" the position of the multiply
ing thousands of men, in the republic
for whom this journal speaks with a
boldness and brutality only one degree
greater than what is common, is the
position of faithess men who see. 1t is
faithessness to civilization, faithlessness
to humanity, faithlessness to our
democracy itself,-to that higher law
through love of which and fear of which
and obedience to which alone can this
democracy or any state continue to stand
at all. 1t is a state of mind, says Ruskin,
greatly to be dreaded, not to know the
devil when you see him. More dreadful
is the tate of the mind whose sim NOR
ality" is obedience to the higher law.
Immoral to turn back from recognized
error to undo confessed wrong-immoral
to do right. 1t is eXpedient, it is hard
necessity, it is sometimes solemn duty.
when in some dreadful strait the very
life of the state is at stake, for the citizen
to be silent when he would else protest.
because diversion to little wrong might
weaken a great right. But such occa-
sions are rare indeed in history; it is
impious even to remember them in the
vicious escapades of nations revealing in
insolent power. Immoral not to "sup-
port the government" in wrong and
folly Say it to Chatham and to Burke,
to the great company of the English
immortals who reioiced in London at the
news from Bunker Hill and Saratoga
Say it to Victor Hugo when to support
the government meant to support
Napoleon the little in subjugating
Mexico. Say it to Charles Sumner
when the government meant the Quays
and Platts and Hannas of Jamas X.
Polk,
Support the government. We, the
people, are the government. "The peo-
pie is the sovereign of this country"
how often we need to remember that
great word of Edward Everett Hale's =
''the people is sovereign here, the people
is the fountain of honor here; the presi-
dent is the servant of the people," This
is not government by presidents; it is
a government by public opinion; and to
the making of that government wise and
righteous it is the duty of every citizen
to contribute Men say with a self
suppression which would be pathetic
were 1t not so pusillanimous, that their
government has ''facts" which they
have not and therefore must not be med
died with. The president has no knowl-
edge of important facts which every citi-
zen may not have. As the chief servant
of the people, he has no right to impor-
tant knowledge which he does not share
with them and in the present crisis he
has frankly told US that he has not any
In the great town-meeting of democracy
the responsibility comes home to every
man alike, to the selectman and the
other; and no man can atone for what he
confesses to be sin and shame by any
maudlin talk about .1sunnorting the