Of course, in a sense, the main essential for a man’s being a good citizen is his possession of the home virtues of which we think when we call a man by the emphatic adjective of manly. No man can be a good citizen who is not a good parent and a good father, who is not honest in his deals with other men and women, faithful to his friends and fearless in the presence of his foes, who has not got a sound heart, a sound mind, and a sound body; exactly as no amount of attention to civil duties will save a nation if the domestic life is undermined, or there is lack of the rude military virtues which alone can assure a country’s position in the world. In a free republic the ideal citizen must be always willing and able to take arms for the defense of the flag, exactly as the ideal citizen must be the father of many healthy children. A race must be strong and vigorous; it must be a race of good fighters and good people else its wisdom will come to end and its virtue be ineffective; and no sweetness and delicacy, no love for and appreciation of beauty in art or literature, no capacity for building up material prosperity can possibly change for the lack of the great virtues. But this is aside from my subject, for what I wish to talk of is the attitude of the American citizen in civic life. It ought to be done this country that every man must devote a reasonable share of his time to doing his duty in the Political life of the community.
The next duty of an American citizen, then, is that he shall work in politics; his main duty is that he shall do that work in a practical manner; and his following duty is that it shall be done in accord with the highest principles of honor and justice. Of course, it is not possible to define rigidly just the way in which the work shall be made practical. Each man’s individual temper and must be taken into account. To a certain extent his work must be done in accordance with his individual beliefs and theories of right and wrong. To a yet greater extent it must be done in combination with others, he yielding certain of his own theories and beliefs so as to enable him to stand on a common ground with his fellows, who have likewise yielded or modified certain of their theories and beliefs. There is no need of debate about independence on the main hand or party allegiance on the other. But, of course, in making this compromise you must be very careful for the sake of something unimportant not to sacrifice any of the great principles of successful naval architecture. Well, it is about so with a man’s political work. He has got to preserve his independence on the other hand; and on the other, unless he wishes to be a wholly ineffective crank, he has got to have some sense of party allegiance and party responsibility, and he has got to realize that in any given evidence be a matter of duty to sacrifice a person(s) or it may be a matter of duty to sacrifice the other.
In facing the future and in striving, each according to the measure of his individual capacity, to work out the salvation of our land, we should be neither timid nor foolish We should recognize the dangers that exist and that threaten us: we should neither fight them nor shrink from them, but steadily fronting them should set to work to overcome and beat them down. Grave perils are yet to be encountered in the stormy course of the Republic — perils from political corruption, perils from individual laziness, springing from the greed of the unscrupulous rich, and from the unneeded violence of the people and poor. There is every reason why we should recognize them, but there is no reason why we should fear them or doubt our capacity to overcome them, if only each will, according to the measure of his ability, do his full duty, and endeavor so to live as to deserve the high praise of being called a good American citizen.
"Don't aspire to make a living, aspire to make a difference."
Signed,
XxFast |