The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1902-06-28

WISHES. we nave every right to maill-
tain, for the present. or until such time
as may be necessary, law and order
i'll the islands. We have every right
to protect them against foreign intru-
sion, until, like Cuba, they are in po-
sitian to SEE. up a government of their
own, which would recognize us as
friends and deliverers, not as enemies
and oEpreSsors. (Applausc)
There We're some among us who use
! that blind and Illogical phrase uttered
for special occasion, by Commodore
Stephen Decatur, in 1S16--the burden
of which was ''My Country, Right or
Wrong If all Englishmen-he men-
toned these to illustrate-had obeyed
that maxim in 177G-Sl, Thomas PAYNE
would never have written THE Crisis"
nor lloratio Gates conquered for :ibert,
ut Saratoga. (Applause)
One of the abest of American lee
tllfers ana esslyists-a citizen of Mas
sachusetts, Il Protestant divine, an
freshman by BIRTH the late Rev.
Henry Giles of Boston, in his splendid
discourse on "Patriotism,' delivered in
49,, said. speaking of Decatur's toast,
| My Country, Right or Wrong:
~ saying mere Anglo-SaXcn and vet
more anti-Christian, was never ut
| tered. Let us look at the point i'll
volvcd. We have no concern with dis
putes about the lawfulness of war.
Assume at once. that it is right to de-
fend, by force of arms, the honar, the
claims, the independence, the existence
| OF our country. Here we have covered.
by our position, ground as extended as
the most warlike patriot could desire,
and even within these simple limits the
maxim has no application. For either.
our country is in the right, and we
hight for the justice Of her cause, or
she is in danger of llislonor or des.ruc-
ton, and we fight for her salvation.
We fight because we ought, or because
we must. We fight for duty CT necessi-
ty. In 10 case will men even suppose
that they are fighting in the wrong.
III it be answered that the expression
implies 10 more than that tie crisis Lf
difficulty is not the time for inquiry,
and that, when our country has need
Of our help, we should not wait t.
scrutinize when we should be prompt
to act. Granted; we should give our
country help, when danger calls for it,
and we should give her all The help We
can; but this civic duty cannot lie aided
by Il doubtful maxim, which has either
no meaning, or Il meaning the most
pernicious. For, will any man with
Il partial candor assert that. indepen-
IDENTITY OF truth or justice, he may law
fully fight, il he fight only for his
country? II, for instance, he only
fight to enrich his country; if he only
fight to enlarge his country; il he only
fight to gain for his country, net free
dom and safety, and independence
against tyranny and despotism, but a
name to be Il terror, IL supremacy to
be hated, II glory reelling in the fumes
of carnage, and Il history written in
tie blood Of battles; no man will assert
this; 10 man whose moral being lives,
will assert it, for such Il doctriuc would
lay civilization in the dust, and the as
Serton, therefore, carries With it its
own rcfutation.
THE maxim WAS rot, | admit, in
tended for strict analysis ,r strict ac-
ccptat;on but every such saying, by its
brevity and point, obtains rapidly to
popular currency, and il it involve il
violation oil eternal rectituuc, is calcu-
lated to work intelminably Tor mis-
CHIEF. The maxim, 1 acknowledge, was
used but rs II watchword Tor entllusi.
assn, in tic hour of struggle. But here
III is its danger. y maxim like tins
mas ali It's danger from brilliant asso-
citation, for it is such IL one us uelibc-
rate reason, or sober comm III sense,
OF ullcloudeu conscience, could have
never suggested or adopted. Ii such Il
saying persisted with the occasion, it
would not much signify, but to contine
it to that, either in its existence or
application, is seldom possible 1t
may come from worthy struggle with
the halo OF success; it may come en-
blnzuncd With the glory of victory; ii
may come with loud rcjoicings upon
the trumpets of fame; vi may come sad
with the memory or departed heroes,
OF consccrateu with the sanction of
the surviving brave; it may pass from
the sailor to the citizen; from the sol
dier to the civilian; from the COM
malller to the magistrate; from the
military camp to the legislative as
sembly; it may originate in the self
devotion of patriotism, but be appropri-
atcu by the artfulnCsS of ambition, or
it admits of scarcely limit ,r corrective.
There is no act, however wicked, il it
can plead intention of benefit to the
nation, which the mnXim may not be
made to justify; and there is no wick
cuness, however gigantic, which, ac-
cor,ling to this perversion, it has not
comprehensiveness to grasp. 1t would
acuuit the tger-monlley, Robespierre,
and it would c;lnonize the ogre-dcmon,