Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1862-09-15
Selected Nlistfllanp.
From the London Morning Post, Aug 18th, Mnisterial
American Dem mOraIization-The
washington War Meeting.

If any one wishes to see what frightful ex-
tent fratricidal war can demoraliZe people. let
him read the accounts, furnished by the American
papers. of the great war meeting held at Wash
ingtOn the beginning Of this month"; under the
auspices of President Lincoln. The savases in
the vet uncvilized parts of America hold war
meetings and eternal enmty and utter ex-
termination their enemies. The ancient
republics did the same; but that great pro-
gressive nation, proud of its rapid growth, its
liberty, its civilization. and its religion. should
far forget itself to rival the wild Indian in
savageness, and be so far behind its age as to
have recourse to popular passion instead of pa
trOtsm, and to call in the fury of the mob in aid
of the policy of the Government, as the Greeks
did three thousand sears ago is a spectacle which
we had not thought to witness in the middle of
the nineteenth century. Yet what wild tribe
from the Red River or the South Sea Islands,
dancing round its fires, and goading each other
to fury by cries and curses, could exceed in de-
liberate cruelty and implacabity the citizens of
Washington on the occasion to which refer2
The resolutions passed were studiously inhuman,
and we're as disgracefu to the country as the
sembly itself inconsistent with the first prin-
ciples OF good government.
war meeting such as that reported is an an
Omaly in any constitutionally governed State.
What must be thought of a Government which,
in time of war, has no resource but TO collect
mobs, and after exciting them with speeches full
of blood and fire, to plunge them while in the
burning heat of passion to extremites of policy
and cruelty which makes the rest of the world
stand aghast in disgust and consteInatOn? Wher-
ever power may reside ia popular Government,
surely the conception and direction of policy
ought to rest in the Executive. But these war
meetings presuppose the direct contrary. They
appeal to those who have not the power to reflect,
the wisdom to guide, the materials for forming
sound judgment. any responsibility to a supe-
rior power. The consequence is that the great
question which must sooner or later be enter
tained-whether the people of the South shall be
recognized as independent, or extermnated
traitors-is not only indefinitely postponed, but
hopelessly prejudiced. The effect is most disas-
trOus. The voice of reason may be heard in
councils and Cabinets A few men solemnly de
liberating under deep sense of the gravity of the
questions of issue, and of their own perilous re-
spOnsibility have some chance of arriving at what
is right, and Of seeing the true way out of fright
ful complication. But the conscience of crowds
is nowhere Their judgment counts for nothing
The Government that is constitutiOnally bound TO
refer its measures in detail to a mob is founded
on wrong principle, and must give way the
base. The Government that does so when it is
not so bound is helpless and incapable; its days
are numbered and its end not far off.