Patriotism consequently does not mean blind devotion to country, right or wrong. And the plain fact is that there actually are patriots who do not conceive that devotion to country must be consistent even at the expense of one’s moral convictions. Loyalty to country with them does not set aside loyalty to the moral law. The following lines are taken from an essay commendatory to patriotism: “Let patriotism wholly conform itself to the moral law; let it judge all things, national as well as individual, by the unalterable, supreme, standard of right and wrong; let it sanction no blind following of the flag, nor any unethical exalting of the country’s dominance above the country’s righteousness; let it reject the notion that because war has been declared, patriots must enlist; let it repudiate the idea that because a war has been begun, it must be allowed to end only when victory has been secured;--and there will not only be fewer wars, but also, on one side at least, wars more in keeping with justice and truth.”[125] The author is a patriot, but his patriotism is directed by a high ethical ideal. It follows that patriotism is not inextricably bound up with jingoism. Patriotism is not exclusively a war-time virtue. In truth pacifists may well assert, and do sometimes, that they are patriots, and differ from other patriots only in the way in which they show their patriotism. There are uses for the patriot in time of peace as well as in time of war. A practical statesman in a patriotic address has said, “We need men who will not only be ready to sacrifice for their country in time of war, but who will not be a menace to it in time of peace! We want patriots in finance. We want patriotism in the organization of corporations. We want patriots in the conduct of public utilities. We want patriots in rendering loyal obedience to the law.”[126] Washington, who was a patriot in war, preferred peace, and was a patriot in peace as well as in war. When he was about to resign his commission as commander-in-chief of the army, he wrote his “Letter to the Governors” in which he made suggestions for putting the Federal Government on a right basis. His “Farewell Address” was characterized by paternal solicitude for the future of his country. On both occasions Washington, first in peace as well as in war, expressed what was a true spirit of patriotism.