Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1863-05-06

transfer TO our columns 10 day from the boston
Courier, is from the pen of President LORD, OF
Dartmouth College. No thoughtful person can
peruse it without conviction of the earnestness
and candor of the writer in his solemn warnings
to the people of the United States against the
wicked, athestic and demoralizing tendency Ot
the present times President LORD is a most pro-
found scholar and deep thinker. and general
circulation of his writings through the press
would, we believe, do much to create more
healthy public sentiment upon the morale of our
political troubles:
To the Editor of the Boston Courier
1t has been usual in this country, and especial
ly in the northern part of il, to affect resemb
lance to the people Of Israel on the side of dignity
and prerogative. But the resemblance is now
more striking on the other side; as when one of
the Prophets thus testified, in Gods name: "My
people are DESTROYED for lack of knowledge. Be-
cause thou hast forgotten the law of thy God,
will also forget thy children. As they were in
creased. so they sinned against me- therefore will
/ change their glory into shame"
The people of Israel had then reached their
highest stage of civilization. Their lack of
knowledge, therefore, was not general. but spe-
cfc. 1t consisted. as the Prophet explained. in
forge:fulness OF the law of their God-the or
ganic law-by which they had been constituted a
separate and distinct people. OF race also sepa-
rate and distinct and specially elevated, BY a
Divine order, above all Others. Their great in
crease and glory were sign of their culture. af
ter the order of those times. Ii was their cul-
ture and worldly glory that occasioned their apos-
tacy. In their conceit of higher wisdom, they
contemned that Divine wisdom which had found
ed and ruled them, not as they vainly imagined
for social and political e-eminence, but for the
higher ends which they overlooked, of moral
government. Consequently. their glory was
|
wealth was dismembered, and foundation was
laid for those domestic and foreign wars, captivi
ties and other wasting judgments which issued
at length, in their utter distranchsement and des
olation-when Japhet, according to prophecy,
took possession of the tents of Shem.
Parallel, thus far. in all important particulars
has been the history of the Japhetic nations
Our own country will not be an exception 10 the
general law of Providence. Cause and effect
have necessary. that is-a stated relation TO each
other, in every period. The government of God
is one, aud uniform 60 the end. ltdeserves the
most serious inquiry, whether the Japhetic ma
tions will not reach their catastrophe in part at
least through the insane attempts which they sre
making to reverse the decree of Heaven, pro
nounced at the re-peopling of the earth, for the
assertion and maintenance of moral Government,
and the better preservation of the distracted world
God must be supposed 70 know best how 10 order
the affairs of earth. To affect superior wis
dom. and set up "higher law" may precipitste
general Overturnings There Is no voice in his
word, and there has been none Ia the course of
his providence, which asserts the social and pO-
itical equality of all the races but the contrary
is everywhere sounded out in tones that no rev.
erent and thoughtful believer can misunderstood.
Every different utterance is merely human. 1t
comes of ''vain imsginatons;" and it remains to
-. .bott,o 49,, -
more authoritative and effecfual than the Divine
Hence the fears of so MANY of our most con
siGerate and patriotic men. They have seen.
with the increase of the people, growing irrev-
erance for the Divine authority. and instead of the
lessons of the Scripture, history and experience
gratultous substitution of merely speculative
corcets. In particular-they have seen on the
par: of the generality, increasing forgetfull-
ness of their organic law-the ordinance of God
for their guidance in the social state; forgetfull-
ness of the principles of Government on which
his providence founded them; and practical dis
esteem of the blessings of civil and religious LID
erty, which "A due observance of those principles
could not have failed 70 perpetuate. They have
seen, beyond the strife of general parties often
unreasonably. but not dangerously excited. part
of these States united under a common bond and
covenant. setting themselves. at leangth, against
another and weaker part. with bitter reproaches,
the disruption of social and ecclesiastical ties,
hostile legislation, injurious ensetS, and threats
of a worse Impending crises" They have seen
this geographical party organized. as expressed
by Rufus Choafe. "to take possession of the Gov.
ernment of the whole country" tor an ''irrepress-
be conflict with the domestic social and civil
institutions of the weaker section, resolved to
curtail it, overtly or imperceptibly. of privileges
and rights to which il constitu tionaly and in
cyOOd faith pptiflad and
of compromise
They have seen these encroachments vindica-
ted, fanaticallv, by the balancing forces of that
party. on the ground OF alleged "higher law
unknown to the Scripture, the Constitution. the
common sense and conscience OF mankind. They
have seen this geographical party, by the aid of
these fsnatical cohorts, appropriate the Govern
ment, and then the tug of war, on the one hand
to resist and on the other to maintain the unwar-
rantable power and its chmerical authority They
have seen the war presently carried on upon prin
ciples which had been disavowed and rejected at
its beginning and for objects and ends which the
Chief Mgistrate himself had beforehand pro-
nounced unconstitutional, inhuman and deStruct-
i've. They have seen the legislative and execu-
tive administrators of the Government, in their
supposed pentitude of authority. claiming 70 be
the Government ITSELF and putting out of the
pale of the Constitution and the laws the more
considerate men Of their own section of the coun
try. who could not. with fidelity to the organic
law, admit this claim, nor justify such deceptive
and dangerous policy. They have seen the
House of Congress of the United States. in order
to sustain this policy invest the Chief Magistrate
under the forms of law. with the attributes Of an
Eastern despot, giving him power unknown to
the Constitution, of statute. purse and sword,
over sovereign States, and over the persons, the
speech the press, the houses. the property and
lives of a people now forgetfu of their own his
tory. unconscious Of their chartered rights, their
duties and their dangers. and, unless corrected,
sure to fnl according TO all the laws of mind and
of moral government, and the precedents of his
tory, that they have sacrificed their blood bought
inheritance upon the alters OF ali intoxicated, via
dictive party spirit. and fanatcal idolatry. They
have seeli how many otherwise intelligent and
worthy citizens, blinded by speculative fallaces
and sectional animosites love to have it so, con-
tent for the sake of an ideal good which the
Scripture. history and experience pron0unces TO
be- in the present state of things. chimerical and
impossible to see the foundation of our social
edifice shaken and the glorious structure reared
upon it t0pplug te its fall. These things and
more they have seen. with the profoundest grief.
They are overwhelmed with fears at this popular
forgetfulness of the organic law: for they not
mindful of the government of God.
But hope yet mngles with their fears; Tor, rs
there were reactions and recoveries of the people
of Israel, so it may be with the people of this dis
tacted land. There already signs of such
reformation. or these. not the least is a return
ing spirit of inquiry after the forgotten principles
of the organic law, and corresponding purpose
to assert and maintain them, on Scriptural and
moral grounds, irrespectively Of party. while yet
our shattered edifce Is not utterly destroyed.
Through the great sufferings already endured,
and the greater dangers now so imminent. msuy.
long unconscious, are becoming convinced of
their mistakes, and are detecting the subtle fall
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