The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1876-07-12

The English experiment TO make a commonwealth
without sinking its foundations into the firm bed of
popular sovereignty, necessarily failed. It's exam
pie and its lesson unquestionably of the great
est service in SOLDERING the spirit of English reform
in government, the solid establishment Of consti
tutional monarchy, on the expulsion Of the Stuarts
aud in giving courage to the statesmen of the Amer
oan revolution to push to the solid estabshme
republican government with the consent of the peo-
die as lis every day working force
But if the English experiment stumbled in its
logic by not going far enough, the French philoso-
pliers came to greater disaster by over-passng the
lines which mark the limits of human authority
human liberty, when they undertook to redress the
disordered balance between people and rulers, and
renovate the government of France. To the wrath
OF the people against kings and priests they gave
free course not oLly the overthrow of the estab
lishment Of the church and state, but 20 the de-
structiou of religion and society. They defed mar,
and thought to raise tower of mans building of
old, the plain of Shnsr, which should overtop the
battlements of heaven, aud frame constitution OF
human affairs that should displace the providence OF
bition. And out of all its evil have come the
salutary checks and discipline in freedom, which
have brought passionate and fervid France TO the
scheme and frame Of a sober and firm republic like
our own, and, we may hope, durable.
How much, then, hung upon the decision of the
great day we celebrate, and upon the wisdom and
the will Of the men who fixed the immediate,
and, if so, the present fortunes of this people Ii
the body, the spirit the texture, of political
life, had not been collectively declared on this
day, who can be bold enough 10 say when and
how independence, liberty, union, would have
been combined, confirmed, assured to this people?
Behold now, the greatness OF our debt TO this an
cestry, and the fountain, as from a rock smitten
in the wilderness, from which the stream of this
nations growth and power takes its source. For
IL is not alone in the memory of their wisdom and
virtues that the founders of a state transmit and
perpetuate their influences in its lasting for
tunes, and shape the character and purposes OF
It's future rulers I'm the birth of societies, says
Montesquieu, 'it is the chiefs of state that make
its Institutions and afterward il is these insti-
buttons that form the chiefs of the state''
And what was this people and what their traits
and training that could Justify this congress OF
their great men in promulgating the profound
views OF government and human nature which
the Declaration embodies and expecting their ac-
been disciplined, and how their spirits prepared.
that the new-launched ship. freighted with all
their fortunes, could be trusted to their guidance
with no other chart or compass than these alb
stract truths? What warrant was there for The
confidence that upon these plain precepts of equal
Ivy Of right community of interest, reciprocity OF
discard Egyptian mystery, and Hebrew reverence,
and Grecian subtlety, and Roman strength dis
pense, even, with English traditions of
"Primogenity and due of birth,
Provocative OF age, crowns, sceptres laurels."
To these questions the answer was ready and
sufficient The delegates to this immortal assembly,
speaking for the whole country, and for the re-
spectve colonies, their constituents might well say:
what we are, such are this people. We are not
here as volunteers, but their representatives We
have been designated by no previous official station,
taken from no one employment or condition of life
chosen from the people at large because they
assemble in person, and selected because they know
oursentiments and we theirs the mOmentous ques-
ton which our deliberations are to decide They
know that the result of all hangs the intelligence
the courage the constancy the spirit of the people
themselves. If these have risen to a height, and
grown TO a strength and unanimity, that our judg-
men measures adequate to the struggle for indie
pendence, and the whole of their liberties they
viii accept that issue and follow that lead. They
have taken up arms TO maintain their rights, and
will not lay them down till those rights assured
What the nature and sanctions of this security
to be they understand must be determined by united
cOunsels and concerted action. These they have
deputed us to settle and proclaim and this have
done to-day What we have declared the people will
avow and confirm Henceforth it is to this people
war for the defense of their united independence
against its overthrow by foreign OF that war
there can be but one issue.
And for the rest, to the constitution OF the new
state its species is disclosed by its existence The
condition of the people is equal they have the habits
of freemen and possess the institutions Of liberty
When the political connection with the parent state
is dissolved they viii be selfgoverning and self
governed Of necessity. As all governments in this
world, good and bad, liberal despotc, of men,
by men, and for men, this new state. having no
castles or ranks, or degrees discriminating among
men in this population, becomes at once govern
ment of the people, by the people, and for the people
So IL must remain, unless foreign conquest or
domestic usurpaiion shall change it. Whether it
shall be just, wise, prosperous government, il
must be a popular government, and correspond with
These feelings, common to the whole population,
were not of sudden origin and were not romantic,
nor had they any tendency to evaporate in noisy
boasts run wild in air~drawn projects. The diff
ference between equality and privilege, between civil
rights and caprici0us favors, between freedom Of
conscience and persecution for conscience sake,
were not matters of most debate or abstract coDvic
ton with our countrymen. The story OF these bat
ties Of our was the warm and living memory OF
their foreiathers share in them, for which, Ito
avoid insuerable grievances al home they had been
nv haaVa ~
They proposed to settle forever the question whether
such grievances sho ud possibly befal them OF their
pOsterity- They knew no plan simple, compre-
hensiye, sure to this end to solve all the
minor difficulties in the government Of society by a
radical basis for its source common field for its OPP
GRAFTON, aud authentic and deliberate method for
consulting aud enforcing the will Of the people as
the sole authority of the State.
By this wisdom they at least would shift, within
the sphere of government, the continuous warfare OF
human nature, on the field of good and evil, right
and wrong,
Between whose endless jar, justice resides
from conflicts of the strength of the many against
the craft of the few. They would gain the advantage
Of supplying the of the State the of
the people, and decide by the moral and intellectual
influences of instruction and prsuasion the issue of
who should make and who should administer the
laws This involved preteuoiOns of the perfection
of human nature, nor did IL assume that at other
times, or under other circumstances, they would
themselves have been capable of self-gOvernment;
that other people then were ever would be, so
CapaDe. InelT kuOWleuke Vi mduhluu suO"eu thom
that there would be faults and crimes long as
there men. Their faith taught them that this
corruptible would put interruption only when
this mortal should put on immortality. Neverthe-
less they believed in man and trusted in God, and
on these imperishable supports they thought they
might rest civil government, for people who had
these living conceptions wrought into their own
characters and lives.
And this people, of various roots and kindred of
the Old World-setted and transfused into their els
atlantic home into harmonious fellowship in the SEN
timents, the interests, the habits, the affections
which develop and sustain a love of country-were
committed to the common fortunes which should at
tend absolute trust in The primary relations be-
tween man aud his fellows and between man aud his
Maker. This Northern Continent of America had
been opened and prepared for the transportation OF
the full grown manhood of the highest civilization OF
the Old Word place where it could be free from
mixture collision with competing or hostile ee-
ments, and separated from the weakness and the bur
dens which it would leave behind. The impulses and
attractions which moved the emignaton and directed
it hither, various in form, yet had so much COM
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