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

their invention to their wealth their arts, their i'm
dustry. But in the institutions aud methods OF
gOvernment-in civil prudence courage or policy
in statesmanship, in the art Of making oil small
town great city'-in the adjustment OF authority
Iiberty-in the of and strength
in peace, Of force aud obedience in war-we have
found nothing TO recall from the course OF our
fathers, nothing to add to safety or TO aid our
progress in it, So far from this all notifications OF
European politics accept the popular principles OF
system. and tend TO our model The move
ments toward equality OF representation ehiarge'
ment of the suffrage, and public education in Eng
land-the restoration OF unity in ltaly-the confed
actual Republic in France-the unsteady throne Of
spain-the new liberties of Hungary-the constant
gain to the peoples share in government throughout
EurOpe-all tend one way, the way pointed out in
the Declaration Of our Independence
The care and zeal with which people cherish
and nvigorate the primary supports aud deences OF
their sovereignty have all the answering force
and confidence Of instincts. The community and
publicity of education the charge and as an ins
tuition of the state, is firmly imbedded in the wants
aud the desires OF the people. Common schools are
rapidly extending through the only part Of the coun-
try which had been shut against them, and follow
close upon the footsteps Of its new liberty to en-
tighten the enfranchsed Freedom OF conscience
easily stamps out the first sparkles Of persecution,
and snaps green wthes the first bonds of spiritual
domination The sacred Oracles OF their religion the
people wisely hold in their keeping the keys OF
religious liberty, and refuse to be begued by the voice
of the wisest eharmer into loosing their grasp
Freedom from military power and the maintenance
Of that arm Of government in the peoples trust In
| their adequacy soldiers, when their duty as
II
to the state; these have gained force by the
perience Of foreign and civil war, and standing
army is remOter possibility for this nation, in its
present or prospective greatness than in the days OF
| But in the freedom Of the press, aud the univer-
salty of the suffrage, maintained and exerc sed
| to-day throughout the length and breadth OF the
| land find the most conspicuous and decisive evi-
dence of the unspent force of the institutions OF lib
erty aud the Jealous guard of its principal defen-
ses These indeed are the great agencies and en-
| gines of the peoples sovereignty. They hold the
relations 10 the vast democracy of modern So
ciety that che persuasiOns of the orators and the
| personal voices Of the assembly did in the narrow
| confines Of the Grecian States The laws the Gus
| toms the impulses, and sentiments of the people
have given wider and wider range and license to the
aCitatiOns Of the press multiplied and more frequent
:asious for the exercise Of the suffrage larger and
larger communication of its franchise The progress
of hundred years finds these prOdigiOus activities
in their fullest play-ucessant and all-powerful-in
dispensabe in the habits of the people, aud lmpreg-
nable in their affections Their public service, and
their subordinatiOn to the public safety, stand III
their play upon another and in their freedom
thus mali tanned. Neither could long exist in true
vigor in our system without the other. Without the
| wltchful, Omnipresent and indomitable energy OF
the press the suffrage would langush, would be
subugated by the corporate power of the leglcns OF
placemen which the administration of the affairs of
| great nation imposes upon il, and fall prey to
that ''vast patronage which,, we are told 'dstrac-
ted, corrupted, aud finally subverted the Roman
Republic" On the other hand, if the impressions of
the press upon the opinions and passions Of the PEG
pie found no settled and ready mode of their working
out, through the frequent and peaceful suffrage the
people would be driven TO satisfy their displeasure
at government their love of change to the coarse
methods of barricades and batteries.
We cannot then, hesitate to declare that the orig
inal principles Of equal society and popular govern
ment still inspire the laws, live in the habits Of the
people, and animate their purposes and their hopes.
These principles have not lost their spring elas
ITCHY They have suced for all the methods Of gov
eminent in the past feel no fear for their adequa-
| cy in the future. Released from the tasks and
burdens Of the formative PERIOD these principles and
methods be directed with undivided force to the
Ia aref q
steady virtues of administration The feebleness OF
| crowding the statute-books with nnexecuted laws
the danger of power outgrowing evading response
blty; the rashness and hckleness OF temporary ex-
pedents the constant tendency by which parties de-
cline into factions aud end in conspiraces all these
mschifs beset all governments, aud are part of the
life Of each generation. To deal with these evls-tht
| tasks and burdens of the immediate future-the ma
tiOn needs other than the principles and
| examples of our past history supply. These princl
ples these examples Of fathers the strength
aud safety of our state to-day; ''Moribus aRtquis
| stat res Romano, UrisgHe"
| Unity, liberty power, prosperity-these are oui
| possessions to-day. Our territory is safe agains
foreign Dangers its completeness dissuades from fur
| ther ambition to extend it, and its rounded sym
metry dscourages all attempts to dismember it. NJ
divs on into greatly unequal parts would be toler-
able to either No imaginable union of interests oil
passions large enough to include one-haf the coun
try but must embrace much more The madness o.
partition into numerous and feeble fragments coulC
| proceed only from the hopeless degradation OF the
| people, and would form but an incident IN genera
| ruin.
The spirit of the nation is at the highest-its tri
umph over the Unborn, inbred perils Of its cOnsttu
ton has chased away all fears, justified all hopes
| and with universal joy greet this day. We have
| not proved unworthy of a great ancestry; we hav,
had the virtue to uphold what they so wisely, 81
firmly established With these proud possessions o
the past, with powers matured with principles set
tied, with hab formed, the nation passes il
from preparatory growth to responsible development
Of character, and the steady performance of duty
What labors await it, what trials shall attend it
what triumphs human nature, what glory for it.
SELF are prepared for this people in the coming
fury, we may not assume 10 foretell. Zone genera
tion passeth away, aud another generation cometh
hope that these constituted liberties shall be
maintained to the unendug line Of posterity and
r so long as the earth itself shall endure
| In the great procession of nations, in the grea
march OF humanity hold our place. Peace is our
duty, peace is our policy. In its arts, its labors
and its victories, then, find scope fo
| tions, renown enough for all love and
} fame. In the august presence of so many ma
tons, which, by their representatives have done Vi
the honor to be witnesses of commemorative JOY
and graduation, and in sight of the collected evil
dences Of the greatness of their civilization with
which they grace our celebration, we may we'll con
fess how much we fall short, how much we have L
make up in the cumulative competitions of the times
Yet even in this presence and with just deferenc
10 the age the power the greatness Of the other
tons of the earth, do not fear to appeal to thu
opinion of mankind, whether, as we point to ou
land, our people and our laws, the contemplation
should not inspire us with lovers enthusiasm FOL
our country.
| Time makes no pauses in his march, Even while
speak the last hour of the receding is replaced by tn
first hOnr Of the coming century, and reverence TO
the past gives to the joys and hopes, the activi
ties and tie responsibilities of the future hundre,
hence the piety of that generation will recall
the ancestral glory which celebrate to-day anC
il with the plaudits of vast population which
| no man number BY the mere circumstance o
tkis periolcity generation will be In the minds
IN the hearts, on the lips OF our countrymen at thu
next Centennial commemmoration in comparison
with their character and condition and with thu
great founders of the nation. What shall they say
us? How shall they estimate the part we bear in thu
unbroken line of the nations progress? And SO on
in the long reach of time, forever aud forever, GU
place ia the secular roll of the ages must Away
bring Into observation aud criticism. Under thi
double trust then, from the past and for the future
TAI heed To nnr while IL Is calles