Closely related to the exaggerated confidence in our country's
greatness which tends to a disregard of the rules of national
safety, another danger confronts us not less serious. I refer to
the prevalence of a popular disposition to expect from the
operation of the Government especial and direct individual
advantages.
The verdict of our voters which condemned the injustice of
maintaining protection for protection's sake enjoins upon the
people's servants the duty of exposing and destroying the brood of
kindred evils which are the unwholesome progeny of paternalism.
This is the bane of republican institutions and the constant peril
of our government by the people. It degrades to the purposes of
wily craft the plan of rule our fathers established and bequeathed
to us as an object of our love and veneration. It perverts the
patriotic sentiments of our countrymen and tempts them to pitiful
calculation of the sordid gain to be derived from their
Government's maintenance. It undermines the self-reliance of our
people and substitutes in its place dependence upon governmental
favoritism. It stifles the spirit of true Americanism and
stupefies every ennobling trait of American citizenship.
The lessons of paternalism ought to be unlearned and the better
lesson taught that while the people should patriotically and
cheerfully support their Government its functions do not include
the support of the people.
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