or East or West, finds us and moves us most profoundly when the welfare of the whole country is visibly threatened. In time of peace, by far the longer time of the two, we are thinking mainly about our family, our business, our local interests, and of the things in general which are apt to divide one section or one State from another. The main duty of the citizen in peace is to save the State, not from destruction from without, but from error and wrong-doing within. Patriotism then takes another form, as important to the welfare of all as volunteering for the battle-field.

II. Political Duty is this other form of patriotism, the duty, that is, of doing one's part in the government of our country, in State and Nation. Every man over twenty-one years of age has the right to vote for other men who shall represent him, i. e., stand for him, in the work of making and administering the laws. Each man is, therefore, a ruler in this country. His power and right as a voter brings along with it a very plain duty to exercise the right and use the power for the good of all. This signifies to the American voter four things: He should keep himself well-informed on public questions. He should do his part by his words toward constituting a right public opinion, made up of a great sum of single opinions become powerful by union. He should vote according to his own convictions of truth and justice. He should not, as a rule, seek office, but he should be ready to hold it for the public good when called to it by the voice of his fellow-citizens.

There are, usually, in a free country some great questions of public policy on which political parties are formed. One party advocates a certain line of action; another would do differently if entrusted with the power of government. In our country there are now opposite views about the tariff, for instance, about the coinage of silver, and about the proper relations of the National government to the State governments. As

each man by his single vote can affect the policy which is at last adopted by Congress, he should cast this vote intelligently. He should enlighten himself as to tariffs and free trade, for example, and vote so that his conviction as to what the welfare of the country demands may be carried into effect. He should not be satisfied to take his opinions from the newspapers of the party with which he usually votes, and let them do his thinking for him, talking and voting as they say. He should read books written by able men who are not partisans, on the particular subjects in debate, and he should inform himself, generally, about the history of our country, and have some knowledge, the more the better, of the sciences of politics and economics. The intelligent citizen who knows for what he is voting, and why, is the mainstay of the Republic. The illiterate voter who does not know what he is voting for, or why, is the greatest danger to free institutions.

It is the duty of every citizen who has thus formed an intelligent opinion on political matters to do his part in creating and sustaining a sound public opinion. This he can do by feeling and showing an interest in politics in the good sense of the word: this is not a selfish scramble for office, but the discussion and settlement of great public questions according to reason and right, through men of ability and character. Especially in the case of reform movements in political life is it the duty of each individual to stand up for what he honestly believes to be the right, and to express himself openly and freely in favor of the specific measure which would save the Republic from harm. The history of all reforms proves how important is the duty resting upon the private citizen to use his right of free speech. Slavery was abolished in this country as the final result of agitation by individuals endeavoring to arouse the conscience of the people. So it will be with the political evils of our own day: the faithful conscience of

the individual is the power which is to destroy them, sooner or later.

No man who has the right to vote has a moral right to refrain from voting, whenever it is possible for him. The plainest part of his political duty, bound up with his very right, is to exercise the suffrage. He is not doing his duty to his country when he stays away from the polls on election day, whatever the real cause may be, indifference, contempt, or absorption in business or pleasure. The one method that avails in our country for procuring just laws and honest officials is to vote for capable and worthy men. Under this method each vote counts, and each voter should see that his own vote is thrown. He is not responsible when the opposite party succeeds in electing a bad man or in carrying a wrong measure, if he has voted against them: the responsibility rests upon the other party. But he is responsible to the extent of his vote if his own party elects a bad man or passes a wrong law. Hence, he is not only bound to vote, and to vote intelligently, but to vote with a single eye to the public good, with a certain party or against it, according to his own reason and conscience.

Few men are qualified by their abilities or character to serve the State in high political positions. But in the civil service, as a whole, there is a proper opening for any one who desires to work for the town, the city, the State, or the Nation rather than for a private employer. This routine business of the government has nothing to do with the political issues of the day, and should be kept apart from them and be conducted on strictly business methods and principles. When so conducted, it is open on equal conditions to every citizen who is capable and worthy, without regard to his politics. The representative offices should not be sought by the private citizen; but when his fellow-citizens call upon him to represent them in the town or

city government, in the legislature or in Congress, their summons should be heeded, unless there are strong reasons to the contrary. The talents and the worth of all its citizens are properly subject to the call of the community, and the public service should be esteemed by every one as the most honorable of all services.

In time of peace, then, the patriot thinks upon these political duties, his obligations to inform himself, to spread right views, to vote, and to hold office at the will of the people.

NOTES.

I. The teacher will find without difficulty in the works of the leading American poets, and in "Speakers" containing extracts from our most noted orators, selections suitable for reading that are calculated to inspire an intelligent patriotism. Such poems are numerous in James Russell Lowell's works in particular: see "The Present Crisis " (" When a deed is done for freedom"); the Biglow Papers; his poems of the war, his three centennial poems, and, most of all, the "Commemoration Ode." Longfellow ("Thou too sail on, O Ship of State"), Holmes (“The Flower of Liberty "), Whittier ("Democracy and numerous war poems), and Bryant have written many noble verses of patriotism. Webster, Everett, Winthrop and G. W. Curtis are names of orators that will occur at once to the instructor of American youth; Lincoln's address at Gettysburg is foremost. Relating to patriotism in other times and countries are such poems as Byron's lines "They fell devoted but undying; Horatius," by Macaulay, Browning's "Hervé Riel," and "A Legend of Bregenz," by Adelaide A. Procter. There are several good collections of ballads of heroism.

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II. "Defence against the attack of barbarians from within is as essential in our democracies as defence against the foe from without." (Guyau.) The demagogue, well set forth long ago in Aristophanes' Knights (see J. H. Frere's translation), is the chief pest of democratic countries. "The people's government" of which Webster spoke, " made for the people, made by the people, and answerable to the people," must conform to the laws of poli

tics and economics. Every citizen should understand somewhat of these laws and of the history of his country in which they have been exhibited. Happily there is a fast increasing number of good books on civil government, citizenship, and elementary economics; there is now no sufficient excuse for ignorance in these matters. Among the best of these volumes are John Fiske's Civil Government in the United States, Charles Nordhoff's Politics for Young Americans, Professor J. Macy's Our Government, and C. F. Dole's American Citizen. No public-school teacher can afford to be ignorant of Bryce's American Commonwealth. The Old South Leaflets contain the great documents of Anglo-Saxon freedom, which it is well to read entire. Mr. Fiske's book gives full bibliographical data for all who would inform themselves concerning our free institutions and their history.