,12 "Che Conservative *
same time the retention of local self-
government afforded the precedent for
the gigantic federal union of the United
States. At least the principle of federa
tion was there if not the name.
The example of the United States has
been the model patterned after by
Mexico and the South American Repub
lics. The strength of this mode of form
ing political aggregates was tested by
England and France in their contest for
supremacy on this continent.
The French method was the Roman
method of conquest and incorporation.
As the ruler of Paris gradually overcame
his vassals one after another by warfare
or diplomacy , he annexed their counties
to his royal dominion and governed them ,
not by lieutenants from the subject
county or province as representatives
chosen by the people themselves , but by
those of his own appointment sent from
Paris. Self-government was crushed
out in France.
It was preserved in England. The
people which preserved self-government
could plant colonies .that were self-sus
taining not only , but they also added
strength to the Empire.
The people which had lost the tradi
tion of self-government , could not plant
self-sustaining colonies and France lost
her hold in the New World. The people
ple which had preserved self-government
acquired the dominion of the sea and
extended their empire over the outlying
parts of the earth unexplored and un
occupied by civilized man. English-
speaking people today dominate the
earth in the matters of government and
industry , and this sway is destined to be
universal.
Throughout the turmoil of the historic
period which seems such a chaos , there
have boon definite tendencies toward
larger and larger political aggregates
and towards the more and more perfect
maintenance of local self-government
and individual freedom in all its parts.
This two-sided movement began with
the beginning of industrial civilization.
It has aided the development of industry
and in turn has been aided by it. The
result is the gradual elimination of war
fare.
fare.The
The nineteenth century has witnessed
a development of industrial civilization ,
with its attendant development of arts
and sciences , unprecedented in all the
preceding centuries. There has been a
corresponding diminution of the prime
val spirit of war.
We are not rid of war. We have one
on hand now. Nevertheless the propo
sition is true. Wai1 is in the proQOss of
elimination. Of the total wealth and
productive energy of the civilized nations
today a smaller per cent is devoted to
war than at any former period.
Take our own history. We have had
only two really great wars. The Revo
lution was fought in behalf of the pacific
principle of equal representation a
question of local self-government. The
second in behalf of the pacific principle
of federation. In each case a long step
was taken towards the elimination of
war. Since the Napoleonic wars , the
same tendency is seen in European
wars.
So , whereas war was once dominant
over the face of the earth and threatened
the very existence of industrial civiliza-
rion , the conditions are reversed today.
War is tolerated today among civilized
people only on humanitarian grounds.
Wo have found a better way of set
tling international difficulties than by
lulling one another after the manner of
the primeval man , but wo have not yet
adopted it because we lack a majority
vote. Our ethical ideas are yet too nar
row and selfish. The brute inheritance
is not yet sufficiently eliminated. But
the war now on is a step in the new
social birth of the English-speaking race.
The idea of the nation is unfolding.
When in the process of social evolu
tion men surrendered their private right
to avenge injuries to their persons and
property and handed that right over to
the state , a long stride was taken
towards the ideal state and freedom.
This condition now exists among all
well-ordered communities in a state. If
a man robs me I don't have to get my
gun and pursue him to recover my prop
erty and punish the criminal. I call on
the state-police. An injury to one is an
injury to all. The state avenges my
wrong. Man becomes a person when he
subordinates his individual will to the
general will of the state.
The time is coming when the so-
called nations political units through
the principle of federation will enter
into a compact to submit international
differences to a high court of arbitration
and abide the decision. They will be
forced to do so , as now individuals abide
the decisions of the courts within a
single state. Then will be realized the
dream of the philosophic poet :
"Till the war-drum throbs no longuiMind the
battle-flags nro furled
In thu parliament of man , the fedurution ot
the world.
There the common sense of most shall hold a
fretful realm in awe ,
And the kindly earth shall Hlumbor , lapt in
universal law. "
And that universal law shall be the
public weal.
This condition of mankind is the nation
the conscious recognition of the
organic unity of the race.
The phrase , "The Federation of the
World , " expresses the political idea of
tltf nation. "The brotherhood of man , "
expresses the ethical idea. The organic
unity of the race , or the solidarity of the
race , expresses the philosophic idea of
the nation.
"Those who have been the masters of
political science have all expressed this
conception. Says Aristotle : "The end
of the state is not merely to live but to
live nobly. " And Hegel gave a wider
expression to modern thought than did
Aristotle to the ages before him. Says
Hegel : "The state is the realization of
the moral idea. " And again : "The state
is the realization of freedom , and it is the
absolute end of reason that freedom
should be real. " And again : "The state
is no mechanism , but the rational life of
self-conscious freedom , the order of the
moral world. " And again : "There is
one conception in religion and the state
and that is the highest in man. "
Says Elisha Mulford : "There is no
other conception which has such power
in the thoughts of men and in this age it
finds its expression in the literature of a
people rising to a great political might. "
That sentence was written after the
close of our civil war. It is devotion to
this idea , nelf-x < ti'rijicc for this idea , that
constitutes patriotism.
Shakespeare had this idea or an idea
when ho said :
"There is a mystery with whom relation
Durst never meddle in the soul of state ;
Which hath an operation more divine
Than breath or pen can ivo expression to. "
And Milton : "A nation ought to be as
one huge Christian personage , one
mighty growth or stature of an honest
man , a ? big and compact in virtue as in
body , for look what the ground and
causes are of single happiness to one
man , the same ye shall find them to a
whole state. "
And Burke : "Tho state ought not to
bo considered as a partnership agree
ment to be taken up for a little temporary
ary interest and dissolved at the fancy
of the parties. It is to be looked on
with other reverence because it is not a
partnership in things subservient to the
gross animal existence of temporary and
perishable nature. It is a partnership in
all science ; a partnership in all art ; a
partnership in every virtue and in all
perfection. "
Jesus Christ announced the nation in
the message , "Peace on earth , good will
to men. " Thus statesman , philosopher ,
poet and seer have disclosed the nation.
The dictionary definition of a nation
as a body of people organized under one
form of government and usually occupy
ing a definite territory is the objective
definition of a nation , but all the "A"
Nations are evolving into the nation ,
the conscious recognition of the organic
unity of the race.
The "new Americanism" which we
hear so much about is none other than
the dawning couciousuess in the minds
of the people of the idea of lite nation ,
the idea of an universal spiritual empire ,
the organic unity of the race , the broth
erhood of man , the federation of the
world.
It was this idea that fired the shot in
the liorbor of Manila and which is
echoing around the world.
Before giving the genesis and function
of the school , permit me a word about
the church. The church is the institu
tion of religion. In the process of man's
psychical evolution religion arises first