MORAL FORCE
I
One of the great difficulties in discussing any question of importance
in Ireland is that words have been twisted from their original and true
significance, and if we are to have any effective discussion, we must
first make clear the meaning of our terms. Love of country is quoted to
tolerate every insidious error of weakness, but if it has any meaning it
should make men strong-souled and resolute in every crisis. Men working
for the extension of Local Government toast "Ireland a Nation," and
extol Home Rule as independence; but while there is any restraint on us
by a neighbouring Power, acknowledged superior, there is dependence to
that extent. Straightway, those who fight for independence shift their
ground and plead for absolute independence, but there is no such thing
as qualified independence; and when we abandon the simple name to men of
half-measures, we prejudice our cause and confuse the issue. Then there
is the irreconcilable--how is he regarded in the common cry? Always an
impossible, wild, foolish person, and we frequently resent the name and
try to explain his reasonableness instead of exulting in his strength,
for the true irreconcilable is the simple lover of the truth. Among men
fighting for freedom some start up in their plea for liberty, pointing
to the prosperity of England, France, and Germany, and when we debate
the means by which they won their power, we find our friends draw no
distinction between true freedom and licentious living; but it would be
better to be crushed under the wheels of great Powers than to prosper by
their example. And so, through every discussion we must make clear the
meaning of our terms. There is one I would treat particularly now. Of
all the terms glibly flung about in every debate not one has been so
confused as Moral Force.
II
Since the time of O'Connell the cry Moral Force has been used
persistently to cover up the weakness of every politician who was afraid
or unwilling to fight for the whole rights of his country, and confusion
has been the consequence. I am not going here to raise old debates over
O'Connell's memory, who, when all is said, was a great man and a
patriot. Let those of us who read with burning eyes of the shameless
fiasco of Clontarf recall for full judgment the O'Connell of earlier
years, when his unwearied heart was fighting the uphill fight of the
pioneer. But a great need now is to challenge his later influence, which
is overshadowing us to our undoing. For we find men of this time who
lack moral courage fighting in the name of moral force, while those who
are pre-eminent as men of moral fibre are dismissed with a
smile--physical-force men. To make clear the confusion we need only to
distinguish moral force from moral weakness. There is the distinction.
Call it what we will, moral courage, moral strength, moral force; we all
recognise that great virtue of mind and heart that keeps a man
unconquerable above every power of brute strength. I call it moral
force, which is a good name, and I make the definition: a man of moral
force is he who, seeing a thing to be right and essential and claiming
his allegiance, stands for it as for the truth, unheeding any
consequence. It is not that he is a wild person, utterly reckless of all
mad possibilities, filled with a madder hope, and indifferent to any
havoc that may ensue. No, but it is a first principle of his, that a
true thing is a good thing, and from a good thing rightly pursued can
follow no bad consequence. And he faces every possible development with
conscience at rest--it may be with trepidation for his own courage in
some great ordeal, but for the nobility of the cause and the beauty of
the result that must ensue, always with serene faith. And soon the
trepidation for himself passes, for a great cause always makes great
men, and many who set out in hesitation die heroes. This it is that
explains the strange and wonderful buoyancy of men, standing for great
ideals, so little understood of others of weaker mould. The soldier of
freedom knows he is forward in the battle of Truth, he knows his
victory will make for a world beautiful, that if he must inflict or
endure pain, it is for the regeneration of those who suffer, the
emancipation of those in chains, the exaltation of those who die, and
the security and happiness of generations yet unborn. For the strength
that will support a man through every phase of this struggle a strong
and courageous mind is the primary need--in a word, Moral Force. A man
who will be brave only if tramping with a legion will fail in courage if
called to stand in the breach alone. And it must be clear to all that
till Ireland can again summon her banded armies there will be abundant
need for men who will stand the single test. 'Tis the bravest test, the
noblest test, and 'tis the test that offers the surest and greatest
victory. For one armed man cannot resist a multitude, nor one army
conquer countless legions; but not all the armies of all the Empires of
earth can crush the spirit of one true man. And that one man will
prevail.
III
But so much have we felt the need of resisting every slavish tendency
that found refuge under the name of Moral Force, that those of us who
would vindicate our manhood cried wildly out again for the physical
test; and we cried it long and repeatedly the more we smarted under the
meanness of retrograde times. But the time is again inspiring, and the
air must now be cleared. We have set up for the final test of the man of
unconquerable spirit that test which is the first and last argument of
tyranny--recourse to brute strength. We have surrounded with fictitious
glory the carnage of the battlefields; we have shouted of wading through
our enemies' blood, as if bloody fields were beautiful; we have been
contemptuous of peace, as if every war were exhilarating; but, "War is
hell," said a famous general in the field. This, of course, is
exaggeration, but there is a grim element of truth in the warning that
must be kept in mind at all times. If one among us still would resent
being asked to forego what he thinks a rightful need of vengeance, let
him look into himself. Let him consider his feelings on the death of
some notorious traitor or criminal; not satisfaction, but awe, is the
uppermost feeling in his heart. Death sobers us all. But away from death
this may be unconvincing; and one may still shout of the glory of
floating the ship of freedom in the blood of the enemy. I give him
pause. He may still correct his philosophy in view of the horror of a
street accident or the brutality of a prize-fight.
IV
But war must be faced and blood must be shed, not gleefully, but as a
terrible necessity, because there are moral horrors worse than any
physical horror, because freedom is indispensable for a soul erect, and
freedom must be had at any cost of suffering; the soul is greater than
the body. This is the justification of war. If hesitating to undertake
it means the overthrow of liberty possessed, or the lying passive in
slavery already accomplished, then it is the duty of every man to fight
if he is standing, or revolt if he is down. And he must make no peace
till freedom is assured, for the moral plague that eats up a people
whose independence is lost is more calamitous than any physical rending
of limb from limb. The body is a passing phase; the spirit is immortal;
and the degradation of that immortal part of man is the great tragedy of
life. Consider all the mean things and debasing tendencies that wither
up a people in a state of slavery. There are the bribes of those in
power to maintain their ascendancy, the barter of every principle by
time-servers; the corruption of public life and the apathy of private
life; the hard struggle of those of high ideals, the conflict with all
ignoble practices, the wearing down of patience, and in the end the
quiet abandoning of the flag once bravely flourished; then the increased
numbers of the apathetic and the general gloom, depression, and
despair--everywhere a land decaying. Viciousness, meanness, cowardice,
intolerance, every bad thing arises like a weed in the night and blights
the land where freedom is dead; and the aspect of that land and the soul
of that people become spectacles of disgust, revolting and terrible,
terrible for the high things degraded and the great destinies
imperilled. It would be less terrible if an earthquake split the land in
two, and sank it into the ocean. To avert the moral plague of slavery
men fly to arms, notwithstanding the physical consequence, and those who
set more count by the physical consequences cannot by that avert them,
for the moral disease is followed by physical wreck--if delayed still
inevitable. So, physical force is justified, not _per se_, but as an
expression of moral force; where it is unsupported by the higher
principle it is evil incarnate. The true antithesis is not between moral
force and physical force, but between moral force and moral weakness.
That is the fundamental distinction being ignored on all sides. When the
time demands and the occasion offers, it is imperative to have recourse
to arms, but in that terrible crisis we must preserve our balance. If we
leap forward for our enemies' blood, glorifying brute force, we set up
the standard of the tyrant and heap up infamy for ourselves; on the
other hand, if we hesitate to take the stern action demanded, we fail in
strength of soul, and let slip the dogs of war to every extreme of
weakness and wildness, to create depravity and horror that will
ultimately destroy us. A true soldier of freedom will not hesitate to
strike vigorously and strike home, knowing that on his resolution will
depend the restoration and defence of liberty. But he will always
remember that restraint is the great attribute that separates man from
beast, that retaliation is the vicious resource of the tyrant and the
slave; that magnanimity is the splendour of manhood; and he will
remember that he strikes not at his enemy's life, but at his misdeed,
that in destroying the misdeed, he makes not only for his own freedom,
but even for his enemy's regeneration. This may be for most of us
perhaps too great a dream. But for him who reads into the heart of the
question and for the true shaping of his course it will stand; he will
never forget, even in the thickest fight, that the enemy of to-day and
yesterday may be the genuine comrade of to-morrow.
V
If it is imperative that we should fix unalterably our guiding
principles before we are plunged unprepared into the fight, it is even
more urgent we should clear the mind to the truth now, for we have
fallen into the dangerous habit of deferring important questions on the
plea that the time is not ripe. In a word, we lack moral strength; and
so, that virtue that is to safeguard us in time of war is the great
virtue that will redeem us in time of servility. It need not be further
laboured that in a state enslaved every mean thing flourishes. The
admission of it makes clear that in such a state it is more important
that every evil be resisted. In a normal condition of liberty many
temporary evils may arise; yet they are not dangerous--in the glow of a
people's freedom they waste and die as disease dies in the sunlight. But
where independence is suppressed and a people degenerate, a little evil
is in an atmosphere to grow, and it grows and expands; and evils
multiply and destroy. That is why men of high spirit working to
regenerate a fallen people must be more insistent to watch every little
defect and weak tendency that in a braver time would leave the soul
unruffled. That is why every difficulty, once it becomes evident, is
ripe for settlement. To evade the issue is to invite disaster.
Resolution alone will save us in our many dangers. But a plea for policy
will be raised to evade a particular and urgent question: "People won't
unite on it"; that's one cry. "Ignorant people will be led astray";
that's another cry. There is always some excuse ready for evasion. The
difficulty is, that every party likes some part of the truth; no party
likes it all; but we must have it all, every line of it. We want no
popular editions and no philosophic selections--the truth, the whole
truth, and nothing but the truth. This must be the rule for everything
concerning which a man has a public duty and ought to have a public
opinion. There is a dangerous tendency gaining ground of slurring over
vital things because the settlement of them involves great difficulty,
and may involve great danger; but whatever the issue is we must face it.
It is a step forward to bring men together on points of agreement, but
men come thus together not without a certain amount of suspicion. In a
fight for freedom that latent suspicion would become a mastering fear to
seize and destroy us. We must allay it now. We must lead men to discuss
points of difference with respect, forbearance, and courage, to find a
consistent way of life for all that will inspire confidence in all. At
present we inspire confidence in no one; it would be fatal to hide the
fact. This is a necessary step to bringing matters to a head. We cannot
hope to succeed all at once, but we must keep the great aim in view.
There will be objections on all sides; from the _blasé_ man of the
world, concerned only for his comfort, the mean man of business
concerned only for his profits, the man of policy always looking for a
middle way, a certain type of religious pessimist who always spies
danger in every proposal, and many others. We need not consider the
comfort of the first nor the selfishness of the second; but the third
and fourth require a word. The man of policy offers me his judgment
instead of a clear consideration of the truth. 'Tis he who says: "You
and I can discuss certain things privately. We are educated; we
understand. Ignorant people can't understand, and you only make mischief
in supposing it. It's not wise." To him I reply: "You are afraid to
speak the whole truth; I am afraid to hide it. You are filled with the
danger to ignorant people of having out everything; I am filled with the
danger to _you_ of suppressing anything. I do not propose to you that
you can with the whole truth make ignorant people profound, but I say
you must have the whole truth out for your own salvation." Here is the
danger: we see life within certain limitations, and cannot see the
possibly infinite significance of something we would put by. It is of
grave importance that we see it rightly, and in the difficulties of the
case our only safe course is to take the evidence life offers without
prejudice and without fear, and write it down. When the matter is grave,
let it be taken with all the mature deliberation and care its gravity
demands, but once the evidence is clearly seen, let us for our salvation
write it down. For any man to set his petty judgment above the need for
setting down the truth is madness; and I refuse to do it. There is our
religious pessimist to consider. To him I say I take religion more
seriously. I take it not to evade the problems of life, but to solve
them. When I tell him to have no fear, this is not my indifference to
the issue, but a tribute to the faith that is in me. Let us be careful
to do the right thing; then fear is inconsistent with faith. Nor can I
understand the other attitude. Two thousand years after the preaching of
the Sermon on the Mount we are to go about whispering to one another
what is wise.
VI
To conclude: Now, and in every phase of the coming struggle, the strong
mind is a greater need than the strong hand. We must be passionate, but
the mind must guide and govern our passion. In the aberrations of the
weak mind decrying resistance, let us not lose our balance and defy
brute strength. At a later stage we must consider the ethics of
resistance to the Civil Power; the significance of what is written now
will be more apparent then. Let the cultivation of a brave, high spirit
be our great task; it will make of each man's soul an unassailable
fortress. Armies may fail, but it resists for ever. The body it informs
may be crushed; the spirit in passing breathes on other souls, and other
hearts are fired to action, and the fight goes on to victory. To the man
whose mind is true and resolute ultimate victory is assured. No
sophistry can sap his resistance; no weakness can tempt him to savage
reprisals. He will neither abandon his heritage nor poison his nature.
And in every crisis he is steadfast, in every issue justified. Rejoice,
then good comrades; our souls are still our own. Through the coldness
and depression of the time there has lightened a flash of the old fire;
the old enthusiasm, warm and passionate, is again stirring us; we are
forward to uphold our country's right, to fight for her liberty, and to
justify our own generation. We shall conquer. Let the enemy count his
dreadnoughts and number off his legions--where are now the legions of
Rome and Carthage? And the Spirit of Freedom they challenged is alive
and animating the young nations to-day. Hold we our heads high, then,
and we shall bear our flag bravely through every fight. Persistent,
consistent, straightforward and fearless, so shall we discipline the
soul to great deeds, and make it indomitable. In the indomitable soul
lies the assurance of our ultimate victory.