DEC 1934 PAGE 1 16 I. INTRODUCTORY CONSIDERATIONS. American Patriotism and the Meaning of America. Washington's Early Surroundings. II. THE BOY WITH A WILL AND A WAY Early Circumstances of the First American Hero. A Community Proud of Its Family Honor. Land Speculation as the Beginning Leading to The Struggle for the Indian's Hunting Grounds. The Separation Beginning Between the Colonies and Some Personal Interests at Home. Political Intrigue and Official Confusion. "A Matter of Great Admiration." VIII. THE BEGINNING SIGNS OF A GREAT REVOLUTION Military Victory and a Happy Marriage. 46 35 6 IX. SOWING THE WIND AND REAPING THE WHIRLWIND Mount Vernon at First in a Zone of Calm. Giving the Appearance and Keeping the Substance. The Double-Quick March to Revolution. Violence and Flattery as Methods of Mastery. XI. GREAT MINDS IN THE GREAT STORM Unpatriotic Confusion of Opinions and Interests. Selecting the Leader of Liberty for America. XIII. LARGE BODIES MOVE SLOWLY Big Business, Money-Makers and Patriotism. The Strong Mind for Great Needs. XIV. TURNING REVOLUTION INTO GOVERNMENT. Freedom and the Wrangle for Personal Gain. AND AMERICAN LIBERTY CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY CONSIDERATIONS I. AMERICAN PATRIOTISM AND THE MEANING OF AMERICA "AMERICA for Americans" is a patriotic appeal that has arisen in many a political crisis, and then gone to pieces in the confusions of what we mean by "Americans" and "America.” American Liberty has been a goddess of worship from the beginning, and yet we find ourselves in an endless turmoil concerning what we mean by "American liberty." Washington and his associate patriots wrote a great definition in history and established that definition in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States, but human meaning, like the skies, seems hard to get clear and to keep clear. To know clearly what the definition of free 1 dom means and to promote it in the right-minded way, is the patriotism that identifies anyone anywhere as being American. The makers of America loved the right-minded way, and their primary test of justice unfailingly required, as a basis, the personal liberty that has been described to us by all as freedom to do the right that wrongs no one. To these "rights of man," they gave "the last full measure of devotion," as Lincoln defined patriotism, for "the birth of a new freedom under God." The public-school youth, who is not in one way or another familiar with the Americanism of Washington and Lincoln, is not yet prepared either for college or for life, and, still more clearly, is not prepared to be an American. The number of un-Americans in America may, in some crisis, become appalling, if, in fact, they do not succeed in Europeanizing America. Against that possibility there is nothing to save us, if we do not save ourselves as our hereditary task of American patriotism. Washington and Lincoln are the two incomparable constructive ideals of American liberty and manhood. The two lives together complete the meaning of America. Washington began his life with a superabundance of everything aristocratic in his age. Lincoln began his life in worldly nothingness that had indeed nothing for him but the democratic wilder |