Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1861-02-20

IF there be any one among US who has so far
strayed from the truth to believe that public
affairs may be safely neglected for private, and
that politics constitute a trade fit only for the
demagogue let him ROW confess the magnitude of
his error and It's fatal consequences. Let him
confess that the powers of the wisestand best may
well be taxed to find, amid the gloom that is dali,
settling more and more darkly around US, path
of safety and OF peace.
Under such circumstances, even those who are
no longer actively engaged in public life may be
excused. If they step forward; each IN the way OF
counsel or warning, contributing his mite
1t viii be eighty five years in the month ofJuly
next, since, to crowd assembled in an open
square and its adjoining street-Chestnut street,
in Philadelphia,-a man of Grave aspect read
certain document, every syllable OF which thrilled
through the hearts of his audience. For it
nounced one of those great resolves such as occur
only in the lapse of many centuries, destined
theneeforfh to Influence, for good or for evil the
destinies of half the civilized world.
1t would be difficult 10 over estimate the i'm
portance of that declaration. let it is doubtful
today, when more than three quarters Of cen
tury has tested the Republican experiment of
Union and independence, to-day, in time of
profound peace with all foreign nations, and when
we have no other enemies but our own degenerate
selves,-whether we of the present generation are
not called upon to act under circumstances more
grave, at a crisis more solemn, TO decide ques
ton more mOrnentOus than the Revolutionary
question itself.
For while the crowd before that old State
House Witnessed the birth of a republic, composed
of States united as well as independent, We, their
descendants and successors, are to be witnesses
either of the rescue and the restored health and
vigor of that confeds rated Union, of its down
fall and dissolution.
Long have we been accustomed 10 assume that
apprehensions of danger to the government Of
our country were but the panic dreams of imagi-
nation, baseless and vain; that while generation
after generation its citizens passed to another
phase of existence, the Union would yet remain
and endure The Supreme Judge of the world,
- whom the patriots of rs appealed for the rec
titude of their intentions, is teaching us now,
that, as there are physical laws which no man,
even the strongest, may habitually disregard, and
yet continue to live so there also great social
laws which no nation, how powerful soever, how
prosperous soeyer, may persistently violate and
yet hope to escape their inevitable punishment;
the fate in the past, of a hundred empires, OF
whose greatness, except in the warning page of
history. the only records left piles Of molder
ing ruin
There are few men among US who do not, in
words profess a reverence for Christianity, yet
there are perhaps as few who truly, e,nestly be-
Heve, or who in their deeds practically evinee be-
lief, that nation may survive or may fall, ac-
cording as its people OF its rulers exhibit in their
public action a regard or disregard not for any
special form of worship, not for any peculiar
phase of creei not for the letter that kileth, but
for the substance, the essence of that system of
ethics which Jesus taught; for the spirit which
giveth life.
1t is time we should learn, that if our religion
contains, as each week we assume that it does,
the great practical rules Of life, it is both weak
and criminal TO hang it away, like some holiday
garment, reserved only for the season Of rest and
PRAYER 1t should be our every day wear. 1t
should 60 with us into life, public as well as pri-
vate- It's spirit should influence our actions, not
as individuals only as Representatives, as states
men.
But if we look closely at the Christian system
not in its ecclesiastical aspect but as an element
of civilization and in its connection with human
progress and public affairs, what do we fnd'
Aside from all theological subtleties; aside, too
from those minor peculiarities which touch not
the essential, but which often enkindle p0lemica
zeal in the inverse ratio of their practical impor
tance; aside from all this, what is the master
principle pervading the entire code of Christian
morality. giving it life and peculiar character
distinguishing it broadly conspicaOusiy, from thu
Jewish and all other stern OLD systems OF an an
cient world?
It's the substitution, in all the affairs Of man
kind, whether International, legislative, itigant
executive or social, Of the spirit Of mildness TO
the spirit of force. 1t is the replacement of wa
by peace of severity by humanity; and by forgiv
ing mercy of vindictive JUSTICE for contention tn
enjcining of meekness, and for hatred, of love.
Ne stand, at this hour, on the verge of disunion
w lat has brought us thereg More than an
otIler one thing the manner in which we have sc
at nought the noblest injunctions of Him whom
we idly profess to honor and love.
1t avails nothing to inquire whether in this tn
North or the South be more deeply in the fault
1t is fact patent to the world that both ar
guilty. In the South, under the promptings 0
alarm for an institution which the public opinio
Of majority of the civilized world disapprove:
there have been threats and acts of violence de
structive alike of security to person and OF free
dom to individual opinion. Among us OF th
North there has shown itself temper as perm
cious as lawless deeds; a temper unneighborly
abusive, intermeddling, pharisaical: "G0d, W
thank thee that we are not as other men, or eve
as these SHAREHOLDERS Between both. there ha
arisen a spirit the very reverse of the Christian
naughty, vindictive, unforgiving. There ha
been crimnation and recrimination. Mutual o.
fenses and short -comings have been distorted an
magnifed. There have been passing, throughoI
long years until they stung and rankled, thos
grievOus words that stir up anger. That ange
infamed the brains of fanatics in either section
that they set to calculating the value of tn
Union, and finally fell into the delusiOn that
was not worth that sacrifice of evil passion whic
was necessary to maintain it. In the South man
acted upon this delusi0n; in the North, not fe
rejoiced in that action
And thus it has become necessity, melaI
choly though it be, to estimate the privileges an
advantages enjoyed under this COnfederacy
States; and enjoyed. until now. as We enjoy Il
fresh air or the sunlight, scarce needing the bles
ings they are, and little dreaming that we ma
one day re deprived of them
What is our Federal Union worth? Ask rath
(for one question is a paraphrase of the othe
what is lite worth?-ffe and all that makes Ii
worth having? What is it worth to maintain i
violate security to person and propertyl to enj'
uninterrupted peace and prosperity at home, a
knowledged power and consideration abroa
There is not constitutional safe guard TO hum
liberty, wrtIng six centuries since by the Engli
Barons from King John, and since developed al
matured and consolidated, from age TO age, fin
by slow and sturdy effort in Great Britain. the
more boldly and rapidly in this New World
there is not a right or privilege. private or poll
cal. which has been won from arbitrary rule, ba
from the date Of Magma Charta and down 20 &
present hour, that is not placed in imminent je
pardy from that day forth, If come it must, VIII
these COnfeserated States shall finally dissol
their political connection, never more to be I
united.
Is this Imagination? Is it exaggeraton2
no such reirograde movement possible IN I
course of civiizafion2 Is il thing unexa
pied, that brave and powerful people, rear
in the love of freedom, should prove recrea
to their principles and relapse into anarchy
absolutism7 Such Is not the lesson of histOi
All past experience teaches, indeed, that this j:
world of constant progress; that in the aggrega
the human race is advancing from ignorance a
strife and misrule TO intelligence and peace a
social order. and that for mankind, as a who
there is no retrogressiOn- But be must have re
history to little profit, who knows not, OF fails
bear in mind, that though the march of civilii