The National tribune., 1901-07-25
"PR0 PATRIA." ="
What " Our Country" Means, and Why
We Should Fight for 1t.

Under the head Of PRO Patria," MAJ
Gen. Wager Swayne, distinguished OIL
Ger Of the Army of the Tennessee and
leading lawyer of New York City, has
written for the Paris Messenger a most
admirably thoughtful and logical discus
sion OF just what Our Country" means
and our relations to it. Gen. Swayne
says:
If for a little time and from this point
of view we contemplate His work TOR
Christ says of Him that My Father work
eth hitherto, and | work., then turn our
perception, quickened by this thought, upon
the vast area of our native land, we shall
then see in operation everywhere some
thing that may be termed GOd-lke, with
out irreyerence, because it is really His
grace we see at work. From ocean to
ocean, from the Gulf to its northern
boundary, with comprehensive aspect but
with indefinite detail, this country of ours
maintains order and protects agreements,
distributes justice and enforces laws,
teaches innumerable children and pro-
vides for those in whom some bodily
sense or mental faculty or mental equili-
brium is lacking. Better than these,
though By these means, it makes the
many millions of its people not merely Sc
cure in what they have and free to labor
for themselves; it makes them sharers in
as citizens of towns and neigbborhoods
and OF the State and Nation. 1t makes
them also free to contract relations with
each other and to associate themselves for
any purpose.
The more we consider these relations,
the more
THEIR FRUITFULNESS,
beneticcnce, and finally their majesty, con-
sidered as u whole, eXalts the country that
supports them. 1t is not merely that citi-
zens, freed by the State from care and
apprehension, perceive within their power
of associated effort railroad and steamship
lines and teegraphs, financial systems and
all agencies of material well-being; and
so aSsociating, come to have and to enjoy
all these. Nor is it enough that besides
these, associated effort sustains and fos-
tcrs all around us movements devoted TO
every species of research, to every aspect
of beneyOience, to the cultivation, the dis
play and the reward of all varieties of
personal skill, OF human prowess, of the
best points in animals and even of com
petItiNe machines. Better than these, bet
ter than their result of material com
Tort and developed mind, is the fellowship
they keep in constant exercise, the mutual
interest which they incite and promote,
and the patriotism in which this mutu-
;IIty Ul ties and feelings eliminates. This
side of inspiration there is no other such
agency at work for the elevation of man
kind.
EVEN INSPIRATION
finds its way prepared, its course facili-
tated, for ii is among free people, moved
by stimulus Of common good, that Gods
truth finds its freest course and can best
glorify Him by its works.
SO it is, that in calm truth we may
,yot - iu,liViGuaJ ,.la ti,, In
try that with exalted and almost infinite
supervision it surrounds each of us with
security and order, cnforces for us those
agreements upon which we may have
based our labor, or have parted with pos
st Ssions, discipines us in our turn by en-
forcing them against us if we are not true
ouens and invites us to the vast fields Of
associated effort and to their infinite va
ricty and richness of result. Better even
than this, it exercises within us and sur
rounds us with the spirit of intelligent
community. 1t ends, if it may be said to
end at all, its dealings with us by making
each one of us part Of itself in the ten
dcreSt relation. Whether it be our cOun-
try by birth or only ours by adoption, it
is still our fatherland. The glories of its
history, its trials and its triumphs, are all
part of our inheritance. As members of
it's sovereign people its own majesty is
ours, if we will but so regard it. Finally.
from its own inception it has declared
and now maintains a right for each of
all its people, each in his own way, to
draw near to God, Whose word we have
that if we draw near to Him, He, of in
calculable majesty and goodness, will
draw near to us.
This is only a scant recital of some de-
tails of
OUR INDIVIDUAL RELATION
20 our country. There is something yet TO
be said of it as a whole, in view of its
popular Government. 1t was a maxim
of Tallyrand'S that Everybody Is wiser
/, a.aI-Lcdx. % ka.