Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1863-07-20

/ / have come 10 preside az tnls Iueeune, az IVW
bidding. permit me to say that no command less
imperative than your wish on such an occ ision.
would have brought ne here; and / trust that IN
view of the great aggregation of personal rela
tions which thirty years Of manhood life have
formed between US, YOU will recognize in this
fact a warm reciprocation, on my part, OF the
respect and affection which, in all that time,
| have never failed 10 find on yours. lap
plause.
We meet on the anniversary of a day hallowed
by solemn memories. and sancti6ed as that of the
birth of the American Union. The Declaration
of Independence laid the foundation of our po
ltieal greatness in the two fundamental ideas of
the absolute Independence OF the American peo-
pie and of the sovereignty of their respective
States. Under that standard our wise and heroic
forefathers fought the battle of the Revolution;
under that they conquered. In this spirit they
established the Union. having the conservative
thought ever present to their minds, OF the origi-
nal sovereignty and independence of the several
States. all with their diverse institutions. inter-
ests opinions and habits. to be maintained intact
and secure, by the reciprocal stipulations and
mutual compromises of the Constitution. They
were master builders, who reared up the grand
structure of the Union, that august temple be
meath whose dome three generations have en-
joyed such blessings of civil liberty as were never
before vouchsafed by Providence to man; that
temple before whose altar you and / have not
only bowed with devout and grateful hearts, but
where, with patriotic vows and sacrifices, we
have so frequently consecrated ourselves to the
protection and maintenance of those lofty COL
umns of the Constitution by which it was upheld.
No visionary enthusiasts we're they, dreaming
vainly Of the impossible uniformity OF some wild
Utopin, of their own imaginations. No despeI-
ate reformers were they, madly bent upon
schemes which, if cOnsummated, could only re-
suit in general confusion, anarchy and chaos.
Oh, mol High hearted, but sagacious and practi
cal statesmen they were, who saw society as a
living fact, not as a troubled vision; who knew
that national power consists in the recoucilement
Of diversities of institutions and interests, not
their conflict and deliberations; and who saw that
variety and adaptation of parts are the necessary
elements of all there is sublime and beautiful in
the works of art or of nature.
Majestic were the solid foundations, the mass
i've masonry, the columned ~loftiness of that mag
ni6cent structure of the Union. Glorious was
the career of prosperity and peace and power
upon which. from its very birthday, the Ameri-
can Union entered, AS with the assured march of
the conscious offspring of those giants of the
Revolution.
Such was the Union, as conceived and admin
is;ered by Washington and Adams, by Jefferson,
and Madison, and jackson. Such, | say, 1as the
Union, ere the evil times befell us; ere the mad
ness of sectional hatreds and animOsities pos.
sessed us; ere, in the third generation, the all
comprehensive patriotism of the Fathers had died
! out and given place to the passionate emotions
of narrow and aggressive sectionalism. The
Eastern States covered the sea with their ships,
the land with their Iarms and their manufactures;
so did the middle Atlantic States. with addition
to their mineral wealth of coal and iron; while
the Southern States, with their rich. soft climate
and ~congenial soil. raised up those great staples
of cotton. tobacco, sugar, rice, corn, which are
the life of and manufactures; and the
vast regions of the West grew to be the granaries
of Europe and America: and still further on was
revealed the land Of gold and silver, on the re
mote shores of the Pacific.
These were the material elements of our ma
tional power. each State with its difference Of in
terests, CO operating with the others to constitute
one harmonious whole. And so the various Eu
ropean races co-existing here. though differing in
blood, religion, temper, the Protestant and the
Catholic, the Puritan and the Cavalier; yet, by
their very difference of character, afforded the
mental and moral element of the power of thu
Union.
Gloriously sublime above all the history record;
of national greatness, was the spectacle which
the Union exhibited to the world, so long as tn,
true spirit of the Constitution lived in the hearts
of the people, and the government was the gov
eminent of men reciprocally respecting one an
others rights of States, each moving. planet
like, in the orbit of its proper place in the 6rma
ment of the Union. Then we were the mode
Republic of the world, honored, loved. or feareC
where we were not loved, respected abroad, peace
full and happy at home. No American either
was then subject to be driven into exile for opin
ions sake or arbitrarily arrested and incarcerateC
in military hastiles-even as he may now be-no
for acts or words of imputed treason. but If he do
but mourn in silent sorrow over the desolation o
his country: no embattled hosts of American
were then wasting their lives and resources il
sanguinarv civil strife; no suicidal and patricida
civil war then swept like a raging tempest o
death over the stricken homesteads and wailiny
cities of the Union.
Oh, that such a change should have come owe
our country in a dav. as it were-as if all men il
every State of the Union, north and south. cas-
and west. we're suddenly smitten with hOmiclda
madness. and ''the custom of fell deeds" render
ed as familiar as if it were a part of our inbOrl
nature: as il an a%venging angel had been suffer
ed by Providence to waive a sword of hamin!
fire above our heads to convert so many millions
of good men. living together in b%rotherly love
into insensible beings. ~savagely bent on the de
struction of themselves and of each other. ant
leaving but a smouldering ruin of condagratiol
and of blood in the place of our once blesset
Union
enGeayOr sometimes TO close nv ears TO tn
sounds. and nv ewes to the sights of woe. and Il
ask myself whether all this can be-to inquire
which is true, whethe: the past happiness an'
prosperity of my country are but the ~hatterin!
vision of a happy sleep. or its present misery an'
desolatiOn haply the delusion of some disturbed
dream One or the other seems incredible anC
impossible; but alasl the stern truth can not b.
dispe!ied from our minds.
Can you forget-ought | especially be expected
to forget those not remote days i'm the history o.
our country, when its greatness and glory sheC
the reflection at least of their rays Upon all on
lives, and thus enabled us To read the lesson o
our fathers, and their Constitution in the light o
their principles and their deeds? Then, war wa
conducted only against the foreign enemy, anC
not in the spirit and purpose of prosecuting non
combatant populations. nor of burning undefen
ded towns or private dwellings, and wasting thu
fields Of the husbandman. or the workshops o.
the artisan, but of s~ubduing armed hosts in tn,
field. Then, the Congress of the United States
was the great Council of the whole Union, anx
ious to promote the interests and consult the hon
or and just pride of all the States, seeing no pow
er beyond the law, and d~evoutly obedient to the
commands of the Constitution.
How il all this changed And why2 Hav,
we not been told, in this very place, not tive
weeks ago, by the voice Of an authoritative ex
positor; do we not all know that the cause of oul
~calamities is the vicious intermeddling of toe
many of the citizens of the Northern States will
the constitutional rights of the Southern States
co operating with the discontents Of the people q
the States? Do we not know that the disregard
of the Constitution, and of the security it affords
to the rights of the States and of individuals hai
been the cause OF the calamity which our cOuntr,
is called to undergo? And now, war. war, in il
direst shape; war, such as it makes the blood rui
cold to read Of it in the history Of other nations
and of other times; war on the scale ef a million
men in arms; war. horrid rs that of barbaric ages
RACES in several of the States of the Inion am