E 179 .B779 Copy 1 ^, 4^ v.^ :^;;i:::i^ Unck Sams Church &ibk and l^nBellBeut^n :*^ LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. ^^^Tf: — UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THE FOLLOWING LETTER FROM REVEREND S. F. SMITH, D.D., Author of " My Country, 't is of Thee" (America), was written to the author of " Uncle Sam's Church," on receiving a copy of the book. •ya>',)^'^CU^^f>*^ <--^Ls>/- ^i^r6 i^fi^rr^. t^^^, A^rC /t^aZ^ ^a^lC/^ r/a^^^rt^-r- /- ^^r^..^ ^ •^'X^^l^X^ . ** Uncle Sam's Church " was originally printed for private circulation. The warm approval which the book has received from the press y from eminent public men, distinguished divines ^ and presi- dents of patriotic societies throughout the country, has induced the author to place it in the hands of Lamson, Wolffe, ^ Co., 6 Beacon Street, Boston, for publication. The present edition appears on Washington'* s Birthday — an auspicious date. Uncle Sam's Church His Creed, Bible and Hymn-Book BY JOHN BELL BOUTON AUTHOR OF "ROUND THE BLOCK," "ROUNDABOUT TO MOSCOW,' "THE ENCHANTED," ETC. '-'Strike^ but Hear'' l^t^l-OM. BOSTON L^MSON, WOLFFE, AND COMPANY 6, Beacon Street 1895 FIRST EDITION PRINTED JAN. 22, 1895. SECOND EDITION PRINTED FEB. 22, 1895. ■Bf7f Copyright, 1895, By John Bell Bouton. Copyright, 1895, By Lamson, Wolffe, and Co. John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U.S.A. PREFACE. THIS Republic is on the eve of stirring events. The New Patriotism that is in the air is but a Divine instinct of preparation for them. Our " White Navy " is something more than a harmless symbol of National power and pride. It is not a flock of doves. It means Peace only when that is consistent with Justice and Honor. It would be ignoble to avoid the path of our manifest destiny in the Western World. We shall soon be confronted with pressing questions of Annexation which cannot be shirked without discredit to our Mission. Socialists, with deceptive olive branches, and Anarchists, with real daggers, torches, and bombs, are menacing the institutions that are our heri- tage, bought by the Fathers with so great a price of blood and treasure. iv PREFACE. To meet the grave responsibilities and dangers that are ahead, the whole American people need a new baptism of Patriotism — by immersion. Their minds must be saturated with the thoughts and deeds of the immortal Founders of the Republic. They must learn by heart the vital phrases of the Declaration of Independence and of the Federal Constitution, which are the sacred charters of Liberty and Union. They must be brought to realize fully that these United States are in truth a Nation, and that the affection and allegiance of all its citizens are its first and right- ful due and the only sure pledge of their security and happiness. A National Patriotic Cult must be made to supply the place of an impossible State Religion. The object of this little book is to show how cheaply, easily, quickly, and surely this can be done in channels and by methods hitherto untried. J. B. B. Cambridge, Mass., 1895. CONTENTS. PAGE The New Patriotism 7 Signs of the Times 11 Growth of Nationalism 13 National Righteousness 19 Uncle Sam's Creed 23 Ark of Freedom's Covenant 25 The Sacred Vouchers 29 Uncle Sam's Bible 30 A Washington Cult -33 The Monroe Doctrine I'j Maps of the '* Promised Land " 42 Uncle Sam's Hymn-Book 44 Songs Truly National 47 Counting the Cost 51 Vi CONTENTS. PAGE Patriotism will find the Way 55 Footing the Figures 59 General Welfare 63 Religion and Patriotism 65 Education and Patriotism 68 The Treason of Indifferentism 69 A Grand Monopoly 70 A New Rallying Call 73 UNCLE SAM'S CHURCH, TO organize Patriotism ; to spread it over all the United States; to make it lasting: these are duties resting on every citizen, and the times are ripe for their performance. A revival of Patriotism is apparent in many ways and in many parts of the land. If it were a revival of religion, the churches most concerned in it would claim it as from God. And so it is. For Patriotism, like Religion and like human love, is an instinct divinely planted in the heart of Man. As Religion and Love are cultivated by expression and by practice, so is Patriotism. "Grieving away the Holy Spirit" has been declared by theologians to be the one unpar- donable sin. No language could be too lurid to portray its terrible consequences. On that point opinions have always honestly differed. But there 8 UNCLE SAM'S CHURCH. can be no question about the penalty that may be incurred by neglecting the present golden opportunity to make Patriotism universal and fervid, North, South, East, and West. Miss this God-given opening of to-day, and the fortunate conjunction may never return. Then what may happen ? At some future time, not far off it may be, the lack of a profound, glowing Patriotism, coextensive with the entire Republic, — a Patri- otism in which all petty sectional interests and prejudices are fused and absorbed, — may per- mit the outbreak of serious local disaffections, revolts, formal secession even, only to be sup- pressed again by war with all its horrors. It would be but the proverbial repetition of history. God forbid ! But God in history is only the Divine Will working through Man. If we will not work with it, — if we do not now strive most earnestly to disseminate and exalt Patriotism as a virtue indispensable to national existence, — then it may be the melancholy task of some future annalist again to point the oft-told moral of Man's suicidal blindness in not seeing or not following out the plain signs of the times. Strike while the iron is hot. It glows on the anvil and waits for the hammer now. THE NEW PATRIOTISM. g To " get Religion." To " fall in Love." These familiar phrases imply the possibility of fixing precise dates at which the emotions were first felt. There is a new-born Patriotism in the air. But we cannot name its birthday. We only know that it is but a few years old. Don't mis- take it for a mere prolongation or echo of pre- vious patriotic outbursts. The Union uprising of '6 1 was the most intense manifestation of Patri- otism seen since 1776. It continued through the war and the Reconstruction period. Then came a reaction and a dreary void, when Patriotism was latent or languid. The hundredth anniversary of our national Independence roused it up again, and it culminated resplendently in the World's Fair at Philadelphia in 1876. The immediate origins of these two grand displays of Patriotism are obvious enough. But why, and w^ien, and where, the lull that followed the long round of Centennial rejoicings was first broken by the patriotic heart-throbs which we hear all about us to-day, no man knows. Different reasons sug- gested by human experience, some plausible, some nonsensical, all insufficient, may be assigned for this fresh access of a beautiful, divine sentiment. No party and no policy can justly claim the ex- lO UNCLE SAM'S CHURCH. elusive glory of the rejzaissance. However much statesmen may have done to satisfy the patriotic instinct, the instinct was there before them quick to respond with enthusiasm. We may as well fall back on the good old word " Providential." It alone explains the inexplicable. Consider the glorious results of this new and strange outwelling of Patriotism. Here are some of them, all clearly traceable to the deep-lying fundamental cause. SIGNS OF THE TIMES. The creation, out of next to nothing, of our "white Navy," which, ship for ship, has no supe- rior, if an equal, on the ocean. Not long ago the people were indifferent or hostile to large naval appropriations. Now they want them and woe be to the short-sighted law-makers who thwart their will ! The severe measures, some passed and others in preparation, for thrusting back anarchists, criminals, and dangerous classes generally, from our shores. Harsh precautions, but, unhappily, necessary for the well being of the Republic and its law-abiding, honest, industrious citizens. SIGNS OF THE TIMES. II The prompt and relentless crushing of mobs instigated by so-called Labor Unions and com- posed of strikers, ruffians, and thieves. The interference of Federal troops for this purpose, despite the protests of treacherous, impotent, and half-hearted Governors, was applauded by a nation of spectators — minus the demagogues and row- dies. If Uncle Sam's handful of boys had not sufficed for the job, he could have drawn at sight on the militia of all the other better governed communities to the last man, and his drafts would have been as swiftly honored in Louisiana as in Massachusetts. Not many years ago such vigorous, decisive action on the part of the Fed- eral Government would have been disapproved in many localities. It would have been fiercely condemned by political opponents. That it is heartily and quite unanimously commended now, is proof of the more pervasive, more ebullient patriotism of our day. The emphatic rebuke at the polls of the timid, distrustful, unprogressive, and un-American policy of the Administration in Samoa and the Hawa- iian Islands. If dilatory caution is a virtue in statesmanship, so is Patriotism. Perhaps excess of the one is only a deficiency of the other. The 12 UNCLE SAM'S CHURCH. people, if we may judge them by their recent ver- dict, would have pardoned the President for a little haste and even precipitancy — for the good of his country and of Republican institutions — out in those isles of the Pacific. The solemn, overwhelming re-affirmation of Protection on the 5th of November last. Any- body can pick flaws in a Protective Tariff. There are as many defensible notions about the kinds and degrees of Protection among its supporters as there are sects of the Christian religion. But any sort of Protection, whatever its faults, has the nominal saving virtue of Americanism. It is an attempt to do something that is American for Americans, — something ostensibly patriotic, ben- eficial to the interests of the United States rather than those of foreign countries. It distinctly appeals to Patriotism for its support. And from the ballot-box a reflecting and convinced Patri- otism thunders " Yes." The breaking up of the solid Democratic South. This is the most important political event since the war. Tariff enticements had much to do with it. But these would have been powerless, had not thousands of Southerners felt patriotically disposed to level the old party bar- GROWTH OF NATIONALISM. 13 rier and enjoy a freer air and larger life. The fiat has gone forth. The South is no longer the impregnable stronghold of one party, but a divided camp. And divided camps are what this country wants. The genius of our institutions requires the nearly even distribution of two great parties out of whose ceaseless attrition good comes by cautious experiments and slow degrees and occa- sional reversals of policy. The worst possible demarcation lines of such parties are geographi- cal. Sectionalism, with all its frightful dangers, is the sure result. A party monopoly of the South caused the Civil War. The best guaranty of a genuine and enduring Union is the replac- ing of Sectional by National ideas and issues all round. The nascent Republican party of the South may be trusted to do this. Then political cyclones will no longer originate in and about the Gulf States. The crushing defeat of the infamous Tammany gang in New York City. The new Patriotism — and nothing else — did it. It was not a question of keeping thieves' hands out of their pockets, for New Yorkers have been so long accustomed to feeling them there that they did not mind that. It was not a question of economy, for New 14 UNCLE SAM'S CHURCH. Yorkers are nothing if not extravagant. It was a question of trying to save the name of their city from continuing to be the synonym of all that is dishonest and foul in Municipalism. That deplorable lack of public spirit, for which the citizens of New York, despite their religion, culture, and benevolence, have long been notori- ous, has at last given place to civic pride, — which is only another name of Patriotism. What Patriotism did for good government on the small field of New York City it can do everywhere and in every election, from that of the humblest official to that of the highest in the Republic. It is the panacea for the worst ills of the body politic. Even the oldest States, that have never lacked Patriotism, are now feeling new, delicious thrills of it in their unwithered veins. Massachusetts has flung aside her meaningless and wholesomely neglected Fast Day. She has substituted for its pretence of half rations and penitential gloom the joyous feast and laughing out-door life of Patriots' Day. It is Patriotism alone that dic- tated for the 19th of April, in every year, the grateful celebration of the momentous double event of Concord and Lexington. The term "PATRIOTS' DAY." 15 " Patriots' Day," applied to this ever glorious anniversary, was the happy thought of Governor Greenhalge. He did wisely in rejecting merely local or personal designations of the new festival. For he has hit upon a name, National in its sig- nificance and scope, well fitted for adoption by every State in the Union. Some time, let us hope, the meagre list of our National holidays will be enlarged by a " Patriots' Day," which will be celebrated with as much unanimity and enthu- siasm as the Fourth of July. The recent formation of strong societies com- posed of lineal descendants of worthies of the Colonial and Revolutionary periods. The best known among these organizations are the " Colo- nial Dames " and the " Society of Colonial Wars," the "Sons" and "Daughters " of the "American Revolution," and the " Sons " and " Daughters" of the " Revolution." The Colonial Dames have chap- ters in the thirteen original States and the District of Columbia only. The " Sons" and the " Daughters" can incorporate themselves for the affiliated work in whatever State or Territory they live. These are spontaneous and sincere outgrowths of the New Patriotism, and seem to be deservedly flourishing. Their declared objects and aims are most excel- l6 UNCLE SAM'S CHURCH. lent, and they ought to have an assured future of great usefulness in feeding and trimming the lamp of Patriotism so that the holy light shall never go out upon the altar. We must not smile at pride of ancestry when the ancestors were patriots. If there is any "blue blood" in the United States, it is the kind that flowed at Bunker Hill, Ben- nington, Saratoga, Princeton, Monmouth, King's Mountain, Camden, and Eutaw. There should be noted also the increased interest and enthusi- asm shown about the camp-fires of the " Grand Army of the Republic " from year to year. And the "Sons of the Veterans" are coming on the stage with youthful vigor and martial tread to take the place of their sires, as guardians of the sacred traditions, when they are all dead and the pension rolls shelved as precious relics of the past. Other good things have been brought forth in this new birth. They are cumulative evidence on a point already proved, and need only be sum- marized : — The enormously increased demand for Histo- ries of the United States and of the Civil War, especially in a popular and abridged form for the young. "OLD GLORY." 1 7 The multiplication of short biographies of the statesmen and warriors of the troublous times. The study of the Constitution and the work- ings of Republican Government in the Public Schools. The greater respect paid to " Old Glory " as the stainless emblem of National renown and the symbol and pledge of Union, no matter how many new stars emblazon its celestial blue. This ap- pears in the increased frequency of its display on State Houses, City Halls, Public Schools, and private buildings, Liberty poles, and wh.erever else the breezes of Heaven can caress it. The World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago. Though this stupendous fair celebrated no event in the history of the Republic, it was none the less a brilliant triumph of National Patriotism. Marvellous as a display of the whole world's treasures of Nature, Science, and Art, its grand- est claim on our admiration was its gathering of representative citizens and tributes from every part of the Union. If any sectional jealousy was at first excited by the choice of the great city of the West as the site of the Exposition, this was soon merged in the noble sentiment of a Unity which takes the same pride in Chicago as in New l8 UNCLE SAM'S CHURCH. York. If the centre of gravity has been shifted by the westward march of Empire, we yet remain, all alike, sharers in the increasing glory of the Republic, one and indivisible. UNCLE SAMS CHURCH. Here, then, is a vast field already well prepared for the systematic, searching, wholly beneficent work of what may be called, without irreverence, " Uncle Sam's Church." It is a Church that has its long roll of saints and martyrs, nobler than many that have been canonized and whose bones are objects of reverence. Like other churches, it has its Creed, its Bible, and its Hymn-Book, but it has no hierarchy or priesthood. Of course it is not a church in any dictionary sense of the word, as that implies a religion to go with the Church ; and Uncle Sam is debarred by the Con- stitution from setting up " an Establishment of Religion." There are sects of Christianity that would be only too happy to conceal his bright fantastic garb under a sombre and decorous re- ligious habit — always provided it were cut from their cloth and in their fashion. Our friends of the Roman Catholic, the Episcopalian, the Meth- NATIONAL RIGHTEOUSNESS. 19 odist, the Presbyterian, the Baptist, and perhaps other connections, would gladfy secure his cus- tom for their exclusive tailoring. But, as his patronage is wholly out of the question, none of them are touting for it. If any one of them lifted a voice or a finger with that intent, the ambitious sect would bring upon itself an over- whelming torrent of indignant scorn and denun- ciation from all the others, as a pistol shot starts an avalanche. The country would be too hot to hold any sect or set of men who should plot for the repeal of this most just, equitable, and wise Constitutional prohibition. Unless the Ameri- cans of the future change for the incredibly worse, and become by a vast majority the slaves and tools of priestcraft, there is no probability that such a thing will be ever attempted. Being forever estopped by his experienced and long-headed sponsors from making hazardous ven- tures under the name of " Religion," (as defined in all the lexicons and universally understood of men,) Uncle Sam is perfectly free to put his sound mind and his good heart into the culture and dif- fusion of Patriotism. This, properly aided and developed under his fostering care, may be made a practical National Righteousness — in the root 20 UNCLE SAM'S CHURCH. sense of right and wise conduct. What greater good than that would any religious sect be likely to do for the country if it had full swing? It might do much less. It might develop into a spiritual tyranny, — the most cruel and hateful of all. Once repeal the prohibition of a religious establishment and install some sect at Washing- ton, and the next step would be straight along the line of the amendment text (Article I.) to erase the clause that now protects the " free ex- ercise " of religion by all ; and, as inevitable corollaries, would swiftly follow the abridgment of freedom of speech and of the press. These priceless blessings, among the most cherished in our national bill of rights, would perish with the blow that cut the tap-root of our free reliQ:ious life. The " reliofious test " now for- bidden in Article VII. would be interpolated there and imposed, and then we should realize what we now only read of and shudder over in books, the ferocious zeal of fanatics and bigots when unchecked by the civil arm. History has never failed to repeat itself whenever the Church has mastered the State. And Churches seek no alliance with States where such supremacy is not sought after with every wile, and most HAPPILY SECULARIZED SOIL. 2I patiently. Guard well the first line of defences in the Constitution, and that danger will not be incurred on this happily secularized soil. HOW TO DO IT. Now, how can Uncle Sam best promote this inspiring patriotic cult, which must stand for the Nation in lieu of an impossible State religion.? The plan which I have the honor to propose to the American people is so simple, eas)^ and cheap, that it may seem at first absurdly dis- proportionate to the great objects sought to be attained. But before enlarging upon this branch of the subject, let us look a little at the immense vantage ground already exclusively occupied by Uncle Sam, affording him almost innumerable temples or radiating centres for immediate use. It is all very well to talk of a " Church invisible." But most people want their churches very visible indeed, with walls, towers, spires, and all the pal- pable signs of wealth and social influence for which sects so earnestly contend. The first and best ornament of the infant village of America is the church edifice, in whose erection some con- fraternity of worshippers often goes far beyond its 22 UNCLE SAM'S CHURCH. cash resources and borrows largely. Hundreds of millions of dollars are invested — and well in- vested — throughout the United States in these houses of God. The enormous cost of their con- struction has always been deemed necessary by rival denominations for the furtherance, if not the very existence, of their respective beliefs. If this is true but in part, then Uncle Sam has good reason to congratulate himself as the pos- sessor of nearly sixty-nine thousand visible churches, all his own and all paid for except a few which he hires temporarily but equally under his control, in every city, town, and village of the United States. These buildings are some large, imposing, and costly, others less ambitious in design and decoration, but still handsome, and others of a humbler order and a plainer finish. The towering marble or granite or iron piles, sometimes filling entire squares, are for the great cities of the land. They may be called the Cathedrals. The second-rate cities and consider- able towns are provided with structures larger perhaps than their immediate requirements, but generously planned with a view to future needs. The lesser, down to the least, nuclei of popula- tion are never nesflected in this distribution. THE PATRIOTIC CULT. 23 They all have a building, large or small, which they owe to Uncle Sam. I am alluding to the Post Offices of the United States, and I propose that every one of them be tised, with the least delay practicable, as an active centre for the exposition and propagation of the Patriotic Cult. UNCLE SAm's creed. How can this best be done } Answer : By the free, but judicious, use of Uncle Sam s print- ing press. It could be run, at odd hours, on such plain work as placards and tracts or pamphlets, which should consist of Patriotism boiled down to its quintessence. Take the placards, first in order if not first in importance. Two of them would be required to be hung on the walls of each of the 69,000 post offices. One should be the " Declaration of Independence," the other the " Constitution of the United States," each entire and without note or comment. The pla- cards should be printed in bold, easily legible type, on strong cloth-backed paper for perma- nence, and of a size and style to challenge the attention of the least observant man. These two documents contain Uncle Sam's Articles of 24 UNCLE SAM'S CHURCH. Faith. Read them together, and you have his Creed. Creeds have always been expensive, cost- ing, before they have earned the right to live, immense sacrifices of blood and treasure. Those splendid gems of truth, which the immortal sign- ers of the Declaration called self-evident, (but none the less denied by tyrants, the world over,) cost the infant Colonies the Revolutionary war. It was a great price, but the peerless jevv^els were worth it. A single Article of Faith — No. XIII. of the Constitutional Amendments • — came as high as hundreds of thousands of lives and thou- sands of millions of dollars. It was the abolition of slavery. Every word of the Declaration, from the stately " When in the course of human events " down to the sublime pathetic close, " we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor," is fraught with the weiofhtiest meanino: to Americans for all time. The awful indictment against poor old George III. is not merely a curious piece of ancient history. It particularizes the exact kind of oppressions which tyrants always practise in their refusal of man's " unalienable rights " to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." " Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty," with- ARK OF P'REEDOM'S COVENANT. 25 out which its immense cost is but an aimless waste. Therefore, it behooves all Americans to keep ever before their eyes the Declaration of Independence as a powerful incentive to watch- fulness as^ainst foes within and foes without. The Constitution is to the Declaration what res- olutions should be to a preamble, — the logical sequel. The one is the fulfilment pf the other's pledges. Together, they are the ark of Free- dom's covenant, — enshrining all that is best of human experience in the science and art of self- government in all the Ages. As the creed of Uncle Sam's Church, they have the unique advan- tage among creeds of extreme simplicity, so that everybody can understand it, and also of com- manding full belief without any mental reserva- tion whatever. In this country everybody goes to the Post Office. Houses of worship are open only on Sundays, but the Post Office is open every day. It is the most public of all public places. It is to Americans what the Forum was to the Romans, and what the market-place still is to many towns in the Old World. Hang these placards on the walls of Post Office lobbies all over the country, with or without the richly gilded frames they 26 UNCLE SAM'S CHURCH. deserve, and they would be read — and read often, I believe — by every man, woman, and child who could read English. Curiosity is catching and the illiterate may be trusted to find somebody to interpret to them the mystic signs on the walls which everybody else is scanning. For the placard, be it understood, is the best thing yet devised — always excepting the news- paper — to plant the blow of an idea between the eyes of mankind. The town-crier — save in a few backwood retreats — is obsolete, and when he went his rounds his voice was apt to be thick with fog or something, or hoarse from much shouting, and his mumbled and broken sentences were not easily caught except by the small circle wuthin swing of his bell. The placard is uni- versally read because it is a placard. No matter whether it announces a coming circus, an auc- tion sale, an article lost, a list of citizens registered and entitled to vote, a patent medicine, or what not, it is equally a centre of staring interest. The artful advertisements that confront the uni- versal eye in railway stations, and in electric, cable, and horse cars, on the roofs of houses, board fences, dead walls, and elsewhere, are po- THE POWERFUL PLACARD. 27 tent charmers of money out of closely buttoned pouches. If venders of nostrums can get rich by playing upon this inveterate human weakness, Uncle Sam may surely depend on the same means of advertising Patriotism. Placards have always been powerful allies of Revolution. Empires and kingdoms have been overturned by them. Our Patriot fathers used them adroitly in the darkest hours of the sacred cause, and they never failed to irradiate the gloom. They cheered the discouraged and spurred the sluggish as liothing else could. The apparition of placards on the curbstones has struck terror to the hearts of emperors and kings. No mon- arch is so firmly seated on his throne that he does not quake a little before the mysterious threat that comes out of the darkness. If the placard is one of the most effective means of inciting men to rise against bad forms of government, why may It not be utilized to brace up the best government on the face of the earth ? Space then for the placards, in dimensions ample, in type big enough to be read five or ten feet away, hung (but not too high) on the inside walls of every one of Uncle Sam's churches, whether it be a " Cathedral " in New York, Chicago, or Bos- 28 UNCLE SAM'S CHURCH. ton, or the hired half of a log shanty in the wilds of Oregon ! At this juncture the Critic, bursting with im- patience and imagined wisdom, interposes : — " My dear sir, this is all rubbish. You are be- hind the age. Every schoolboy knows the Con- stitution by heart. It is now taught in the com- mon schools. As for the Declaration, it is read every Fourth of July at public meetings; and citizens who want to hear it can do so simply by attending. Those who don't want to hear it stay away, — and they are in the large majority. No wonder, for the reading of it entire by the village elocutionist is generally considered a bore." Reply : It is true that some of the schoolboys of our day, in Massachusetts and a few other States, are privileged to read the Constitution in admirable text-books descriptive of the upbuild- inor of American institutions. It is also com- prised in the courses, obligatory or optional, of many colleges and universities. The Constitu- tion (and perhaps the Declaration) has recently been published in a cheap pam.phlet form under the auspices of certain patriotic societies. But it does not seem to have attained very general circulation among the people. At the two largest THE SACRED VOUCHERS. 29 bookstores in Cambridge, Mass., I was told that " there was nothing of the kind in stock." I found my copy of the Constitution, brought down to date for reference, only in an Englishman's book — strangely enough ! — in the Appendix of Volume I. of Bryce's " American Commonwealth." For the Declaration of Independence I was driven to Volume V. of Bancroft's History of the United States. These charters of our liberties may be hidden away in still other books " which no gentleman's library should be without." But that does not affect my contention in the least. There are doubtless a great many Americans of the educated class who know something (call it a good deal, if you please) of the text of the Con- stitution and the initial Declaration. The risinsf generation in a few of the States may be im- pelled to make some acquaintance with them, — too often perhaps as a task. But I maintain that, to a vast majority of Americans, old, middle- aged, and young, these sacred vouchers of Lib- erty and Union are unknown save by casual and infrequent citation and reference, too often even then with the gloss and twist put upon them by demagogues or fine-spun theorists. We want them without note or comment, as we want the Holy 30 UNCLE SAM'S CHURCH. Bible. We want them supplied by Uncle Sam to all the people without money and without price. We want them as free as the air, and as universal. We want them not merely tendered to all ignorant or partially informed persons, but obtruded upon them and hammered into them, day after day, by the everlasting placards. Up then with Uncle Sam's Creed in Uncle Sam's Church ! And be quick about it ! Delays are dangerous, and wide-spread ignorance of the ori- gin, foundation, and nature of our government is a standing menace to its stability.-^ UNCLE SAm's bible. Now for the tracts, or pamphlets, or booklets, or leaflets. No matter about the name so long as the thing itself is not bulky or tedious. This mode of inculcating Patriotism has its peculiar, inestimable advantages. The tract is to the big book what the Maxim gun is to the heavy artillery. It makes vastly less noise in the firing, and does a hundred times the execution. The small arms may win victories while the big guns are unlimberino:. Tracts have made crises and have always accompanied them since printing 1 The Declaration and Constitution could also be published in tract form for general distribution. UNCLE SAM'S BIBLE. 3I was invented. Like the placard, they are fore- runners of revolution, and do not stay their course till the goal is reached. " These are the times that try men's souls," were the opening words of Paine's stirring tract, " Common Sense," which blew the smouldering fire of patriotic dis- content into a blaze in 1776. The most tremen- dous religious upheaval in England since the Reformation — itself greatly furthered by pam- phleteering — resulted from the " Tractarian movement." The Oxford tracts made a rent as of a spiritual earthquake in the Church of Eng- land, the effect of which is visible to this day. Religious Tract Societies have flourished in the United States for nearly a century. There is the famous American Tract Society, and there are separate Tract Societies for every denomination, and they all testify to the incalculable good that tracts can do in reaching the homes and hearts of the people. From this universal experience Uncle Sam may safely draw the conclusion : If tracts are one of the main stays of churches in general, they are just the thing for his Church. If tracts awakened Patriotism in 1776, tracts can keep Patriotism from going to sleep in 1895. 32 UNCLE SAM'S CHURCH. The material available in Uncle Sam's archives for the preparation of these tracts is inexhaustible. It all turns on judicious selection and editing. The sole object should be to increase everywhere a love of Republican institutions and of the Union. The line to be pursued is the lijie of least resistance. Uncle Sam's Church is not sectional or partisan, but national and patriotic, not confined to Massachusetts, New York, Penn- sylvania, and Ohio, but casting its protecting shade over the entire United States. The tracts would not only fail in their mission, but would do a real mischief, if they were given over to the glo- rification of one State or one section above an- other State or another section, or to the teasing and taunting: revival of the memories of extinct issues. The tracts should emphasize, not the past or present differences between States and sec- tions, but their agreements. They should always be designed to promote harmony by ignoring dis- cords. Every good American has the same her- itage in the great thoughts and great acts of his great forefathers. There and there only in the past is the ground common to all. A WASHINGTON CULT. 33 With these rules as a guide there should be little difficulty in determining what tracts to issue, and even to fix proximately their order of appearance. The list subjoined is respectfully suggested as a partial one, in the nature of samples only. Short as it is, years would be required to distribute its components effectively (with other tracts of a different character, of hardly less moment, to be hereinafter mentioned) among sixty-five million people. It will be observed that the subjects are, in every case, persons or events of a remote and universally honored past, upon which, so far as we now know, the final verdict of history has been rendered, and recalling only memories in which every American may now feel the same interest and take the same pride. I. A Sketch Life of George Washington. — Biographies of Washington, like the Declaration and the Constitution, are now sealed books to millions of Americans. Those that are sold over counters or used in public schools reach only the small minority. The whole country needs to be taught the great lesson of Washington's life. Those who have learned it once will profit by studying it again. We want a Washington cult that will throw about a Republic the same kind 34 UNCLE SAM'S CHURCH. of charm with which the Napoleonic cult has al- ways invested Imperialism. Thousands of Amer- icans are now harking back to the Napoleonic era to slake their thirst for exciting biography. Washington's career, though less romantic and picturesque than the great Corsican's, is still very impressive, apart from the noble moral it conveys. If Napoleon is now kindling anew the admiration and sympathy of large numbers of our country- men in the revamped versions of the oft-told tale, it is time to repeat the less thrilling but highly interesting story of the august Father of his Country. If the serial issue of the books of Uncle Sam's Bible stopped with the first number, the good done would still pay well for the experi- ment. It is in Washington's matchless character that American patriotism will always find its brightest example. Twelve pages would suffice to impart a good general idea of Washington's life and work. While it would probably fur- nish to the immense majority of Americans the amplest memoir of the man they will ever have, it would serve only as a keen appetizer for multi- tudes, and set them to buying and reading com- pleter books on the same subject. In truth, this will be the certain effect of all the tracts that may WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS. 35 follow, and thus private enterprise will become an assistant in Uncle Sam's work. 2. Washington s Farewell Address. — This is the political last will and testament of the greatest and best American. It is laden with the rich fruitage of his long observation and experience of men and of institutions. In its knowledge of human nature it is profound, and eternally true. In its prescience and its solemn monitions it has the inspiration of prophecy. Its grand thoughts are marshalled with soldierly exactness, and march straight to just conclusions. Its sonorous Latin- English, in the use of which Washington ex- celled, provides a kind of music for the stately tread of the argument. It concerns "the People of the United States " to-day, and will do so for unborn generations, as much as it did when its author sent it forth. It is to the Republic what the Sermon on the Mount is to Christendom. The Republic will be safe and the Union indis- soluble as long as Washington's Farewell Address is universally read and heeded. It must be taken out of the seclusion of such books as Sparks's *' Life and Writings of Washington," in the twelfth volume of which I found it, and bestowed upon the public in an eight-page form. 36 UNCLE SAM'S CHURCH. 3. A Sketch Life of yohn Adams, — A typi- cal American in the qualities which have most powerfully contributed to the welfare and glory of the Republic. A worthy successor of Wash- ington as President, than which no higher tribute of praise could be paid. 4. A Sketch Life of Thomas Jefferson. — How fortunate for the young nation that it had such a sage and patriot as Jefferson in reserve to follow Washington and Adams ! The author of the Declaration of Independence can never be too highly honored, nor his example too closely copied, by those who are privileged to enjoy the blessings conferred upon his fellow countrymen and their successors, and upon all mankind, by his clear head and his great heart. 5. A Sketch Life of James Madison. — The special title of the fourth President of the United States to the grateful esteem of all Americans is his patriotic attitude in sternly resisting the audacious British claim of the right to seize and impress sailors on board American ships. Nomi- nally limited to British subjects only, the outrage was often committed on American-born citizens also. The only excuse was England's desperate anxiety to recruit her navy during her exhaust- THE MONROE DOCTRINE. n ing war with France. Madison's firmness cost the country the war of 1812. But the price was cheap for the ends secured. 6. A Sketch Life of James Monroe, — Eternal honor and gratitude are due to the promulgator of the " Monroe doctrine." From the Presiden- tial chair, in 1823, Monroe uttered the emphatic warning to all European powers to meddle no more with political affairs on this continent. The third Napoleon's disregard of this traditional doctrine, at a time when he fondly thought the Union was in the throes of dissolution, led to his infamous attempt to found a branch empire in Mexico, followed by the recall of his troops after the downfall of the Rebellion and the recoil upon himself of his miserable failure, soon to be succeeded by the deserved collapse of his hollow sham of Imperialism in France. Monroe's life should give the inspiring causes of the great doctrine that bears his name, with extracts from one of Henry Clay's magnificent speeches in its support. It may come up again some day for re- application. It is a meat upon which Patriotism may feed endlessly. 38 UNCLE SAM'S CHURCH. Enough of these specimens of biography in little. Turn now to the historiettes of the great epochs of our common past, — remembering again that the object is to promote Patriotism by avoiding differences and painful recollections, sec- tional and political, and emphasizing agreements as far as possible. What are the periods of bygone times best calculated, in these condensed recitals, to stimulate the pride and enthusiasm of Americans irrespective of locality and of party? Among them certainly are the Revo- lutionary War, the War of 1812, and the War with Mexico. It is only in the foreign wars of the Republic that we should seek for the strong tonic of Nationality. The Colonial times prior to the Revolution also afford excellent material of this kind. When Patrick Henry in 1774 pas- sionately declared, " I am not a Virginian, / am an American',' he voiced an idea which, if uni- versally believed in and acted upon now, would realize our highest aspirations of National Unity. Pausing here, in the attempt to specify a few examples out of the rich mass of historical mate- rials at hand, let us pass to another fountain head of enlightenment for the whole American people. It is the Eleventh Census. THE CENSUS LESSONS. 39 The Census is the most thorough and in all respects the fairest survey obtainable of the Union in all its parts, and of all its multiform products, and industries, and opportunities. The integrity of its intention and the comparative accuracy of its figures none can dispute. Every American ought to know what the ponderous tomes of the Census Report have to say, not merely about his own State and section, but about every nook and corner of the country. It is such knowledge that breaks down petty local barriers, and makes every reflecting citizen who possesses it " an American." He is thus brought to look upon the United States in the true light, as a Nation. Toward this Nation of his he should come to feel the same pride and attachment that English- men feel for England, Germans for Germany, Frenchmen for France, Russians for Russia, Ital- ians for Italy, and Japanese for Japan, regardless of interior territorial bounds. Our census returns widen the horizon and enlarge the outlook for every man who reads them aright. But no one ever sees them now save on the shelves of public libraries, and not always there. The vital lessons of these inaccessible volumes should be com- pressed into handy pamphlets and put into every 40 UNCLE SAM'S CHURCH. American home. Contrast the latest statistics with those of the Census of 1800, for example, and they will show at a single glance what Lib- erty and Union have done and can do ! If a series of tracts of the varieties I have described, carefully and wisely prepared, were ulti- mately bound up in book form, they would be sur- passed in their wealth of instructiveness for the good of mankind by only one volume in the world, the Holy Scriptures. They would contain the ripe and perfect flowering of political truth, which has fallen to the lot of America as heir of all the ages. They would afford the surest and best guidance to the Art of Government by the Peo- ple, for the People, upon the theory and practice of which depend the freedom, the progress, and the happiness of the human race. In the pages of such a book would be found maxims of con- summate wisdom and goodness which are not less divine because they do not claim direct revela- tion. There would be prophecy and fulfilment. There would be appeals of incomparable power and beauty in behalf of justice, right, the liberty of the individual, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, the duty of self-sacrifice for the good of all. There would be history teaching the UNCLE SAM'S BIBLE. 4I soundest lessons by example. There would be biography holding up the loftiest standards of patriotism and courage and rectitude for univer- sal imitation. There would be unimpeachable facts and figures in abundance to prove what the Republican system of government has done for the advancement, the security, and the felicity of man in the Western World. Surely it is not too much to call such a book Uncle Sam's Bible. The word " Bible " is, of course, here employed in its original and exact sense of " Book." Thus, the " Holy Bible " is often termed the " Good Book," or the " Book of Books." Though Uncle Sam is shut out from any reli- gious propaganda, the circulation of these docu- ments must, nevertheless, serve to widen and deepen, among all thoughtful readers, a convic- tion of the immanence of God in History. In no country and in no age is His guidance more clearly shown than in this Republic, from its be- ginning down to the present day. Uncle Sam's Bible will, therefore, tend to increase a belief in and a reverence for the Supreme Ruler, form- ing a basis upon which Religion may build securely. 42 . UNCLE SAM'S CHURCH. MAPS OF THE " PROMISED LAND." Uncle Sam's Bible should be illustrated. Por- traits and other pictures, if well done, would greatly illuminate its pages. The nature and extent of these illustrations need not be indicated here. If the importance of such pictorial aids is challenged by anybody, the value of a good Map of the United States will pass unquestioned. If children in any of the public schools get their map of the United States by heart, as they rarely do, they are apt to forget it when they grow up. Probably not one adult American out of every one thousand could to-day pass an examination on the boundaries of all the States of the Union, their capitals and largest towns, the trend of the chief mountain ranges, the posi- tion of the great lakes, and the course of the principal rivers. Good maps of this country are not cheap. Their price puts them beyond the reach of millions of people. Most of the best maps offered for sale, or shown in public places, are mere railway advertisements. They are streaked with broad black or red or blue lines, to mark particular railway systems. Rival routes are wholly omitted, or are faintly outlined. Cities, MAPS OF THE "PROMISED LAND." 43 towns, mountains, rivers, and all else that goes to the making of a faithful map, are slighted or ruthlessly left out, unless they have some rela- tion to the " system." The shape of the con- tinent and the contour of vStates are too often grotesquely distorted by foreshortening and other tricks in order to make lines seem shorter and straighter than they really are. There is a press- ing need for a new, trustworthy official map, drawn to scale from the latest government sur- veys, in which all the great railways shall be im- partially treated, and equal and due prominence be given to the natural topographical features and to the chief towns in every part of the Union. It should be large enough to afford a fair show even to tiny Rhode Island, which is huddled out of sight in the contracted maps most in vogue. It should be printed on strong paper, in legible lines and letters, and should be given away to every adult applicant from every post office in the country. Not till Uncle Sam undertakes this great and good work will the vast majority of American citizens ever know what these United States really are. When they have mas- tered this sadly neglected knowledge by the aid of proper maps, they will realize for the first 44 UNCLE SAM'S CHURCH. time what enormous extents of territory, and what diversities of latitude, of cHmate, and of interests, from Arctic Alaska to Tropical Florida, are bound up together in the Union. To study the interests of other people is the surest way to take a man out of himself, that is, to make him less selfish. To study the interests of other sections of country is the surest way to take a man out of his own section, in other words, to make him less sectional. Upon the mutual knowledge between the States of one another's interests and wants, and the large and warm sympathies resulting therefrom, depend the existence of the Union and the good of all. This is Patriotism as Uncle Sam's Map of the New Canaan, or Promised Land, would teach it. UNCLE SAMS HYMN-BOOK. Uncle Sam has some hymns all ready to go along with his Bible and his Creed. There is no embarrassment of choice here. The National Songs that can be relied on to stir an American's blood to the point of fighting and dying for his country if need be — and that is the best test of their value — maybe counted on less than ten UNCLE SAM'S HYMN-BOOK. 45 fingers. Songs that are spontaneously adopted by the People, and sung with equal fervor in the richest mansions and the poorest hovels, in the camp, in the trenches, and on the eve of battle, are the rarest of products. They are the one man's lyrical expression of the inarticulate cries of a million men. The poet is the ordained voice of ajl that dumbness. When he is in love, he writes love songs for the world of lovers to sing. When he is in a religious ecstasy, he writes the hymns that are sung with passionate vehe- mence in all the churches of Christendom. When patriotic frenzy seizes him, he writes the song of a Nation. There must be the great occasion, the true poet, and the melting heat, before the National Hymn can be. One such hymn may be made equal to a hundred crises, and may outlast the life of a Nation. The People cling to a few such songs when tried and proved, and do not crave new ones. The old ones, like all the songs the common people have ever loved, have the gift of immortal youth. If a jury of twelve well informed patriotic Americans should try the claims of all competing songs for the great honor of inclusion among the first seven in Uncle Sam's Hymn-Book, they 46 UNCLE SAM'S CHURCH. would probably render their verdict without leaving the box. They would find for Smith's " America," Key's " Star Spangled Banner," Hop- kinson's "Hail Columbia," Shaw's "Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean," Morris's " Flag of the Union," and Dwight's " Our Country " and Pierpont's " Our Fathers " (both deeply religious and sung to the same convenient tune as " America "), per- haps nearly in the order here given. If Drake's grand " American Flag," had been cast in a met- rical form suitable for popular musical setting, it might be to-day one of our best National Hymns, and easily take its place as third on the list, if not higher up. Like some other superb lyrics of Liberty and Union, its words must remain its own and only music. When the question arises of selecting the next seven, or even one or two, worthy, with their music, of Uncle Sam's Hymn- Book, the trouble begins. But it is much les- sened by an exacting observance of the only rule that should govern the selections. They must be national, not sectional, good for all time, in peace as in war, not temporary and fitted only to special crises that have been outlived. Uncle Sam's Hymn-Book must be adapted to circu- late not only in New England and the Northern SONGS TRULY NATIONAL. 47 States, but all through that great cluster of com- monwealths now fast returning to the fold of a sincere, hearty, union-loving sisterhood. Sec- tionalism and sectional issues should not be sung, as they should not be preached, any longer. This sensible ruling throws out of court most of the Battle Hymns, some of high merit, written during the Civil War for the ex- press purpose of firing the hearts of armies in the field. It is not always, or usually, the greatest poets who write the songs that become " National." Sometimes the writers are deficient in Patriotism, looking upon it as a tawdry sentiment unworthy of their muse. Sometimes their sympathies are, by stress of circumstance, tied down to localities, and they give to a province what was meant for a Nation. Often, they become allied with a great party movement or a burning question of social reform or philanthropy, and, as its ap- pointed bards, have no time or inclination to chant anything else. In the United States the poets of the first rank have, like too many of their compatriots, travelled far more in Europe than at home. They have not realized, by seeing, the greatness of their heritage, or been made to 48 UNCLE SAM'S CHURCH. feel the essential oneness of the Union and the kinship of all its inhabitants despite the differ- ences of climate and conditions. What splendid National Songs, of the real lasting quality, might have been written thirty odd years ago, if we had been engaged in a foreign war, instead of a fratricidal conflict ! For one reason or another, the twelve good men and true who have been set to choosing the contents of Uncle Sam's Hymn-Book would not find much suitable mat- ter in the works of some of the poets we most love and honor. The people have been there before the jury, and, if they have discovered nothing serviceable for a national song, perhaps it is too late now to find one. But let us be hopeful, and see what may be done. There is Bryant with two spirited lyrics, National all over, — " The Battle JField," and " O Mother of a Mighty Race." Holmes put the right stuff into his " Old Ironsides," and, if that has not been wedded to music, the espousal should be no longer delayed. Longfellow, prodi- gal in so much else, gave to his admiring coun- try but a poor dole of undiluted Patriotism; and the hand that wrote " Paul Revere 's Ride " and those sublime too brief lines, " Thou, too, LONGFELLOW, LOWELL, AND WHITTIER. 49 sail on, O Ship of State," could have struck every chord in the National lyre ! Lowell, too, who could have done so much, did little that would truly fit into Uncle Sam's Hymn-Book. His three Memorial Odes — " The Washington Elm," the " Concord Bridge," and " The Harvard Commemoration" — are lambent in passages with the purest and loftiest patriotism. If the meter were not irregular — of a sort that might be called broken-candy, in its lines of unequal length and all sweet — parts of these majestic odes could be popularized with music. They might be arranged in the cantata form. 'T is a pity that people cannot try their voices on those most exultant but tear-compelling lines which wind up the glorious " Commemoration Ode," — " Bow down, dear Land, for thou hast found release." In Whittier's poetry, the pickings are even scantier. He always looked into his great heart and wrote. But he did not see there the Union and the Flag. He saw only the slave. A man who dedicated his life, as this best of Quakers did, to the release of bondsmen from their bonds, and of the oppressed from their tyrants, and whose fiery zeal in the cause of human liberty, temporal and spiritual, made the whole world 50 UNCLE SAM'S CHURCH. his country, was not of the kind that dashes off Hail Columbias or Star Spangled Banners at a sitting. One would hardly look to the intro- spective and philosophic Emerson for a National Song. But he wrote one that has the true ring, " The Fight at Concord Bridge." And it is well mated by his " Fourth of July " hymn begin- ning, — " O tenderly the haughty day Fills his blue urn with fire." When Percival has contributed his passionate stanzas headed " It is great for our Country to die," and Sprague his lines " To the Sages who spoke, to the Heroes who bled," there is little more worth accepting from the elder — or, for that matter, from the younger — poets of America. And the bulk of it all is adapted rather to reci- tation than to song. It will live long, but not in the Nation's Hymnal. Meanwhile, fortunately, it is not needful to put many songs into the hearts and mouths of the whole people. If the three or four best, set to music for four voices, can be universally dis- tributed, so that the whole congregation can rise and join in them when called upon, Patriotism will have received, on the musical side, its sufifi- COUNTING THE COST. 5I cient stimulus and safeguard. Then it will be possible everywhere, as it is now possible no- where, to ask banqueters on the Fourth of July, to sing not merely one, but two, yea three, stanzas of " The Star Spangled Banner " to the orchestral accompaniment, and secure a hearty response. Then, on Atlantic steamships when the " Fourth '* comes round, the performance of " Hail Colum- bia " will not be confined to a few daring volun- teers, forming their little protective semicircle round a timid pianist whom they try to follow with the words of one stanza in his blind feeling after the tune, but every verse will be roared out confidently and truly by the throng of Americans in the first cabin. Uncle Sam may have no mer- chant fleet to boast of on the ocean at present, but he can at least make the ship routes vocal with his hymns once a year! " AND, PRAY, WHAT WOULD IT ALL COST ? " " Not a bad idea," the Rigid Economist is good enough to say. Then, producing his inevitable pencil and paper, he asks, " What will it cost ? " Little good would be done in this world if the cost were always counted in advance. It is like 52 UNCLE SAM'S CHURCH. ice chilling the warm blood of generous hearts. Were cost in money, in comfort, in life, penu- riously calculated, there would be scant prog- ress, social, moral, or religious. The man who always weighs ideas against sordid dollars rarely parts with the dollars. But the Rigid Economist must be reckoned with politely on this occasion, as on all others where appropriations are required from Congress. For Congress is the theatre where he can always play his part to a gallery of the penny-wise and pound-foolish, and be sure of their applause. In estimating the expense of carrying out such a scheme, everything turns on the questions of how and what, and whether the work shall be done quickly or gradually. Let it be regarded as an experiment, and tried slowly by moderate annual appropriations if that seems best. If it does not stand the trial and vindicate its utility in public opinion, no harm will have been done, beyond the wasting of a little money by way of the spigot, — and that will hardly be missed while a steady stream is incessantly pouring from the bunghole. It is always well to be able to show how one good thing may be paid for by money saved from PUBLIC DOCUMENT FOOLISHNESS. 53 doing a bad thing. According to the testimony of friends and foes alike, the present Public Doc- ument system at Washington is decidedly a bad thing, and the only dispute is as to the precise degree of its badness. In making a conference report on the bill to regulate the printing and distribution of public documents, Mr. Richardson of Tennessee said the proposed reduction would save from ^500,000 to ^750,000 annually. He remarked that hundreds of thousands of volumes already printed are now rotting in the vaults. Mr. Holman antagonized the report, because it did not go far enough. He declared that the compromise bill would still provide for the print- ing of books ninety per cent of which are un- worthy a place in any gentleman's library, — which is the neat way of saying that they are trash. Now, the volumes that are not left to rot in the vaults are saved from that fate for presenta- tion to the favored few. They are, for the most part, bulky, hideous to the eye, repellent with figures, and of official dryness. No wonder that they find their w^a}^ at last to paper mills instead of dozily encumbering shelves. But the tracts that Uncle Sam's Church would scatter by the 54 UNCLE SAM'S CHURCH. million, free, would reach the million. In their individual length they would stop far short of boredom. The closely packed contents of their few pages, replete with interest and instruction, would insure their being read, preserved, and prized. Assuming then, that a sum equivalent, say, to part only of what ought to be saved from the Public Document foolishness, were available for the purpose, let us see how far it could be made to go. And, first, consider the item of the tracts, which call for a far greater outlay than the placards. The estimated population of the United States in 1895 is 69,000,000. It is ardently to be hoped that somehow, and in the course of time, every man, woman, and child in the Union may be made to understand and appreciate the origin and unique excellence of our institutions, and to love and cherish the memory of the founders and preservers of the Republic. But, for the present and for the immediate future, it suffices to provide a small instalment of the much needed enlightenment to voters only. These, as it ap- pears from the returns of the last Presidential election, numbered 12,034,858 in 1892. As the PATRIOTISM WILL FIND THE WAY. 55 adult male citizens including the heads of fami- lies having spheres of influence in all the house- holds of the land, they are the men who should first be reached in any well-considered effort to educate and confirm the people in Patriotism. The voting roll of the United States is rapidly lengthening from year to year ; and the records of 1892 are insufficient for 1896. But, as it is necessary to fix upon some number in a provis- ional estimate, no better datum offers than that of the known voting population. " But great numbers of the voters cannot read," says some born objector. But they can have their tracts read to them. Every voter, however illiterate, feels pride in the possession of a vote. Arouse his patriotism and his curiosity by presenting him with serial issues of Uncle Sam's Bible, and his human nature may be trusted to make some acquaintance with them through the kindness of his lettered neighbors and friends. Patriotism, like Love, will find the way. Take, then, in round numbers, for convenience, 12,000,000 as the figures to go upon, and I am not afraid to face the Rigid Economist. The printed text of the tracts should be 4 in. by 6 in,, which experience proves to be the size most 56 UNCLE SAM'S CHURCH. suitable. Tracts of four pages each, — and these would be large enough for some of the proposed publications, — well printed on fairly good paper, would cost at the Government Printing House, on a conservative calculation, not more than $2.50 a thousand. Private establishments would be glad to make contracts for the supply at that rate. The cost of a million would be only $2,500, and of twelve million $30,000. The extremely low price of paper and the marvellous perfection and rapid working of the modern printing press alone ren- der such cheapness possible. Let me pursue the problem without the least fear of being devoured by a Frankenstein of figures. Arithmetic is implacable, but it has no revenges to wreak in this case. Among the four-page variety could be comprised such matters as Abstracts of Cen- sus Reports, and National Hymns (two to a tract, words and music). Washington's Farewell Ad- dress would take eight pages, costing $60,000 for twelve million. To do anything approaching jus- tice to the life and character of Washington, or Adams, or Jefferson, or Madison, or Monroe, would require, say, twelve pages. The same is true of any intelligible abridged account of the war of the Revolution, or of 1812, or with Mexico. DON'T GRUDGE THE MONEY! 57 Tracts of this magnitude would each cost ^90,000 for twelve million. Serviceable maps, 2 ft. by 3 ft., large enough to show off every part of the United States to advantage, would come much higher. Made of good paper, well fitted for the wear and tear of usage, they could not be pro- duced at less than $15 a thousand, and that means ^180,000 for the twelve million. But that large sum should not be grudged if it conduces to the incitement and perpetuity of Patriotism. Contrasted with these somewhat imposing es- timates, the cost of large handsome placards of the two varieties, one bearing the Declaration of Independence and the other the Constitu- tion of the United States, — together proclaiming Uncle Sam's unmutilated Creed to all beholders, — attached to the walls of 69,000 Post Offices, would be insignificant. A size of 2 ft. by 3 ft. for each of these documents would probably be large enough. Printed in black on good paper, with strong cloth backs, mounted with wood top and bottom, they would hang straight and not be bad lookinsf. Private contractors would cheer- fully take the job of furnishing them at ^60 per thousand. For less than $10,000, every Post 58 UNCLE SAM'S CHURCH. Office in the Union could be supplied with them. The maps previously described could also be pro- duced in the same style at the same rate, and it would be a good idea to hang them also in the Post Offices, besides supplying them on the great scale already mentioned for the home and per- sonal use of every voter. This would bring up the entire sum needed for the patriotic equip- ment of the Post Offices to a point not exceeding $15,000; and if it should cost three, four, or five times as much to provide larger, handsomer, more durable forms of the same things. Uncle Sam could still afford them. Having emerged, unscathed I trust, from this little arithmetical jungle, let me pause a moment for a calm retrospect. A good many subjects have been already suggested as supremely impor- tant for treatment in various ways. Other sub- jects will occur to other men. The field to be covered is practically boundless. All that could be reasonably asked is to make a beginning. With every deference to the views of others, I beg to set down the following (recapitulatory in part) as offering the most attractive examples of what might be prudently undertaken within a single year. The estimates, be it borne in mind. FOOTING THE FIGURES. 59 are always for twelve million of voters, excepting the placards and maps for Post OflQces : — Sketch of Washington's Life ^90,000 Washington's Farewell Address 60,000 Outline of the Revolutionary War 90,000 Songs ("America " and " Star Spangled Banner ") 30,000 Abstract of Census (No. I.) 30,000 Official Maps of the United States .... 180,000 Placards and Maps for Post Offices .... 15,000 Total ^495,000 The items of salaries for new men necessary to perform the work, and of other contingent expenses, cannot here be estimated. All would depend on the amount of the output. If the scheme I have roughly delineated were actually executed within a single year, at an expense for extra clerical labor, etc., as high as $100,000, the total cost would still be only $595,000.^ But the highest Congressional authority assures the peo- ple, that between #500,000 and $750,000 could annually be saved to the treasury by curtailing the Public Document extravagance. The mean of these ofHcial figures is $625,000, or $30,000 more than my plan calls for. Q. e. d. It takes a clock about twelve days of twenty- four hours each to tick off one million. To print, 1 If the Declaration (8 pages) and the Constitution (12 pages) were added as tracts, the total cost would be ^745,000. 6o UNCLE SAM'S CHURCH. handle, and distribute over the enormous area of the Union seventy-two milHons of separate par- cels in one year, may seem to many persons a task of almost insuperable difficulty. They are not aware of the giddy height of figures into which Uncle Sam's habitual operations mount, and move there with perfect ease. The sale of postage stamps of all kinds attains an average of twelve millions a day ! This gives some idea of the number of letters and papers daily started to their destinations. The tremendous move- ment is so quiet that, save for the occasional appearance of a mail cart on the street, one would not suspect its existence. The pension list of 1894 called for a disbursement of about $140,000,000 among one million persons. Last year the Internal Revenue collections amounted to $147,000,000 (coming in very handily to meet the pensions). All of Uncle Sam's business relates to millions ; but, with his thorough or- ganization of affairs, they give him no more trouble than so many hundreds or tens. Once well organized, a railway line from New York to San Francisco is no harder to manage than a horse-car route in a country town. The amount of work that my scheme contemplates would be "WAYS." 6 1 done with so little fuss, along tracks of the pub- lic service so well oiled, that there would be no outward and visible sign of anything unusual going on. If two out of every three tracts failed to hit the mark, and the third made any man a better patriot, the enterprise would pay well. The lar- ger proportion of all the tracts ever issued for any purpose have miscarried, and still this method has continued the admitted best (next always to the newspapers) for reaching and influencing men in their homes. Let it be tried in the right spirit for the upbuilding of Patriotism in the United States and trust the People for the result ! " WAYS." The question of " Means " being now, It may be assumed, satisfactorily disposed of, that of " Ways " comes up on the motion of the Scrupu- lous Stickler. This person and the Rigid Econ- omist are Siamese twins, inseparably coupled in their chronic objection to every new idea. If the Scrupulous Stickler and his brother had had their way in 1861, the Southern Confederacy would have become an accomplished fact, and 62 UNCLE SAM'S CHURCH. this mighty Republic the most mournful failure, instead of remaining the brightest illustration of Popular Government in all history. His stock in trade is, for the most part, Precedents. Though he invariably opposes the making of Precedents, his attachment to them is quite slavish when they stand in a good long line behind him. Now, Uncle Sam's Church is in luck for prece- dents. There are — to mention only the lead- ing ones — the Department of Agriculture, the Bureau of Education, the Department of Labor, the Board of Health, and the Weather Bureau. Congress found no explicit power in the Con- stitution to provide for any of these good things. The authority for their creation is conferred only in that broad and flexible phrase, " general wel- fare," the fortunate existence of which has smoothed the way of our law-makers out of many a dilemma. For when some new thing, which is not under the Constitutional ban or reserved to the States, requires to be done for the sup- posed good of the whole country, the authority for doing it lies ready at hand in Article I. Section 8. It was this happily conceived term, " general welfare," that the illustrious Jay, first Chief Justice of the United States, in the case GENERAL WELFARE. 63 of Chisholm v. The State of Georgia, declared to be " adniirably suited to express a great and beneficial design, and comprising everything that is requisite, with the blessing of Divine Provi- dence, to make the people by whom it was adopted prosperous and happy." To spread and deepen Patriotism in the minds and hearts of all the people is to cater to the " general welfare " as effectually as in any other way hitherto tried. If Agriculture, Education, Labor, the Public Health, and a knowledge of the weather, are proper sub- jects for Uncle Sam's affectionate solicitude, why not Patriotism, which is the life-blood of the Nation .? The only pretence of sanction for the Public Document business, on its present large and wasteful scale, is to be found under the same head. This great work calls for but little new machin- ery. There need be no Secretary of Patriotism with a seat in the Cabinet. Put some more desks in the Post Office Department for a new Com- missioner or Superintendent, with a special staff of clerks, and there you have it. Call this branch of the Postal Service the " Bureau for the Culture and Diffusion of Patriotism." The responsible 64 UNCLE SAM'S CHURCH. head should be a well educated American, thor- oughly versed in the patriotic literature of his country, experienced in selecting and editing matter for the press, and as free as possible from sectional and political bias. In this world it is hard to find anybody who can do anything perfectly well. The best available man for the position would fall short of the ideal. But if he were in entire sympathy with the undertaking, and meant well, his mistakes would be few, and far outweighed by the value of his labors as a whole. If Congress were unwilling to trust the business to any one man, let its collective wisdom designate, from year to year, along with the appropriation, the specific work to be per- formed. Whoever gives the orders and whatever the incidental blunders may be, the Americans' knowledge and love of their country will be in- creased, and the fires of Patriotism will be fed. In the 69,000 Post Offices there will be 69,000 persons whose duty it will be to see that the cen- tral orders are executed. They will nail Uncle Sam's Creed to the walls of his Church. They will distribute the successive parts of his Bible to the voters when called for,-^ giving public notice of the time of their delivery. And the grand army 1 Or by carriers. RELIGION AND PATRIOTISM. 65 of colporteurs, acting in every part of the Union where the mail-bag goes, will not add a single dollar to the yearly budget by reason of their services. RELIGION AND PATRIOTISM. All the other churches in the land, inconceiv- ably co-operating to strengthen Patriotism, could not do the work like Uncle Sam's Church. For there are countless numbers who do not go to any house of worship, but who do go to the Post Office. It is truly said that good churches make good citizens. " The powers that be are ordained of God." This text may be beaten out into thin sermons to justify and sustain equally well the autocratic government of Russia, the imperial government of Austria, the monarchical govern- ment of England, and the republican government of the United States. The support rendered to the first two named by their Ecclesiastical Es- tablishments is always unquestioning and hearty. The Bible, in allegory and imagery, seems at first sight to lend itself to the idea of Kingly rule on the earth. God is the King of Kings, and Heaven is a Kingdom with its throne and crown. The Pope of Rome is called God's Vicegerent, M 66 UNCLE SAM'S CHURCH. which is another word for Viceroy, on Earth. His Cardinals are princes of the Church. In England the Bishop is " my Lord," his chair in the Cathedral is his " throne," and his residence is a " Palace." These words must not be taken too seriously. But they do incontestably show that the clergy are not, of necessity, the best bul- wark of the American Republic. " My kingdom is not of this world," said Christ. It will not do to depend too exclusively on His visible Church to preserve the Union of these States. During the Rebellion the Southern pulpit, when it did not preach and pray rebellion, did little to pre- vent the Union being rent in twain. It found in its Bible a warrant for Slavery, but no Patriot- ism. This is not said to shame or blame Southern ministers. They were human, and acted up to their lights. But the fact is on record to demon- strate that churches may sometimes prove a weak reed for reliance in the fiery ordeal of a great National crisis. No ! Patriotism, which is to the Republic what religion is to the Church, must be sought not in the Bible, where it is not specifi- cally enjoined by name or in effect as the duty of the citizen. It must be sought in the words and the deeds of the immortal fathers and founders WHAT TRUE RELIGION CAN DO. 67 and saviors of the Union. As helpers, the churches of all sects can do much good if they will. All that the Christian religion teaches of the duty of man to man is tributary to a healthy Patriotism, and hence conservative of the Repub- lic. But for the exercise of a powerful, direct, un- equivocal, all-pervasive, and continuous Patriotism, we must resort to Uncle Sam's Church and its special methods. True Religion can always make itself felt in directing Patriotism to rightful ends. The two can combine in enacting just and beneficent laws, and electing honest and wise rulers. If Patri- otism ever inclines to wars of conquest, or to wanton trespasses on the rights of other nations. Religion can restrain it. Patriotism furnishes to Religion, in this country, a boundless field for good. While the one preserves the Union, knit- ting all its people together in the bonds of brotherhood, the other can all the more easily raise the whole Nation to hiQ:her levels of that Righteousness which exalteth it. Patriotism can prepare the way for Religion as surely as Religion can smooth the path for Patriotism. 68 UNCLE SAM'S CHURCH. EDUCATION AND PATRIOTISM. Education is not always Patriotism. A man may master all the learning of all the Univer- sities, and, by the very superfineness of his polish and the excess of his attainments, be incapable of feeling a patriotic glow. When dear old Dr. Johnson declared Patriotism to be " the last refuge of scoundrels," he was in one of his choleric and cynical moods, if he was not entirely misreported. The greatly cultured man of to- day might not go as far as the testy Doctor. But he might incline to regard Patriotism as a vul- gar mood unmeriting his lofty patronage. The leaders of the Rebellion were the most highly educated men of the South. And, long before their day, came two of the same select class, but far more eminent in learning and eloquence, — Calhoun and Hayne, — with their advocacy of State Rights and of Nullification, and their men- aces of Secession at a time when nobody was threatening slavery. Had the Southern mind been directed and kept in patriotic channels by its trusted guides from the start. Patriotism would have found a peaceful solution of the slavery THE TREASON OF INDIFFERENTISM. 69 problem in the course of time. But that, alas ! is among the might-have-beens. There is a silent, sullen treason to the Repub- lic, which is indifferentism. That may and often does co-exist with the higher education. It may disappear in presence of imminent peril, and the most indifferent of men may become a real patriot ready to die for his country, reminding one of the sort of friend who never lets one sus- pect his friendship except in the extremest hour of misfortune and calamity. As the friends for every-day wear are the most prized, so the man who carries his patriotism on his sleeve into his daily life of society and business, and employs it in discovering and preventing dangers, — in- stead of supinely waiting for them to turn up and then fighting them, — is the most desirable of patriots. The education which makes good citizens by instructing them in their duties and responsibilities is the best breeder of Patriotism. The public schools, where the history of the country is taught and the Constitution is among the text-books, and national songs are sung, are the very nurseries of Patriots. The Patriotism there set forth is not overlaid by the veneering too often given by the higher education. If Pub- 70 UNCLE SAM'S CHURCH. lie Schools make Patriots, it is no less true that Patriots make Public Schools. It is better to begin with the Public Schools; but, failing in that, let us begin with the Patriots, and wait for the time and money required to educate the citi- zen in the more gradual and thorough way. Until the day of Universal Popular Education arrives in this country, Uncle Sam's Church may be safely trusted with the high responsibility of the Patriotic cult, which can be taught at once and everywhere. People ignorant and indocile in everything else may prove teachable pupils in Patriotism. A GRAND MONOPOLY FOR PATRIOTISM ! If any one religious denomination could have the exclusive use of 69,000 Post Offices to spread its creed on the walls and pass out its tracts to all comers, how greatly it would prize the privi- lege ! All its missionaries and other proselyting machinery sink into nothingness compared with this. If a political party could monopolize the same facilities for posting its platform and circu- lating the lives and speeches of its candidates, it would have an initial advantage of the greatest A GRAND MONOPOLY FOR PATRIOTISM! 71 value for campaign purposes. If any private business could enjoy the same opportunity to advertise itself, a colossal fortune would be its sure and quick reward. But Uncle Sam is pro- hibited from lending his name to any form of religion. The jealous rivalry of parties is a bar to the ambition of any one of them to utilize the Post Offices and the Postmasters for its sole be- hoof. There is no fear that any man, or com- pany, or trust, however rich and powerful, will ever be allowed to acquire the exclusive right to tap the pockets of the people in this most com- prehensive and searching way. The immense field is free for Uncle Sam to occupy by himself and for himself alone. If he does it in the right way for the healthy stimulation of Patriotism, the resulting blessings will be inestimably precious for generations to come. There cannot be too much Patriotism. There is a joy in Patriotism, as there is a joy in Religion and in human love. It ennobles the life of the poorest and the richest, the most ignorant and the most learned. It is the parent virtue of courage, decision, fortitude, and patience. It is the real defence of Liberty and the Republic, of which great armies and fleets are but the instru- 72 UNCLE SAM'S CHURCH. ments. It is as necessary for our security against all internal dissensions as against all foreign rivals and enemies. The pride of citizenship which it engenders makes itself felt at every point along the whole line of a freeman's duty. It inspires him, as nothing else can, to nominate and vote for the best men for public offices, from Alder- man to President. It prepares him to address his mind earnestly and intelligently to each public question as it arises, from the building of a school- house to the peaceful acquisition of Canada, or Mexico, or Cuba, or the Hawaiian Islands. Socialism threatens, zvhen it has gathered strength enough, to put the principles of I^ree Government to a very severe test. It may need all the Patriotism that we can muster to m^eet that grave issue ! The life of a Nation is measured by its Patri- otism. When its Patriotism dies, the Nation is dead. This is an eternal, immutable law. With its Patriotism in full vigor, the ^growth of a Nation and its power and influence throughout the world are correspondingly vigorous. No matter whither Patriotism may lead us. We must follow its indications in the spirit of the Fathers, and leave the rest to God. Let us do our whole duty as good citizens, and trust to A NEW RALLYING CALL. 73 Him for a continuance of blessings upon the Union of these States. Room, then, among the rallying calls of the New Patriotism, for " Uncle Sam's Church, his Creed, Bible, and Hymn-Book." H 33 89 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 011 527 448 A