Arizona republican., 1910-07-25
THIRD LETTER ON
 SUBJECT OF C|V|CS
Paper Prepared By E. N. Phillips,
 Pastor of the Christian Church.


 our citizenship. In other words. to
 determine. if possible. in the light of that great national charter, the bounds and restrictions of the ndi- vidual in organized society; to meas ure the limitations of that great Am erican ideal-"Individual Liberty"
 That the ideal and vatchword of our republic is abused. goes for the saying It is universally conceded. Some have gone so far as to say there is no liberty, urging upon us with embarrassing directness, that liberty, the boasted word of the free west is swallowed up in monopolies, trusts. special privileges and other such usurpations and grants. But freedom there is, and unlimited, if one chooses to bend his life and bus mess to the broad and universal in depreciation of that term. That in- terpretation, however, which results in special grants and licenses, or usurpations against the normal enter prise. the health or minds of the American people is under indictment Such definition will not. can not pass the courts of our land, much less the conscience of our common people
 It may not be necessary in this phase of the discussion. but it will be interesting and worth while. to make even brief survey of political history. It will place in perspective the spirit. as well as the letter. giving birth-to this republic It will give a closer view and place in the con crete, those principles and happen ings which appear too often in the abstract.
 We begin by saying and too. upon conclusive review of all civic life. both ancient and modern, that the United States government is the last great experiment. in the line of nat ional enterprise Therefore being the last, it is favored the best since it is made the depost of the fittest leg islation and life of all the past Moth ing of civic virtue has failed the review and consideration of the build CTS of our republic They have. by a remarkable foresight, rejected the useless and obsolete and incorporated only such principles as would insure a free and happy citizenship. Fay ored possibly above the framers of any national life in the worlds his tory, they were not thrown into the position where they, were com pelled t0 reason Tn the abstract The principles of liberty4'were common in the struggle of a hundred years war. Though possessed by none. they were entertained in the dreams of all. The r,.i have acted as filter and purifier against all alloy in the theory and science of governing. What to the writers and thinkers of those forma- tory centuries appeared as abstract theories, appearedi to Adams. Jeffer- son and others of''their day, as set tied and fixed principles of govern ment This would account in a de gree for a wisdom and foresight. which on their part seems nothing short of miraculous.
 Since the foregoing is true. and that it is true will be affirmed by the careful thinker and reader. it falls upon us to observe that the American constitution and its defin ition of civil rule. has been Gods objective point in the history of four thousand years of civil government The great sweeps of those long years of suffering, is the story of the citi zen and his rights in organized so- ciety. And as the truth ripens to- ward our blessed day, it will be seen how necessary nations and ages are in proving the false and gathering in concrete form the true principles of life In the autocracies of the an cient east there was no citizen. The individuals normal right in those forms of government was the wish of his king. He was a slave and the property of the king His history and that of his fellows was the history of the king and despot v.ho chanced at the moment to hold the seat of control The ancient west assimilat- ing all the east had to teach. arose to modify the idea of despotism But though the Assyran despot was dis solved in terms quite democratic, by Athens and Sparta. still the citizen was little better than a slave to. and property of the state. Rome appear ed among the nations with a new spirit, urging authority to be in terms of law Her plea for existence was in her mission of law and order to warning nations. Everything was sac rificed to the dignity of the law in the Roman mind. if not in his gov erning, the ruler as well as the cit izen. But while there was much vir- tue in these views, the chief weak ness was. in their definition of the individual He became an iron man. He was machine without a heart. He was an instrument in the hands of organized law to- break. in pieces an offending world. All those more humanitarian affections and desires for the peace and quiet of home and private life were lost in this iron like ideal of the law.
 We have not said all we could say of the virtues of Greek or Roman democracy. But as nothing became permanently effective from their ad ministration. it is pertinent to this discussion to allow the emphasis to fall upon the single great point of error; that oversight of individual right and privilege. Those ancient people left to their succeeding nations in Europe many treasures. Among them were a partially defined idea of citizenship a law, a secular liter ature, Bible and a relgiOn. But with these rich legacies were receiv- ed those unfortunate errors of imper- i.IiS,o aDd occlaciacticiSn hV which