The Complete Works of Brann, the Iconoclast — Volume 12Brann, William Cowper
History
The Complete Works of Brann, the Iconoclast — Volume 12
Brann, William Cowper
Brann, William Cowper, 1855-1898; Essays; Reformers
The term "jingoist;" or its equivalent, was applied to
Washington and Henry, to Jefferson and Jackson. It
was applied to James G. Blaine, the typical American of
his time--a man from beneath whose very toe-nails enough
intellect might be scraped to make an hundred Clevelands
or McKinleys. All were jingoes in their day and generation,
because all preferred the title of sovereign to that
of subject; because all believed that Columbia should be
mistress of her own fate, the architect of her own fortune,
instead of an appendage of England, or political orphan
under a European protectorate, because all believed that
she should protect her humblest citizen from wrong and
outrage wheresoever he may be, though it cost every dollar
of the nation's treasure and every drop of the nation's
blood--and if that be jingoism then I, too, am a jingo
from alpha to omega, from beginning to end.
. . .
Who are those who recalcitrate about jingoism? They
are people who have never forgiven Almighty God for
suffering them to be born American sovereigns instead
of British subjects. They are those whose ideal man is
some stupid, forked, radish "stuck o'er with titles, hung
'round with strings," and anxious to board with a wealthy
American wife to avoid honest work. They are the people
whose god is the dollar, their country the stock exchange,
and who suspect that a foreign policy with as much
backbone as a scared rabbit would knock some of the
wind and water out of their bogus "securities." It is
those who would sell their citizenship for a copper cent
and throw in their risen Lord as lagniappe, who are forever
prating of "jingoism" and pleading for peace at
any price. And these unclean harpies of greed and gall
have been too long permitted to dominate this government.
The result is that the greatest nation known to
human history--the sum and crown of things--is an
object of general insult. If it be rumored that we
contemplate protecting American citizens in Cuba, every
European government emits a growl--there's talk of
rebuking Uncle Sam's "presumption," of standing him in
a corner to cool. If it be suggested that we annex an
island--at the earnest request of all its inhabitants worth
the hanging--there more minatory caterwauling by the
European courts, while even the Mikado of Japan gets
his little Ebenezer up, and the Ahkound of Swat, the
Nizan of Nowhere and the grand gyasticutus of Jimple-
cute intimate that they may send a yaller-legged policeman
across the Pacific in a soap-box to pull the tail-
feathers out of the bird o' freedom if it doesn't crawl
humbly back upon its perch. If a fourth-class power
insults our flag we accept a flippant apology. If our
citizens are wrongfully imprisoned we wait until they are
starved, shot, or perish of blank despair in dungeons so
foul that a hog would die therein of a broken heart; then
humbly ask permission to investigate, report that they
are dead, and feel that we have discharged our duty.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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