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out to all these outward marks of national greatness and wealth, and to overlook some of the weightier matters which make a nation morally great and powerful, wherein our record would not be so much to our credit. It is a pity that on the anniversary celebrations of our national birth so little is done to stimulate the higher phases of patriotism; that, with all the noisy fuss and furor, the parade and show and cost, there is rarely anything done to recall and heighten the moral significance of the birth of this people among the nations of the earth, nor to educate and strengthen the sense of moral obligation, on the part of the present responsible actors of the nation, worthily to develop a country whose moral greatness shall correspond with the proportions of its material prosperity and power. On the contrary, oftener than not, the methods of celebration have so little of appropriateness and dignity, and are accompanied with so much of positive annoyance and discomfort, that a large number of citizens are put into anything but a mood of congratulation over their country's birthday.

The need of a patriotism of a higher moral quality has been especially intensified by certain features in the recent history of our country. It is not pleasant nor usual to speak of national faults on the Fourth of July. Yet, I can but think it would be a good thing for this nation to-morrow, in the midst of its patriotic celebrations, to have some of its moral shortcomings and perils so presented to

its conscience that that organ would be pricked into a wholesome conviction of sin. It certainly cannot be good nor safe to allow the political conscience of the people to be lulled to sleep under any such doctrine as that which has been promulgated by a person in high political position and authority, that the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule have no place in politics.

That, too generally, they do not find place in practical politics is cause not for declaration of the fact as a political principle (Heaven forbid!), but cause and urgent call for political reform. It is one of the wise features of the system of government in the United States, and a feature whose wisdom has been so corroborated by time that its consistent and thorough application is only made the more apparent, that state and Church shall be separated. But woe to the country if it shall ever accept the teaching that politics and morals shall be separated, or that practical politics shall be separated from even the high ethical sanctions of religion! Where, pray, do we want our religion and ethics? What are they for but to guide us in the practical duties of life? And what duties are more immediately practical than our political duties?

It may, I believe, be truthfully said that there is no political duty of any sort which does not involve some moral question. Duty itself is the primary word of morals. Even the political issues that to-day, and in the just entered great national campaign, are most conspicuously to agitate and divide

public opinion in this country- that is, the tariff question and the silver, or money, question — involve at bottom ethical problems. The ethical bearing of such complicated political problems as these is not always visible to the disputants; yet, through free discussion and gradual enlightenment, these questions will ultimately work themselves. down to their moral bases, and will never be permanently settled till settled according to the requirements of impartial justice between citizen and citizen, and between the whole body of citizens and the world. Politics means the science of government. And there is nothing which a political government has to do, even if it be but the building of a road or the chartering of a bridge, which does not at some point touch the question of right between man and man.

But, while on many matters that are at issue in politics equally good men may differ as to where the right lies, and a period of educating discussion is necessary for making clear the moral bearings, there are other matters on which momentous political issues and elections are made frequently to depend, practices in vogue, motives appealed to, passions aroused, concerning which the moral aspect is already so evident that it would seem as if there could be no division among men of tolerably upright consciences as to their condemnation. And there would be no division on such matters, were it not for the hallucination that, at the mandate of party and in the alleged interest of par

tisan success, the moral law may be somehow temporarily abrogated for the individual conscience. Take, for instance, that class of politicians, of whatever party, who may be said to define politics, not as the science of government, but as the science of getting government office for themselves and friends, the men who are in politics for what they can make out of the business. Tammany Hall, in New York, is the most conspicuous representative of this class of politicians in this country. But every State, and every city of any considerable size, has the same species of political aspirants with more or less of political power, though they may be kept under measurable control by the force of public opinion in many places. And everywhere we should say that all right-minded men would combine to condemn and put down such self-seeking aspirants, many of whom are not merely seekers for political favor, but miscreants bent on plunder of the people's property. But too often in such cases party attraction is stronger than the moral law; and we find even the otherwise good and right-minded men, instead of combining against this party of political plunderers, dividing their own forces and then each division rivalling the other in making bargains with the plunderers and the spoilsmen. It is commonly believed that Tammany Hall decided our last Presidential election; and it is now prophesied that, though it has not succeeded in nominating the Presidential candidate of its choice,

it will yet decide the election this year between the two great parties. It should be cause for the utmost humiliation and shame that a society so thoroughly disreputable and immoral, so in league with metropolitan vice and crime, should be such a power in politics as to tempt either of the great parties of the country to make bargains with it. But more cause for humiliation is it that any of the managers of the great parties of the country should be ready to accept the tempter's price. The Tammany element, unfortunately, is in the parties themselves. Wherever found, it is after the spoils of office and the scalps of its enemies. It is an element that goes into politics with no moral principle whatever. It is always for self. It corrupts whatever it touches. And yet good men, enlightened men, divide on minor issues of political policy and succumb to its power.

Akin to the Tammany evil, and springing from the same root, is the increasing use of money as a power in political elections. Of course there is a legitimate use for money in political campaigns. Literature is to be printed and circulated, public meetings are to be held, the people are to be roused from apathy to action by intelligent and spirited discussion. But such needs for money as these would demand but a small portion of the vast sums of money that are raised and spent for campaign purposes. In many places it has become a rule to assess candidates for office at a fixed sum, according to the amount in salary and perquisites.

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