122 OUR RELATION TO OUR COUNTRY. [Part II.

The opinion prevailed in the time of Cicero, that the martialwere superior to the civil and peaceful virtues ; but this opinionwas not received by that profound moralist and accomplishedstatesman.* The services of Washington were neither lesspatriotic, nor less valuable, when, as chief magistrate of theUnited States, he was presiding over the civil interests of hiscountry, than when, directing the storm of war and surrounded byits “ pomp and circumstance,” he was triumphing over thearmies of Great Britain, at Boston, at Princeton, and at York-town. Civil transactions compose much of every military cam-paign, and the event of military arrangements not unfrequentlyturns on them ; and the revolutionary services of Washington,Greene, and La Fayette, great as they were, were not more in-dispensable to the success of the contest, than those of Franklin,Adams, Jay, and Jefferson.

In fact, history makes known with the most convincing evi-dence, the truth, that mere physical power is of little avail, —nay, is absolute weakness, unless directed by skill and energy,and sustained by moral principles and the practice of the moralvirtues. Moral power and well-digested discipline, capacity fororder and arrangement, wisdom to direct among the well-edu-cated and well-principled citizens of a country, much more thanpersonal prowess and individual valor, are the chief tower ofstrength to a country. This view of the ascendency of moralpower (and how can it be gainsaid ?) over the affairs of a nation,and even over the events of war itself, widens immeasurably thefield of patriotic feeling, enterprise, and achievement. Morethan this ; it reverses the order of merit on the scale of patriot-ism ; physical force becomes subordinate to moral; every manmay become a distinguished patriot without commanding anarmy ; and whoever contributes most to promote education, toaugment the treasures of knowledge, to enlarge the circle of thearts and sciences, and more especially to sustain and strengthenthe transcendent cause of morals and religion, is, of all men, bestentitled to have his brows adorned with the honors of patriotism.

De Officiis, Lib. I. c. 22 .