Patriot (American Revolution)

“ Many of the heroes who have been sacrificed in the field are justly recollected with a sigh; but the laborious statesmen who with ability and precision defined the rights of men, and supported the freedom of their country; without whose efforts America never would have had an army, are, many of them, neglected or forgotten. Private virtue may be neglected ”

“ These asserted without hesitation that this self-created peerage of military origin would throw an undue weight into the scale of the army; while the sincere votaries to freedom and the natural equality of man apprehended that this institution would give a fatal wound to the liberties of America.
Many judicious observers of the story of mankind thought that the United States had now, at the conclusion of the war, an opportunity to make a fair experiment between the advantages of a republican form of government and more despotic modes. ”

“ That proud spirit of liberty and independence, which sustained our fathers in the successful assertion of their rights against foreign aggression, is not yet sunk. The patriotic fire of the revolution still burns in the American breast, with a holy and inextinguishable flame, and will conduct this nation to those high destinies which are not less the reward of dignified moderation than of exalted virtue. ”

“ In the moment of tranquillity, and of real or imaginary security, the mind delights to retrace the intricate path by which this point of repose has been attained. The patriots who accomplished that great revolution which has given to the American people a national government capable of maintaining the union of the states, and of preserving republican liberty, must be gratified with the review of that arduous and doubtful struggle, which terminated in the triumph of human reason, and the establishment of that government. ”

“ The American revolution meant the people defending its rights; the French revolution meant the people avenging its wrongs. Each was successful; both taught an undying lesson to humanity. Free America, with wise selfishness, aimed to assure and bequeath her liberty; Republican France, with loftier if less practical aims, sought to carry the gospel of freedom to all nations. She failed only when she yielded her dearly won liberty to the seduction of martial glory. ”

“ The tenure by which they hold their thrones is becoming weaker as time rolls onward. If we are true to ourselves, if virtue predominates—if patriotism, discretion and an enlightened honest policy guide our rulers—the American Republic will increase in beauty, strength and grandeur and become the nucleus of Liberty for the world. Freemen! look to this matter in time and nobly perform your whole duty. Obey the precepts and imitate the examples of the Sages and Heroes who wisely conceived and boldly achieved the Independence we now enjoy. ”

“ But men who had suffered what the great officers of the Revolution had suffered, had learned the lessons of self-control which suffering teaches. The hard school of adversity in which they had [170] passed so many years made them sensible to an appeal which only such a chief as Washington could make; and, when he transmitted their resolves to Congress, he truly described them as "the last glorious proof of patriotism which could have been given by men who aspired to the distinction of a patriot army ”

“ He that wishes to see his country robbed of its rights, cannot be a Patriot.
That man therefore is no Patriot, who justifies the ridiculous claims of American usurpation; who endeavours to deprive the nation of its natural and lawful authority over its own colonies ”

“ In our free republics certainly nothing should be suppressed that can tend to awaken a noble spirit of emulation, to cherish the fine feelings of patriotism, to exhibit alluring examples for imitation, or to extend and perpetuate the remembrance of those heroic achievements which have ennobled the era of the American Revolution. ”

“ Who is an American, worthy to be placed on guard tonight? Is he American born? He may be, and he may have been born beneath any flag and under any sky. An American is one who believes in and is ready to defend this republic. To be ready to defend our territory, or even our flag, is not enough.
Though we continue our socialistic bent and either undermine or overthrow our form of government through peaceful evolution or forceful revolution, with sword or by ballot, the land will remain. ”

“ But I am only mentioning the opinions of men on this side of the water, and in my heart, I hope 45 everything will be adjusted to the satisfaction of that part of the citizens, who have served in the army, and that other part in the civil line, who, during the war, have sympathised with their troops. I, above every other earthly wish, most fervently pray, that the enemies of liberty, or such as are jealous of America, may not have the pleasure to see us deviate from the principles of the Federal Union. ”

“ Patriotism and love of liberty, the most ennobling motives that can fire the heart of man, expanding and thriving in the atmosphere of free America, added a refining touch to the martial enthusiasm of our forefathers and elevated the character of the American soldier to a standard never attained by fighting men of any other age or nation. ”

“ Let the American people once more remember that it is the duty of every citizen first to be a patriot before being a partisan. Then we shall cease to stumble from blunder into blunder, and that enlightened statesmanship will not fail to appear, which by courageous action will scatter the clouds now hanging with threatening gloom over the Republic. ”

“ No people in the world ever exhibited a more general and enthusiastic patriotism than the Americans during the war of our own Revolution. And yet our army received, even at that time, but little support from irregular and militia forces in the open field. ”

“ Men, whose motives inducing them to action are free from self, aiming exclusively at public good, are like angels’ visits, few and far between. Perhaps no era recorded on the pages of ancient or modern history, presents as many examples of disinterested patriotism as that of the American revolution. The sages who conceived, planned, and consummated the declaration of our independence, pledged their LIVES, THEIR FORTUNES, AND THEIR SACRED HONOURS, to carry out the principles promulgated by that sacred instrument. Never did men perform their vows more faithfully ”

“ The more obvious of the two is that of conscious and deliberate habituation. There are agencies that are constantly being used with deliberate purpose towards the regimentation of the populace in patriotism. “Patriotism is systematically cultivated by anniversaries, pilgrimages, symbols, songs, recitations, etc.” [32] There are numerous patriotic societies, such as the Grand Army of the Republic, the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Sons of Veterans, the Woman’s Relief Corps, the Daughters of the Confederacy, and others. ”

“ In the tense years which preceded the Literature Revolution the American people separated into two hostile parties: the Tories, or Loyalists, who supported the mother country; and the Whigs, or Patriots, who insisted on the right of the colonies to manage their own affairs, and who furnished the armies that followed Washington in the War of Independence. Then, when America had won a place among the free nations of the world, her people were again divided on the question of the Constitution. ”

“ No more brutal appeal to sordid greed, no appeal so utterly hostile to the vital principles of our free institutions, expressed in the most high-sounding verbiage of American patriotism, has ever been addressed to our people. If this be the spirit animating the youth of America, then the great American Republic will soon cease to be an encouragement to the progress of political liberty and become a warning example to all the world. ”

“ Republicans, no man can read the signs of the times to-day, without feeling that this struggle is already decided, and our victory certain. Already the glorious guns of New England are reverberating with increased volume. We hear the irresistible tramp of the old grand army of freedom again, and the whole American sky rings with the triumphant shout: “We are coming! ”

“ They thought that after America had encountered the power, an obtained a release from foreign bondage and had recently overcome domestic difficulties and discontents and even quieted the spirit of insurrection in their own states; that the republic system for which had had fought should not be hazarded by vesting any man or body of men with powers that might militate with the principles which had been cherished with fond enthusiasm by a large majority of the inhabitants throughout the union. ”

“ It will, indeed, not be denied that at the beginning of our Civil War there were magnificent demonstrations of enthusiastic and self-sacrificing patriotism on the part of the people, that the war itself abounds with heroic acts, and that it produced the great results of a saved and strengthened Union, the abolition of slavery, and an invigorated consciousness of national power. But it was not the war that created the enthusiastic and self-sacrificing patriotism of the people. That patriotism existed before the war, and would have existed without it. ”

“ I regret sincerely to see such a lack of Patriotism in the Present Administration and in the representatives of the North. They seem to be dreamy and mystified—they rush headlong regardless of law and its consequences and skulk like sheep-stealing dogs, when another nation stands up in open contravention. I confidently assert, that if there was any other man at the head of the Government of true conservative and constitutional principles, the Revolution would immediately cease so far as the South is concerned. ”

“ But, sir, speaking from the shadow of that memory, which I honor as I do nothing else on earth, I say that the cause in which he suffered and for which he gave his life was adjudged by higher and fuller wisdom than his or mine, and I am glad that the omniscient God held the balance of battle in His Almighty hand and that human slavery was swept forever from American soil, and the American Union was saved from the wreck of war.
This message, Mr. President, comes to you from consecrated ground. Every foot of soil about the city in which I live is as sacred as a battle-ground of the republic. ”

“ And, just as all these troops in uniform were joined together in the democracy of their crusading spirit, so all the people of the nation behind them were joined together in feeling and effort and purpose—the purpose that America should win the war for democracy’s sake, the utmost effort needed to realize that aim, a passionate patriotism that blazed at white heat in every heart. ”

“ This was not sufficient to dissipate the apprehensions of gentlemen who had been uniform and upright in their intentions and immovably fixed in the principles of the Revolution, and had never turned their eyes from the point in pursuit, until the independence of America was acknowledged by the principal monarchs in Europe. ”

“ Claiming that any omission on our part to exhibit that patriotism so noticeable in the whites, will, when history shall record the doings of this memorable country, leave our names without one deed of patriotism or expressed desire for the success of the cause of liberty; not one laurel to entwine the brows of those whose valor like blazing stars upon the battle-field would, no doubt, have eclipsed those whom we now are satisfied to acknowledge as superiors and protectors. ”

“ In this, which is truly the home of all nations, and in the veins of whose citizens flows the blood of every people on the globe. Patriotism, in the exclusive meaning, is surely not made for American. Mischievous every where, it were here both mischievous and absurd. The very origin of the people is opposed to it. The institutions, in their principle, militate against it. The day we are celebrating protests against it. It is for Americans, more especially to nourish a nobler sentiment; one more consistent with their origin, and more conducive to their future improvement. ”

“ Patriotism, in that special military sense in which it is distinguished from public spirit, is not the temper of the citizen dealing with fellow-citizens, or with men who are themselves citizens of their several states, but that of the follower of the feudal chief, or of the member of a privileged class conscious of a power, resting ultimately on force, over an inferior population, or of a nation holding empire over other nations. ”

“ The patriots, sages and heroes of the American revolution, were composed of men from different countries and of various pursuits. One feeling seems to have pervaded the bosom and influenced the actions of all—the love of Liberty. ”

“ We were daily improving, but we had yet much to acquire. At the time of the revolutionary explosion, the patriots, generally speaking, were such by nature and by instinct: with them patriotism was an innate sentiment, a passion, a phrensy. ”

“ His continuous conflicts with military and civil authorities, and armed populace, would in any other country in America have been dignified with the term revolution. It is easy to see that he regarded himself rather as a champion of his country than as an outlaw. ”

“ The people were aroused to a frenzy of patriotism. “American Independence,” says John Adams, in the record of his impressions, “was then and there born; the seeds of patriots and heroes were then and there sown, to defend the vigorous youth. ”

“ Doing honor to the memory of the Revolutionary Fathers, the American people will surely not permit the splendor of later successes to make them forget that the same dutiful spirit of patriotism which victoriously struggled through the agonies of their first contest will also in our days have to overcome the dangers brought forth by the very power and greatness of the Republic ”