Page:The collected works of Theodore Parker volume 7.djvu/201

Rh your countrymen, and hates the stranger; the affection which the Old Testament attributes to Jehovah, and which makes Him say, "I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau;" a patriotism which supports our country in the wrong as readily as in the right, and is glad to keep one-sixth part of the nation in bondage without hope. It is not a patriotism which, beginning here, loves all the children of God; but one that robs the Mexican, enslaves the African, and exterminates the Indian.

These ore among the greater evils taught us by the political action of the people as a whole. If you look at the action of tho chief political parties, you see no more respect for justice in the politics of either party than in the politics of tho nation, the resultant of both; no more respect for right abroad, or at home. One party aims distinctively at preserving the property already acquired; its chief concern is for that, its sympathy there; where its treasure is, is also its heart. It legislates, consciously or otherwise, more for accumulated wealth than for the labouring man who now accumulates. This party goes for the dollar; the other for the majority, and sims at the greatest good of the greatest number, leaving the good of the smaller number to most uncertain mercies. Neither party seems to aim at justice, which protects both the wealth that labour has piled up, and the labourer who now creates it; justice, which is the point of morals common to man and God, where the interests of all men, abroad and at home, electing and elected, greatest number and smallest number, exactly balance. Falsehood, fraud, a willingness to deceive, a desire for the power and distinction cf office, a readiness to use base means in obtaining office—these vices are sown with a pretty even hand upon both parties, and spring up with such blossoms and such a fruitage as we all see. The third political party has not been long enough in existence to develop any distinctive vices of its own.

I shall not speak of the public or private character of the politicians who direct the State; no doubt that is a powerful element in our national education; but as a class, they seem no better and no worse than merchants, mechanics, ministers, and farmers, as a class; so in their influence there is nothing peculiar, only their personal