Putnam County herald. (Cookeville, Tenn.) 1903-1922, 1918-02-21
LEST We FORGET"
Nation Does Well to Honor the
Memory of the Founder Of
Its Glorious State of In
dependence.

for national life secretly and trag-
ically burning, If Washington had
failed, had died in vain for the cause
which in fact he brought to lasting tri-
umph-then for poor sentimental hui
manity he would shine with luster
greater than now is his, writes Joyce
Kilmer in the New York Times. His
cause triumphed; the dream became a
reality, and therefore lost the charm
Of the dream. Washington, dying on
his bed, in his honored old age, his
hopes realized, is a noble figure. But
he lacks the dramatic appeal of Wash
ington bidding farewell to his children
at the foot of the gallows.
BY some strange perversity Of hu-
man nature the cause we consider ro-
mantle and picturesque is always a
Lost Cause. The names most deeply
loved are those of the fallen leaders
whose partisans met with defeat
Robert Bruce and Robert Emmet, Will
liam Wallace, Sarsfield and Sobieski,
that "fair and fatal king" Charles I,
and his prosecuted and uncrowned
heirs. Children of Union soldiers
though we may be, our hearts beat
more quickly at the thought Of Lee
than at the thought of Grant. We rise
when the band plays '"The Star-Span-
gled Banner" but we rise and shout
when it plays "Dixie."
And it must also be acknowledged
that tragic death endears a states
man to the generations that follow
him. If you are great leader and
want to be sure of pOsterity's affection,
see that your cause fails. Then the
conquerors will legislate against the
honoring Of your memory, and that
will make your fame secure. But If
your cause succeeds, then at least see
that your death is sudden and violent.
Give the world drama. legend.
Washington triumphed. At York
town he captured Corvallis redcoats
and put an end to tyranny on our
shores. 1t is not forbidden to honor
his memory; the wearing of the red,
white, and blue is attended by no per-
lis. And so we take things for grant
ed; we forget the hideous dangers
through which we passed only some
hundred and two-score years ago; we
take for granted our nationality, our
freedom, and the fearless warrior, the
enlightened statesman who gave them
to us. When we speak Of Washington
as toe Father of His Country we do SO
with a laugh, as If the phrase were
empty rhetoric instead of sublime
truth. Liege means more to us than
Lexington, and remembering Edith
Cavell, we give no thought to Jane
McCrea.
We may well thank God that the
war of American independence has not
the glamor of battles fought in vain,
that our freedom is no lost cause, that
halo is not that Of
martyr whose life and death were un-
To those who look at the
worlds events in true historical per-
spective, without sentimentality and
with love Of justice and freedom in
their breasts, the American Revolution
fills the most encouraging page in the
chronicle of the centuries. But for
most Of us it is only in times Of stress
ike the present that we can come to
an actual sense Of our exceptional
privileges to a realization Of the radi-
ant truth q the stories we read in our
history book in school. This year the
Declaration of Independence takes on
! clearer significance we know, as we
lid not in bygone years, what it means
% be free and Independent states, alb /
solved forever from all allegiance to
foreign powers. And so this year
birthday is no routine
holiday. but day Of solemn vet joyful
day on which we !
lonor with full hearts him who made
is nation, the warrior whose swor
.ut the bonds of our thralldom, tn
statesman who bade us, avoiding en-
angling alliances, 60 our free way, an
republic, no nations syco-
lhant, no nations tool. with malice
oward none," said Washington's great
st successor, with charity for ALL"
t was summing up Of Wsshington's /
'wn political creed. No lost cause.
lowever glorious with the blood Of
martyrs, seems today so noble as the
till triumphant cause Of American In
dependence. No modern hero, fighting
verseas, is today so dear to us as our
ounder and preserver. And to his ex- |
mples and his cOunsels we cannot ,