[6] This is a part of Webster's "Supposed Speech of John Adams."
[9] From Webster's "Supposed Speech of Opposition to Independence."
[10] From Webster's "Supposed Speech of John Adams."
[11] From Webster's "Supposed Speech of Opposition to Independence."
[12] From Webster's "Supposed Speech of John Adams."
[13] Adapted from the "Corner Stone" speech of Alexander H. Stephens, and arranged by William R. Hood, Bureau of Education, Washington, D. C.
[14] From Wirt's "Supposed Speech of Patrick Henry."
[15] Robert Morris later signed the Declaration of Independence and through his influence the American Revolution was financed. This speech is adapted from Sumner's "True Grandeur of Nations" and other sources.
[16] From Wirt's "Supposed Speech of Patrick Henry."
[17] A monument was recently erected at Dover in his honor.
[18] On July 9, 1776, New York instructed her delegates to sign.
Johnson defines a patriot as one whose ruling passion is the love of his country, and patriotism as love and zeal for one's country. Curtis tells us that Lowell's pursuit was literature, but patriotism was his passion. "His love of country was that of a lover for his mistress. He resented the least imputation upon the ideal America, and nothing was finer than his instinctive scorn for the pinchbeck patriotism which brags and boasts and swaggers, insisting that bigness is greatness and vulgarity simplicity, and the will of a majority the moral law."
While some of us cannot make Lowell's pursuit our pursuit, we all can and should make his passion our passion. Let us all, the native born as well as the naturalized, say, deep down in our hearts with a patriotism and a courage that will back it up and make it good, "Our Country--right or wrong; if she is wrong we will set her right; if she is right we will keep her right; and so let us trust in God and believe she is right."
Times like these demand men. Let American boys be taught in the home and in the school and by the example of their fathers to be men among men.
"Men whom the lust of office will not kill, Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy, Men who possess opinions and a will, Men who have honor and will not lie; Men who can stand before the demagogue And down his treacherous flattering without winking, Tall men, sun crowned, who live above the fog In public duty and in private thinking!"[1]