Ever since Plato invited Socrates and a few of his friends over to chat on the subject of virtue–following a little Greek tragedy–the use of the word virtue in our daily vocabulary has steadily declined to the point where it’s almost non-existent.
Given its steady demise, we should probably reacquaint ourselves with its meaning, which Mr. Webster defines as “behavior showing high moral standards.”
Morality…there’s another word, synonymous with virtue, that, in our evolving lexicon, could very well be put on the endangered species list, as we no longer live in a society that accepts “black and white” or moral absolutes.
While this may be a woeful indictment on current society, this certainly could not have been said during the birthing of our nation.
Our Founders fundamentally believed the ability to govern ourselves rests with our individual and collective virtue or moral character.
John Adams explained it this way to American Revolution political writer and propagandist, Mercy Otis Warren–a highly unusual profession for a woman at the time, “Public virtue cannot exist in a Nation without private Virtue, and public Virtue is the only Foundation of Republics.”
In an October 11, 1798, letter to the officers of the First Brigade of the Third Division of the Militia of Massachusetts, Adams declared: “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
Thomas Jefferson put it this way, “A nation, as a society, forms a moral person, and every member of it is personally responsible for his society. It is the manners and spirit of a people, which preserve a republic in vigor. A degeneracy of these is a cancor [ker] which soon eats to the heart of its laws and constitution.”
American author and historian, Edward G. Lengel, co-recipient of the National Humanities Medal–for his work on the George Washington Papers project–had this to say about George Washington’s position on the topic of virtue: “He deeply believed in virtue, in personal morality and by living according to certain moral standards.”
Another American author and historian, Joseph J. Ellis, whose work focuses on the lives and times of the founders and whose Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for History, states: “Washington was representative of the founding generation in the sense that the word political party was an epithet [a disparaging word]. They thought of parties in the same way we think of partisans and lobbyists. They distort the conversation in ways that are not in the public interest.”
Can I hear a resounding “Amen!” In my opinion, the distortion has become debilitating.
In Washington’s farewell address, after refusing to serve a third term, he warned about the dangers of factions or political parties that put their own interests ahead of the nation’s.
Read Washington’s haunting words from his 32-page handwritten farewell address, designed to inspire and guide future generations:
“…the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and the duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.
“It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with illfounded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which find a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions.”
Washington concludes…
“Of all the dispositions and habits that lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.
“’Tis substantially true, that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule indeed extends with more or less force to every species of free government. Who that is a sincere friend to it, can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric?”
Patrick Henry, one of the most influential and radical advocates of the American Revolution, was convinced, “A vitiated state of morals, a corrupted public conscience, is incompatible with freedom.”
Thomas Jefferson, writing to fellow Virginian, Spencer Roane, in a March 1821 correspondence, “…it is a law of nature that the generations of men should give way, one to another, and I hope that the one now on the stage will preserve for their sons the political blessings delivered into their hands by their fathers. Time indeed changes manners and notions, and so far we must expect institutions to bend to them. But time produces also corruption of principles, and against this it is the duty of good citizens to be ever on the watch, and if the gangrene is to prevail at last, let the day be kept off as long as possible.”
When a country loses its virtue, the gangrene has begun to set in, evidenced by a nation of faction and partisanism.
Former Cook County Commissioner Garry Gamble is writing this ongoing column about the various ways government works, as well as other topics.
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