Year: 1875

NAL New England It has survived TO our
own time with very important results. It
Is calculated, beyond almost any other po-
Etical organization, to foster local patriot
ism, and to the mass Of men there is no
patriotism but local patriotism. The men
whose political aspirations and political at
tachments can really take in so extensive
aud various domain As the United States
now comprise are uncommon men. II aeon
mon man gets as far in his political regard
as to follow the Mosaic precePt of loving
the people who are actually and literally his
neighbors, he has as much patriotism as can
reasonably be expected Of him. OF course
his patriotism is provincialIsm, but pro-
vincialism has its political uses. The pa
triotism Of few men goes beyond provin-
cialism, while only the very best and wisest
of our race, if even they, are able to ''ele-
Vate their vision so as to take in more
than their own land, and make general
philanthropy an effective substitute for q
limited and local patriotism.


1t is at least in part because the political
unit of Massachusetts, has been circum-
scribed that public spirit is there SO strong
as to make an impressive commemoration
out of what in most other States would have
been apt to turn out farce. Any intelli-
gent observer who goes to Boston, or to any
principal town in Massachusetts,, finds on
every hand Of him monuments and memo
rials of local worthless at which he is apt to
thrust out the tongue of cosmopolitan de-
rision. Undoubtedly the local deities of
Massachusetts, are in many cases made out of
questionable material, and even the pam
theon Of the State House enshrines some
curious objects of veneration. But the
Massachusetts, memorials are alike witnesses
of public spirit, and ont Of desire to do
honor to what seems most honorable. It is
not that other communities have not men
equally worthy of honor, which is the COM
plaeent and obvious explanation of the diff
ference which the first Massachusetts, man
you meet will favor you with. It is SIMPLY
that in other States the desire to do honor
to honorable men does not exist in the
same strength. This feeling is in its
turn the result of the local patriot
ism and the local pride which have
been fostered in New England moro than
elsewhere by the political organization
which RENTS to every community the
charge of its own affairs.


This is very practical consideration, as
matters stand now. In Boston Tweed
ring would have been almost impossible,
for the reason that in Boston every citizen
feels his own share Of political responsible
ity for municipal affairs and would have
regarded q band of pluhderers in Office as a
personal disgrace to himself. This is inn
possible in community denied self-goy-
ernment and governed through commissions
set over 1t by q central authority. Steam
and the facility of transit are tending all
the while to obaterate local divisions. To
preserve public spirit it is necessary to pre-
serve those local divisions in politics so far
as may be. During the last century Massar
chusetts has been changed from q common
wealth of isolated farms into seething
factory. Yet the town meeting and the
political traditions derived from it have so
far triumphed over the changed conditions
of life as to make still possible celebra-
tion in Massachusetts which would be al
most impossible out of Massachusetts,, and
to keep alive in Massachusetts, q municipal
patriotism long since dead in the metropolis
of New York and other great American
cities. --..--.--l ~. " y IL.l -