posted January 21, 2003
We now see "Patriotism" being defined as the support of a foreign policy more appropriate to the Roman or British Empire than to he governing principles of a Free Republic envisioned by the country's Founding Fathers. Did John Adams, a signer of our Declaration of Independence and our 2nd president, teach his son John Quincy a lack of patriotism when, as president himself, John Quincy Adams declared the following on the July 4th of 1821?
"[America] goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own. She will commend the general cause by the countenance of her voice, and the benignant sympathy of her example. She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom. The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from *liberty* to *force*.... She might become the dictatress of the world. She would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit...."
Was George Washington likewise being unpatriotic in what he said in his Farewell Address, which he delivered on September 17, 1796?
"Observe good faith and justice toward all nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all. Religion and morality enjoin this conduct. And can it be that good policy does not equally enjoin it?
In the execution of such a plan nothing is more essential than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular nations and passionate attachments for others should be excluded, and that in place of them just and amicable feelings toward all should be cultivated. The nation which indulges toward another an habitual hatred or an habitual fondness is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest. Antipathy in one nation against another disposes each more readily to offer insult and injury, to lay hold of slight causes of umbrage, and to be haughty and intractable when accidental or trifling occasions of dispute occur. Hence frequent collisions, obstinate, envenomed, and bloody contests. The nation prompted by ill will and resentment sometimes impels to war the government contrary to the best calculations of policy. The government sometimes participates in the national propensity, and adopts through passion what reason would reject. At other times it makes the animosity of the nation subservient to projects of hostility, instigated by pride, ambition, and other sinister and pernicious motives. The peace often, sometimes perhaps the liberty, of nations has been the victim.
The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is, in extending our commercial relations to have with them as little political connection as possible."
Thomas Jefferson would be better characterized as showing genius rather than a lack of patriotism when he expressed the following in a letter to President Monroe:
"Our first and fundamental maxim should be, never to entangle ourselves in the broils of Europe."
We should note that Europe is much closer to America than the Middle East. If Jefferson advised us to stay out of entanglements in Europe, what would he advise about the middle east?
Abraham Lincoln showed that, at least in 1848, he understood the danger of unnecessary wars in his Letter to William Herndon (February 15, 1848):
"Kings had always been involving and impoverishing their people in wars, pretending generally, if not always, that the good of the people was the object. This, our [1787] Convention understood to be the most oppressive of all Kingly oppressions; and they resolved to so frame the Constitution that no one man should hold the power of bringing this oppression upon us."
As we now look at "regime change" in Iraq, would we have considered the great Daniel Webster as being unpatriotic for the following in 1847?
"While I trust that liberty and free institutions, as we have experienced them, may ultimately spread over the whole globe, I am by no means sure that all people are fit for them; nor am I desirous of imposing or forcing our peculiar forms upon any other nation that does not wish to embrace them."
We note that both parties seem to have a fondness for overseas adventures when they are in power (adventures seem to improve approval ratings and distract the people from other issues). Yet, was the Democratic Party less patriotic in 1900 when the following was a part of their platform?
"We assert that no nation can long endure half republic and half empire, and we warn the American people that imperialism abroad will lead quickly and inevitably to despotism at home.... We are in favor of extending the Republic's influence among the nations, but we believe that that influence should be extended not by force and violence, but through the persuasive power of a high and honorable example."
We seem to have now reached the point that George Orwell warned us about:
"Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace." What has our love of foreign military adventures contributed to our country? Besides countless filled body bags, our overseas entanglements have contributed greatly to our nation's $6 TRILLION debt, which will someday impoverish our children or grandchildren. They have resulted in many hating us enough that they'd fly airplanes into the sides of our skyscrapers. So, why pursue these foreign military adventures? Power! The "War on Terror" has given Big Brother in Washington, DC an excuse to create the American version of the KGB or Gestopo in the "Homeland Security Department" and otherwise gut the Bill of Rights.
It's also been said "follow the money". No doubt, it was a complete lack of patriotism which prompted USMC (Ret.) Maj. Gen. Smedly Butler to say in 1935:
"I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street.
The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-12. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras "right" for American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested....
Looking back on it, I felt I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three city districts. We Marines operated on three continents."
Somehow, I believe that Washington, Jefferson, Adams, and all the rest would tell us to leave Iraq alone, except to buy, not steal, their oil.
U.S. troops are in close to a hundred countries worldwide. Is this evidence of a free Republic, or of an empire? Perhaps it's time that we let our Congressman and Senators know that we want a change; we want a Free Republic again.
Richmond C. Beecher
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