Francis Scott Key’s Idolatrous Worship Of The American State

Mandeville, LA – On the Mike Church Show recently, I examined and commented on this address of Francis Scott Key’s; how it appears as boilerplate ‘Muricah is star-spangled awesome but that’s a ruse. The address is one of the most stirring apologia’s for the masonic project in ‘Muricah you will ever read. From making the state the font of our “blessings…rights and duties” to demeaning Our Lady – the “Mary” of Maryland (yes, I know it was named for a Royal, but where did the Royal get the name, genius?), Key paints a picture of a country that is made perfect from cradle to grave by its benevolent government’s hand. I invite your comments below. – Mike Church

Extracts From A Discourse On Education, DelivEred In Saint Anne’s Church, Annapolis, After The Commencement Of Saint John’s College, February 22ND, 1827, By Francis S. Key, Esq. Alumnus Of Saint John’s College.

“A government administered for the benefit of all, should provide all practicable means of happiness for all. It must also provide useful citizens, competent to the discharge of the various services the public interests may require. Education confers happiness and usefulness, and therefore demands attention. No maxim is more readily admitted than that a wise and free government should provide for the education of its citizens; but the maxim seems not to be admitted to its just extent. A State affords to the poor or laboring class of its population the means of obtaining a common education,’ such an one as prepares them for the ordinary duties of their situation, and of which alone they can generally avail themselves, who can give but a small portion of their time and none of their means to such pursuits. And it is too generally thought that this is enough, that the State has discharged its duty, and that what remains to be done to fit men for higher degrees of happiness and usefulness, and to qualify them for a wider sphere of duty, may be left to itself.

“But it is not enough. More, far more can be don e even for those for whose benefit what is done is intended, as I shall hereafter show. And what is done for the other numerous and important classes of the community? And why are they to be neglected? In all political societies there will be men of different conditions and circumstances. They cannot be all limited by the same necessities, nor destined to the same employments. Nor is it desirable, nor, from the nature of things, possible that it should be so. If they could be reduced to the same level they could not be kept to it. Idleness and vice would sink below it—honorable effort would rise above it.

“There are and ever will be the poor and the rich, the men of labor and the men of leisure, and the State which neglects either neglects a duty, and neglects it at its peril, for which ever it neglects will be not only useless but mischievous.
“It is admitted that the neglect of one of these classes is unjust and impolitic. Why is it not so as to the other? If it is improper to leave the man of labor uneducated, deprived of the means of improvement he can receive and requires, is it not at least equally so to leave the man of leisure, whose situation does not oblige him to labor, and who therefore will not labor, to rust in sloth or to riot in dissipation?

“If there be any difference, it is more impolitic to neglect the latter, for he has more in his power either for good or evil, will be more apt, from his greater temptations, to be depraved himself and the corrupter of the others.

“This neglect would be peculiarly unwise in a Government like ours. Luxury is the vice most fatal to republics, and idleness and want of education in the rich promote it in its most disgusting forms. Nor let it be thought that we have no cause to guard against this evil. It is, perhaps, the most imminent of our perils. While, therefore, I readily subscribe to the principle, which all admit, that it is essential in a free government that the whole population should be sufficiently instructed to understand their rights, and be qualified for their duties, and that for this purpose such an education as their situation will enable them to receive should be provided for all; yet I will not fear to maintain (what is not so generally admitted), and that it is just as essential to a wise and proper administration of such a government that there should be found among its citizens men of more exalted attainments, who can give their whole youth and their whole lives to the highest pursuits of every department of useful science.

“Nor is it only as a refuge from the dangers of youth that such an institution is to be regarded. It is to give strength and preparation for the whole life. It is then that habits, principles and tastes that fix the color of succeeding years are to be formed. Then are the victories to be achieved over the temper and disposition, over the temptations from within and from without, that make the man the master of himself through life. Patience in investigation, accuracy of research, perseverance in labor, resolution to conquer difficulty, zeal in the cause of learning and virtues, are then to be acquired. Then is Science to display her charms, and Literature her delights, and a refined and exalted taste to lure him, by higher gratifications, from the vain pleasures of the world. Then is he to be made familiar with the sages and heroes of antiquity, to catch the inspiration of their genius and their virtues; and the great and the good of every age and of every land are to be made his associates, his instructors, his examples.

“Will not a grateful sense of these benefits heighten the ardor of his patriotism, and will he not serve a country that cherished and adorned his youth with more devotion, as well as with far more ability? It may be that love of country springs from some undefinable and hidden instinct of our nature, wisely given to the heart of man to fit him for the filial duties which he owes to the land of his birth. But this impulse, however pure and high its origin, must submit to the common destiny of all human affections. It may glow with increasing ardor, elevate itself above all our desires, and reign the ruling passion of the soul. And it may grow cold, languish and expire. A country, like a parent, should meet this instinctive feeling of her children with a corresponding affection; should call it forth to early and continual exercise by early and continual blessings, by setting before them illustrious examples, and all the high rewards of virtue, and preparing them for all the enjoyments and duties of life. Such a country will not want patriots.

“Maryland is a member of the American Confederacy, united with the other independent States in one General Government. It is her concern that her own political course should be directed by wisdom, and for this she must necessarily look to her own citizens. It is also and equally her concern that the General Government should be wisely administered, and with a just regard to her own peculiar interests. She must furnish her quota ot talent there. Her duty to the Union requires this, her own preservation demands it. It is not enough for her that there should be found there wisdom and talent, and patriotism; but she must see to it that Maryland wisdom and talent, and patriotism,**;-*! found there. There is a great common interest among these States, a bond of union strong enough, we all hope, to endure the occasional conflicts of subordinate local interests. But there are and ever will be these interests, and they will necessarily produce collision and competition. Hence will continually arise questions of great national concern, and more or less, according to their respective interests, of vital importance to the States. These are all to be considered, discussed and settled. That they may be settled with justice to herself, Maryland must meet this competition with all her strength. It is not in the number of her delegation that she is to trust. She may send one man who may be in himself a host. It is essential to her that her interest should be seen and felt, and that those who see and feel it should maintain it with all the power that talent and patriotism can wield. It is essential to her, and to every member of the Union, that the agitations excited by these collis’ons should be kept from endangering the foundations upon which the fabric of our free institutions has been reared—that men of the highesl powers and the purest principles should rule the deliberations of our national councils on these occasions of difficulty and danger, and preserve, through every storm that may assail it, the Union—the Ark of our safety.

“It is no reproach to the wisdom of those who framed our Constitution that they have left it exposed to danger from the separate interests and powers of the States. It is not to be avoided but by incurring far greater dangers. Nor is our situation in that respect without its advantages. These local interests are powerful excitements to the States to prepare and enrich their public men with the highest possible endowments. Their own immediate interest would afford a more constant and powerful stimulus to do this than one more remote, and felt only in common, which too often leaves its share of duty to others. But for this, a general degeneracy in talent and principle might prevail, and the great concerns of a growing Nation sink into hands unfitted to sustain them. If Providence shall preserve us from these dangers and give perpetuity to our institutions, Maryland will continue to see an increasing necessity (if she would avail herself of a just share of the benefits they are designed to confer) for calling forth and cultivating all her resources. And if this hope fails us, if the Union is dissolved, in the distractions and dangers that follow, she will, if possible, still more require the highest aid that the wisdom of her sons can afford to guide her through that night of darkness.

“Let it also be remembered that every well taught citizen, whatever may be his condition, to whatever station in life he may belong, is, generally speaking, an advantage to the public. Therefore, although but a small number, in proportion to the whole population, may be qualified for higher usefulness by the acquisitions of learning, yet among them may be found some whom the State may proudly reckon as her greatest ornaments—to whom she may be indebted even for her preservation. The Roman historian, who records the effect produced upon the Roman Senate by the prudence and eloquence of Cato, upon an occasion of imminent peril to the Republic, shows how powerfully he was impressed by the consideration of what one man might accomplish for the welfare of a nation.

“Let not this filial duty be delayed. Death has already thinned your ranks. Your eldest brethren (Alexander, Carr, Lomax,) have run their brief but honorable course, and are no more. He, too, who had caught within that hall the bold spirit of the ancient eloquence from its mightiest master; who, if he had been spared to stand before you this day would have roused you from your seats, and called you to join your hearts and hands in a sacred covenant to restore its honors—St. John’s—and to swear to its fulfillment by the memory of the dead, the hopes of the living, and the glory of unborn generations. He, (John Hanson Thomas, of Frederick city), alas! is a light shining no more upon the earth. He, also, who excelled in all the attainments of mind, and charmed with all the attractions of virtue; who could descend at will from the highest soaring in the regions of Fancy, and be found foremost in the steepest ascents of the paths of Science;

He who had here caught ‘the glow, The warmth divine that poet’s know,’ and whose lyre, upon a theme that touched these scenes of his inspiration, would have poured forth its most impassioned strains, and compelled the hearts that eloquence could not subdue to bow to the magic of his song. He, too, the ornament of St. John’s, and the leader of her tenth legion, (John Shaw, M. D., of Annapolis), has had our tears, and sleeps not in an honored grave but beneath the wave of the ocean.

“Nor can he be forgotten, (Henry M. Murray, of Annapolis), the last, but not least lamented of our departed brethren, who would have been among the foremost to offer the feelings of a warm heart and the powers of a gifted mind to the labors to which I have invited you. Who had already done so, and stands enrolled in the records of the College, among those who repaid, by their counsels at her board, the honors she had bestowed. Whose zeal and ability would have performed more than his share of the duty, while his unassuming and generous nature would have refused any portion of the praise. The awful Providence which removed him, in the midst of life and usefulness, from the profession he adorned, the society he blessed, and the friends he delighted, has called upon our College to mourn the double loss of an honored son and a devoted patron. But it becomes us not to murmur under this mysterious dispensation— rather to be thankful that it has left to console and animate us a cherished memory and a high example.”

TheKingDude

Host of the Mike Church Show on The Veritas Radio Network's CRUSADE Channel & Founder of the Veritas Radio Network. Formerly, of Sirius/XM's Patriot channel 125. The show began in March of 2003 exclusively on Sirius and remains "the longest running radio talk show in satellite radio history".

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