Norwich bulletin., 1916-05-31
IN MEMORY DE SOLDIER DEAD
Memorial Day Exercises Carried Out at Chelsea Parade Tues day Afternoon-Inspiing Address by Rev. Charles H. Rcketts Several Hundred Participate in Procession

l designed to meet some emergency or exlgency. Patriotism is not a latent [ force sleeping in the great heart of |
 humanity until some sudden danger
 calls it into exercise: until the distant |
 roar of cannon makes us realize that [
 some enemy is about to spring upon us. We must be clear on this point at | the very outset, for what have to | say In this address is little more than | the development of this Fundamental | idea The hour never comes to any man when 1t is safe to forget that
 there is a country to love, honor, and 1 possibly defend with precious human life. Advancing civilization has not 1 changed the fact that today, as here | tofore. eternal vigilance is the price 1 of lfberty.''
 While patriotism is born with us and abides with us during the national De- 1 riod of our lives, and as a fact is the same in one age and nation as another l yet its mode of expression is as various
 as the nations and the ages themselves l There is always a close logic between l what notion needs and what it's sub- l Jects have the power to give. There l are many things that tend to modify the needs of nation: the age of the
 world in which it lives, it's geograph- tcal position, it's political ideals, the | degree of it's civilization, and the men l tai and moral development of it's peo- pie. The ancient Jew standing on the hills of Palestine watching the actions Iu0 O6nddn1I6S was QOuDtleSS a. Da- | tr1ot Who was intensely devoted to his
 country; so also is the modern Ameri- can who from every hilltop and every
 valley of this favored land is straining
 his eyes across the vast expanse of the
 Atlantic and watching the course of events in this present European war
 But the duty that the early Jew was
 called upon to perform differed widely
 from the duty that confronts every American citizen today. It was the fNf hat xU,<
 l able moment for dispossessing the pet l ty tribes that infested the land; it is
 the duty of the modern American to 1 study the ways and means that shall prevent us from being dispossessed of
 our blood-bought heritage. That our
 political heritage was bought with the 1 price of blood-I might almost say
 with the blood of martyrs-will at once
 be seen by those who are familiar with e our history. Many a field had to be fathers under the tactful Washington
 before the original thirteen colonies
 could be consolidated into a free and
 Independent nation.
 Ut may be well for us to make a rapid = historical survey of the differences of demand that the various leading na- 5 tions of the past have made of their
 subjects for their patriotism. Itae |, pagan conception of the object of na-
 tional existence is radically unlike the  q like the demand that America ever
 made upon it's people. The early pagan
 states were all of them, in fact if not h in law, absolute monarchies. Rome
 nasqueraded for a while as a republic if put 1t was more autocratic in spirif 5 and absolute in authority than Eng. . l land today with it's constitutional mon.
 archy. Whatever name was attached e to the ancient pagan state, it was iI {. every instance an organized system O. d , ness, the carefully planned cruelty lllt ', complete disregard of every instinct O
 humanity which prevailed among al e the nations of antiquity find no paralle V among the enlightened states of today n It is sometimes said in the heat of in
 dignation that this present war ha
 thrown civilization to the winds in it l. massacre of precious lives. It is doubt
 less true that with the development O
 military tactics, and the perfection O y warlike implements, the expenditure o
 human life is greater than ever before IS But 1t IS not true that any civilizel
 nation of Europe today is as cruel il y its warfare as any nation of antiquity H. Whatever may be the issue of this con le f1ict, King George will not be led abou
 the streets of Berlin with a hook f T' his nose as was Zedekiah in Babylo B. after his eyes had been gouged out neither will the kaiser be toted abou ie Paris in a cage as was Jugurtha i I- Rome. Civilization has not quite bee 1s thrown to the winds. The deeds don IS by the Turks are a close second t | tblose performed by Assyrians an s, Romans, but the "unspeakabIe" T4Ir Is quite outside the pale of civiliza III ton.
 " Is it not quite clear, then, what du eee ties ancient nations not only expecte Iu but demanded of their subjects an LII what those subjects were expected | ' render? If patriotism is the passio A- in the heart of man to serve his couI s try, he must render the kind of servic oA - which his country demands. Outsio &'e. & the pale of republican institutions tt - - subject has no voice in the matter H or is expected to render willing serviC ao just as the state directs; he is not eve h expected to have instincts that wi lp revolt at anything the state plans. H oy1 personality is lost absolutely in u 1I.tt will of the state. If any nation of ar i,, tiquity planned wilful and dehbera ls. as murder, the patriotism of the age d, e manded instant and unquesttoning obt ka dience. The most refined forms or cruelty were resorted to by king ,ta princes and senates for the accon - plishment of the most nefarious d, o signs, and patriotism called upon hell ,,d less people to be the means of execl .o tion. Is it strange that the life a- most past nations was honeycomb' S, with insurrections? That crowns al ev thrones were constantly perisEling al 're other crowns and thrones were risil ges up to take their places? Now all tn or goes to show that in state of socie ho where might is assumed to be right
 whether ancient or modern-there " bo, be wars and rumors of wars un Ive moral law shall be the basis of actio er both individual and national.
 air 1have referred to the worlds poll 'n- ica1 past for comparative purposes. cir am perfectly willing that the histo air of the United States should stand for .Is. in columns parallel with that of al lon other nation, ancient or modern. .he not stand here today to apologize f sy- everything the United States has doI nat In many things every lover of l DIT country wishes that her record h
 been different. But speaking from t R comparative standpoint, as this reco the is held up alongside that of any e or- isting nation for the same length len time, I feel that this test will be Q ys- of which any loyal American will rge justly proud. In some things of couu the we suffer in comparison with the old ain nations, but in the impetus given
 the inalienable rights of man tl
 country stands unparalleled among
 nations of the earth.
 vas Let me now recall to your mir