LIBRARY OF THE LELAND STANFORD JR. UNIVERSITY. a.38109 COPYRIGHT, 1895, BY AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY. MORGAN'S PATRIOTIC CITIZENSHIP. Great Western land, whose mighty breast In thee the olive and the vine Rejoices in the sun's hot rays; And all that Nature could command She heaped on thee, great Western land. Great Western land, whose touch makes free, Advance to perfect liberty, Till right shall make thy sov'reign might, Thy people great, with naught to fear. - CAROLINE HAZARD INTRODUCTION. THE object of this book is to stimulate patriotism, and promote good citizenship; this purpose dominates the entire work, and has controlled the selection and arrangement of topics, the admission and rejection of material, and the method of treatment. It should be judged by its purpose, and if it is adapted to the awakening and strengthening of a deep and lasting love of country, and an enthusiastic devotion to American institutions, it has accomplished its aim. The golden woof of the volume is freedom, — freedom of thought, speech, conscience, worship, action; the silver warp is loyalty, — loyalty to truth, duty, and constituted authority, - and into the web is woven, in outline, many a picture of thrilling interest. The central feature of our national life is liberty, regulated by law. Liberty and law are complementary disks of the full sphere. American patriotism is the love of America as the land of liberty, and the home of the brave men and women who consecrated the country to freedom, not only by deeds of daring, but much more by the development here of those forces that tend to conserve and perpetuate freedom, -the home, the church, the school, a free press, the written constitution, trial by jury, an independent judiciary, — and by retaining the sovereign power in the people, and giving to them the inalienable right of free suffrage. Love of liberty is the life, the soul that embodies and perpetuates itself in institutions. The method of this book is simple; its essential feature being a catechism of about one hundred and forty short, direct questions, with as many concise, comprehensive answers, in which the author states clearly his own views on all the topics discussed. This form of conveying instruction is as old as Socrates, and still holds its place so firmly, that "modern methods" have not been able to uproot it. The text of the answers is followed by brief citations from a wide range of authorities, ancient and modern, but chiefly American. These selections, besides giving variety, serve to explain, expand, and enforce the text, as well as to awaken in the minds of the pupils a desire for a wider acquaintance with patriotic literature. This the teacher is expected to aid by reference to familiar patriotic selections found in many school readers, to books made up of such selections, to cyclopedic collections of American literature, to the collected writings of great authors, and to standard historical works. This book may help to point the way to deeper sources. It is selective and necessarily rejective in its choice of topics and material. Such topics have been chosen as seemed to have a direct bearing upon the central theme, - patriotic citizenship; and they have been treated, not exhaustively, but suggestively, so as to contribute towards arousing a love of country, and pointing out what is worthy of love, and why. It deals with principles rather than with details, with essentials rather than with incidentals: it is an outline of political philosophy. Much of the finest literature on the |