“There is a patriotism of the soul whose claim absolves us from our other and terrene fealty.... When, therefore, one would have us throw up our caps and shout with the multitude, ‘Our country, however bounded!’ he demands of us that we sacrifice the larger to the less, the higher to the lower, and that we yield to the imaginary claims of a few acres of soil our duty and privilege as liegemen of Truth. Our true country is bounded on the north and the south, on the east and the west, by justice.... Veiling our faces, we must take silently the hand of Duty to follow her.” The fallacy of false patriotism is exploded in the following quotation by James Mackaye:[254] “There is a school of patriotism more or less popular which teaches that a man owes to his country a duty which he owes to no other aggregate of the human race, and that he should render service to the constituted authorities thereof, whatever policies they may choose to pursue. The motto of this school is ‘My country, right or wrong.’ Had this been the motto of Washington and his compatriots the United States would still be a part of the British Empire. The particular aggregate of men which constitutes a nation is a matter of the merest accident.... Indeed the patriotism whose dictum is ‘My country, right or wrong’ is but one degree of egotism, for if my country right or wrong, why not my state right or wrong; if my state right or wrong, why not my town ... my neighborhood ... my family ... my great uncle ... or why not myself right or wrong?” George Washington was disloyal to his own government, the greatest national government in the world in his day, simply because that government did not do things to suit _him_. Washington _took up arms against his own government_ because it did not suit him. Washington was _unpatriotic_ toward his great national government because it did not please him. Washington _even trampled upon the flag_ of his own national government because that government’s policy did not suit him. But Washington was loyal to his own interests. He was patriotic toward the new _revolutionary_ government that did suit him. He _transferred his allegiance_ to a _new_ flag and a _new_ constitution and a _new_ government and thus _protected his economic interests_. And all these things are true, strictly true, of almost every _great_ American in the times of Washington. Nearly every “leading citizen” in England at that time thought the behavior of the great Americans was “simply awful,” “outlandishly anarchistic.” The “patriotic” great men in England were protecting their _economic_ interests and _used their government_ to protect those interests.