What is the source of a nation’s strength?

What is the architecture of national greatness? It is rooted in the character of the citizenry. American architect and poet William Ralph Emerson (1833-1917) asked:

What makes a nation’s pillars high 
And its foundations strong? 
What makes it mighty to defy 
The foes that round it throng?

Emerson, a cousin of the more famous Ralph Waldo Emerson, had good reason to ask the question in 1891. He had seen America torn part by slavery and watched civil war decimate the flower of our nation’s manhood. The 1880s had seen tremendous economic and social turbulence. So he asked, What makes a nation strong? Is it gold? Is it the sword? Is it cultural pride?

Emerson notes that many civilizations have prided themselves on acquisition and display of wealth. History has seen the rise and fall of many fabulously wealthy empires. Perhaps Emerson was reflecting on the temples and monuments of ancient Rome, or those in Central and South America. But, however wealthy, those empires were built on violence and inhumanity. It was slave labor that built the pyramids, and the Mayans, Aztecs, and others practiced human sacrifice and ritual cannibalism.

Emerson writes, “It is not gold. Its kingdoms grand / go down in battle shock.” More importantly, a society only built on wealth is “laid on sinking sand, / not on abiding rock.”

Why? Wealth is no guarantee of moral character. No matter how large the treasury, prosperity does not ensure that the next generation will have the courage or the character required to live responsibly within the bounds of ordered liberty. Having wealth does not equal innovation and growth. Indeed, poor stewardship of great riches seems to inevitably lead to licentiousness and sloth. Consider Gibbons’ Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, where public and private debt and luxurious elite lifestyles were shown to have contributed to a morally and economically bankrupt society.

What about military power? Does a nation become great by conquering its neighbors, extending its borders, and martial prowess? Emerson decides no—those who live by the sword will die by the sword: “Is it the sword? Ask the red dust / of empires passed away. / The blood has turned their stones to rust, / their glory to decay.”

Is there a lesson to be drawn from the rise and fall of empires in the Bible, such as Babylon, Assyria, Persia, Greece, and Rome? Each had many attainments, but they were built on cruel conquest, and they have faded away with the ages. Emerson implies that military glory decays because it is not a meaningful ethic in and of itself. War as an end unto itself does not inspire a virtuous citizenry nor a rightly ordered society.

If not riches or conquest, what about national pride? Emerson is not talking about rightful patriotism and appropriate love of country but rather a cultural chauvinism that sees one’s nation, ethno-religious group, or ideological cadre as morally superior to others. This type of tribal supremacy results in an ends-justify-the means political ethic. Such chauvinism is a poison within the body politic and is dangerous for international relations. Hitler’s Nazism and Soviet communism were cases in point. Emerson concludes that God will strike the “luster” of such idolatry down “in ashes at His feet.”

“What makes a nation’s pillars high / and its foundations strong?” This is an appropriate question to echo as we celebrate Armed Forces Week (May 11-16) culminating in Armed Forces Day (third Saturday of May). The answer must lie in a virtuous, industrious, patriotic, and service-oriented citizenry.

Emerson writes,

Not gold but only men can make
A people great and strong;
Men who for truth and honor’s sake
Stand fast and suffer long.

Brave men who work while others sleep,
Who dare while others fly...
They build a nation’s pillars deep
And lift them to the sky.

These “brave men” are not limited to military personnel, but those who wear the American uniform are worthy of special honor. They bravely work “while others sleep.”

Emerson’s poem stirs our hearts. We do not want only a small group of citizen-warriors to live up to these ideals, but rather we want to be a society that shapes all of our boys, girls, teens, and young adults to be characterized by truth, honor, strength, bravery, and steadfastness. We want our professional guardians and defenders not to be extraordinary, but to be drawn from a much wider citizenry that is characterized by character, virtue, and self-sacrifice.

This Armed Forces Week, we thank the men and women who have agreed to serve and protect the rest of us. Their contribution makes America “a people great and strong.” At the same time, we must commit ourselves to building a moral society in which we transmit these values to every boy and girl. We have a responsibility to inspire the next Greatest Generation to live not for wealth, conquest, or pride, but for truth and honor’s sake—“that will build [our] nation’s pillars deep and lift them to the sky.”