"The Federal Union--It Must Be Preserved"
The American government under God shall not perish from the earth.
In 1830 Andrew Jackson arose before a group of distinguished men
assembled at a dinner in Washington and proposed the toast which forms
the title of this chapter. It seems to me that this expression of the
iron resolve of the old war-worn hero should be placed among those
statements of our great leaders which have been as divine commands in
the great crises which our country has experienced. Jackson loved the
Union. In 1830 few people understood those peculiar underlying forces
which were drawing the Union apart. It is evident to us now, after
studying the history of the generation preceding the Civil War, that
only a Union which exists in the minds and hearts of all its citizens
can be an enduring entity. It may seem rather trite to say again that
national unity is based first of all upon an individual sentiment.
Even during the War Between the States this love of the Union as an
ideal never ceased to animate the people of the South. They sought
merely to rebuild the Union on a different basis. After the surrender
at Appomattox the South faithfully accepted the old Union under the
changed conditions of its re-establishment. Since that time their
loyalty to the Union, as it is, has never been questioned. All must now
recognize that until the great differences which severed the Union had
been finally settled, the Union itself could not be re-established.
If a nation is to exist at all, certain basic principles and forms of
procedure must be generally accepted by all its citizens. As regards
these essential things we cannot afford to differ at all and yet try to
live side by side. In English-speaking countries, for instance, we must
needs all accept and support the constitutional bill of rights. Without
freedom of speech, of the press and religious worship, to mention
three of the more important guaranteed constitutional rights, any
English-speaking country would very quickly find itself in the throes
of revolution and civil war. We must agree, also, to be subject to the
same general principles of morality. If a citizen argues, for instance,
that the crimes of robbery and murder are sound and correct modes of
political procedure, he thereby rejects his citizenship. We must all
agree to live peaceably and lawfully under the same constitutional and
legal system. Finally, to attain national unity and national peace
we must not only accept, but unitedly support, with affection and
enthusiasm, the prevailing system of law and social order. That great
poet of democracy, Walt Whitman, expresses this thought so exquisitely:
"To hold men together by paper and seal, or by compulsion, is no
account;
That only holds men together which aggregates all in a living
principle, as the hold of the limbs of the body, or the fibres of
plants."
Our American people, if we are to be perfected in unity, must come to
be a sort of family.
Differences of personality among individuals, differences of opinions
among groups, differences which show themselves in a variety of
religious beliefs and political policies, all these are not only
natural but necessary to civilization and progress. Absolute unity in
thought and action can be attained only among a tribe of savages. The
political unity of an absolute monarchy is a leftover from savagery.
Above all, these valuable and desirable differences show in all the
interesting variations to be discovered in our cultural life. In the
education of children these differences of personality should be not
only tolerated but purposely developed. The growth of this quality
of personality is one of the most precious results of our democratic
civilization. Yet it can not be too much emphasized that all these
differences must work themselves out and perform all their desirable
functions within the restricted bounds of a generally accepted law and
custom. Otherwise nationality is impossible; and this is but another
way of saying that human society is impossible.
Imagine a group of relatives and friends sitting down to break bread
together. They differ in age, in appearance, in understanding, and in
almost every purpose of life. Some will reject soup, and others fish.
As the dinner proceeds sharp differences of opinion lend interest
to the conversation. In our present day society any two members of
this group may well belong to two different political parties and
two different religious organizations. Yet if there is to be a true
companionship in this place, how dominating must be the things that
unify! This group, to get on well, must speak the same language and
abide by the same established forms of social manners. In all the
deepest things there must be the same regard for essentials, the same
attitude toward life. In the mind of each, unity with all the others
must be truly desired as a spiritual attainment. How seldom do we
pause to reflect upon how many such principles and forms are taken
for granted, every day and all day, in ordinary business and social
intercourse. If people are to live together happily they must not only
tolerate one another. They must enjoy companionship, one with the other.
On the same soil you can not have, permanently, two systems of law.
Two basic forms of moral conduct can not function side by side. If
there are two groups of people in any society, one of which totally
rejects the other, trouble is sure to come. Given two groups of people
with such a gulf fixed between as is never crossed, for instance, by
intermarriages, and it is time to hoist the danger signal. Civil strife
lurks in the offing.
That generation of Americans which grew up under the shadow of the
Civil War, and in the terrible period of Reconstruction, has had
occasion to have burned in its inmost consciousness, as by intense
religious conviction, this necessity of national unity. Such a complete
sense of unity, such a practice of solidarity, I have visualized for my
country. It is the disunity of the present which, with "Hope deferred,
maketh the heart sick." About us on every hand are discordant voices,
clashing interests, screaming recriminations and blazing hatreds. Our
republic cannot continue unless we re-establish, and that very soon, a
status of civil peace in the minds and hearts of all our people.
Everybody who reads the newspapers or talks with his neighbors knows
that the conflict between labor and capital is drifting us into another
civil war. We can already reach ahead in imagination and fix our eyes
upon the dreadful moment when the forces of class revolution will
raise their standards and move to the attack. Among thousands it is
being openly advocated. Among great numbers of quieter citizens of all
classes it is accepted as a sort of grim necessity. Men seem always
to be ready enough to fight. However, a sound national life can not
be maintained by crushing down the masses, any more than freedom and
progress can be secured for anybody through a Bolshevistic revolution.
And how much more deadly is disunity between classes than between
sections!
How difficult it is to make men so desirous of peace that they will
consecrate their lives to secure its conditions! Are there none among
us so devoted to our Union, so ardent in the cause of peace, that
they are willing to rally around the principles which will make both
peace and unity possible? I steadfastly maintain that, if properly
led, a majority of Americans are willing to think and act in order to
forestall anarchy and civil war. A vast majority of our farming people
and middle classes are ready to demand, as Andrew Jackson demanded in
1830, that the nation do lawful justice to all. We who still constitute
the solid body of the nation wish to urge upon the wage-working people
with all our hearts that America and Americanism can solve their great
problem without rebellion and bloodshed. And we are just as ready to
assure those who own and direct capital, even those who are so often
hated because of their great riches, that no penny shall ever be taken
away from them without due process of law. Surely a majority of us
have not yet lost faith in the very foundations of our democratic
union. The recent stupendous events in revolutionary Europe should
cause every thoughtful American mind to re-examine most carefully the
principles of our government and of our democracy. We stoutly maintain
that these principles and the constitution based upon them furnish a
peaceful means, even a brotherly means, for the solution of the labor
problem. But if, under the dangerous conditions which impend, our
Federal Union is to be preserved, our love for it must draw us ever
closer together in its service. Every principle of the bill of rights
must be steadfastly defended. Embittered hatreds and suspicions must
be allayed. The nation as a whole must be persuaded to take counsel
in a quiet way. To those who shriek out upon us that "Might makes
right," and that "Government is founded upon power and wealth alone,"
we must be able to reply that our Constitution and laws are still
vitalized by the love of our American hearts, and by our willingness
to sacrifice self for the sacred things of the Union. May we not still
reply, also, that freedom is only curtailment of power--power to rule
over others--and that true freedom can be experienced only in a nation
whose citizens highly resolve to protect the freedom, the rights and
interests of all.
Both plutocracy and Bolshevism are new forms of tyranny. Neither have,
as yet, run their course. None can refuse to take note that during the
last decade some of our rich, as for instance, Mr. Henry Ford, have
begun to learn the lesson of the stewardship of wealth. With what pride
and pleasure we have observed, too, that organized labor in America
has rejected Bolshevism and declared ardently and almost unanimously
for purely democratic methods of action. It is not among the twenty
per cent who are organized; it is among the eighty per cent of our
workers who have not the capacity to organize, or who are denied the
right to organize, that Bolshevism is raising its ugly head and weaning
the workers away from democracy and from the love and service of their
country. If our Union is to be preserved in our day, it must win a new
hold upon the affections of this vast number of our people, native-born
and foreign alike. Among them all its interests must be made the
subject of constant thought and conversation. All must learn that no
man who hates his neighbor can sit down in peace under his own vine
and fig tree. So, to this, our altar of unity, we who labor for social
peace must bring in absolute sacrifice the work of our hands and all
the cultural results of our civilization. Only thus shall we be enabled
to lead the warring classes back to Americanism. The Union, if it is
to be preserved from social disintegration, must be established upon
character as well as upon a common material interest.
[Illustration: Consecration to the Flag]
The time has fully come for all Americans to reason together and
finally think this thing through. Who among us can say that he knows
exactly what to do? But this we all can say: That if our people
approach this whole matter in the attitude of affection, one for
the other, if we consider this issue as ardent patriots and sincere
Christians, then we are sure to discover, presently, the straight way
in which all can walk together in unity and fellowship.
The Ku Klux Klan is composed, I trust, of men who will face this
crucial issue with relentless firmness. We shall say to Americans of
all classes who now prepare their minds for civil war that they must
and shall make peace. We do not propose, as the years pass, to wait
and wait and drift and drift. Let none mistake our purpose. Civil war
is the most terrible curse a nation can suffer. We do not propose to
look idly upon the mischief of others until it rages all about us. We
shall prevent war by planning for peace, by preparing for peace, and by
knowing in our inmost hearts that peace can be maintained. The way to
the peace we demand lies through justice, righteousness and affection.
"The Federal Union, it must be preserved."
National unity, as we here understand it, is more than a means to an
end. National unity is an ever enlarging result. It is the loftier and
worthier goal. In the full joy of its realization the individual soul
is enriched and finally saved. Thus is patriotism made to share in the
spiritual values of religion. So the individual losing self, shall
again find himself in the service of his fellowmen.
Looking back beyond the temporary issues of the War Between the States
we can see, rising in clear outline against the times in which he
lived, the tall spare form of "Old Hickory." There rung through his
brave utterance both resolution of will and high purpose of policy. So
were his faith and his hope maintained. To-day, amid the clamor and
disunity of our times, his memory again urges upon the troubled hearts
of our people this great word of a day that is done, that it may again
be made flesh and dwell among us.