The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-07-26
THE TRUTH OF HISTORY.
What Is the Record of the Country from the
Year 1864 to 1882


What Is the Record of the Country from the
Year 1864 to 1882
Indianapolis News 1ndependentl.
That pessimism which comes with dotage, par
donable though pitiable which always puts the
golden age in the past, as mankind has ever been
prone to do-which laments for ever the sigood
I'D days, Dir. Tilden shows that he is not supe-
sior TO- and in this spirit he struck the keynote
Of what seems to be in danger of becoming
Democratic jeremiad. for it was repeated in the
Democratic platform, and it was repeated by
Mr.. Hendricks IL his speech last Saturday night.
A specimen of this IS the following from Mr..
Tilden's letter of declination:
Twenty years of continuous naLadministration
under the demorazing influences of intestine and
of bad finance have infected the whole government
system of the United States with the caneereus
Roths of false constructions and corrupt practices
Powerful classes have acquired pecunary interests in
official abuses and the moral standards of the people
have been impaired.
Sober second thought a moments calm re-
view will not assent to this. The evil that has
been done has been unduly magnifed-the good
unduly dwarfed When future ages shall
read of this period, will they read of it as we
read of the decline and fall of Rome. as an era
Of corruption and decay2 We cannot think SO.
In and Of this period as we are lacking perspect-
ive.and hence deceived as to true proportion, the
great good that has been accomplished stands in
pro portions so colossal, that it seems to us, no
score of years of history records glory so bright
and enduring as has crowned America in this
twenty years in which Mr.. Tilden and Mr. Hen
bricks, and the makers of the Democratic plat
form find nothing that is not to be deplored and
eKecrated Why, this twenty years of America
has been veritably what Bartholdi idealzes in
his statue of Liberty EnlighteniDg the
World Is it possible for an American
heart to be so chilled to any warm pulsation as
not feel that the work America has done in this
twenty years is such as stands to the honor and
glory of no nation that the sun shines upon?
1064-lSS4 What do those twenty years meant
They mean a country grown from a little over
thirty millions of people to nearly sixty millions
They mean continent opened to civilization,
and. literally, the desert made to blossom like
the rose. They mean a national progress and
prosperity absolutely without parallel in the an
mails of time They mean@4. O0O, 900 of human be-
iDgs Just freed from bondage endowed with the
privileges of citizenship and given an opportu-
nifty to become men made in the image Of their
Creator. They mean the ending of one
of the bloodiest wars in history,
the melting away of armies of over
a million men into private life, with
out a jar or NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. almost If
not quite unparalleled in human history. They
mean the leaders of the wickedest rebellion since
satan made war in Heaven, treated with a
magnanimity almost appalling absolutely with
ont precedent in the records of nations. Not
one Of them punished, except by the peoples
forbearance- They mean almost literally the
realization Of that which Lincoln asked for in
the very beginning Of that period when he said:
With malice toward none with charity for all with
6rnnoss in the right God gives tho right,
lct finish the work we are in, to bind the Ma
tons wounds 70 care for him who shall have borne
tue battle and for his widow and his orphans to do
an which may achieve and cherish just and hstng
peace among ourselves and with all nations
We appeal 70 history. We appeal to the con