The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-01-15
THE DAY AND IT'S MEMORIES

have been OF legal age during the past TWO
years. Those born midway the war of the re-
bellion will vote in the election next Novem-
to-day have no personal recollection of the
war, or if they have it is a very inadequate
one. Men of thirty years of age now were but
lads of eleven at the time of the surrender at
Appomattox, and those of thirty-fve were but
sixteen, and consequently could have taken
no active part in that great drama of
civil strife. To the latter class there are, of
course, many recollections of the stirring
events that made the early sixties memorable,
but they were not old enough at the time to
fully appreciate the revolution in sentiment
and in politics that was working out on South
ern battle fields. Neither could they under
stand the import of the part played by our
War Governor, nor the results that hinged on
Indiana. Governor Morton was made for the
times, as well as by the times. But for the
war of the rebellion he might have been
lost to history, but through that war
and the part he took in it, he has won a place
that cannot be lost. In all the great bulwark
thrown up against the South, against treason,
rebellion and slavery, Indiana was the weak
spot in the walls, the breach in which the
deadliest peril lay. The State was honey
combed by reasonable organizations pledged
to the overthrow of the State government and
the final alignment of Indiana on the side of
the South. The Democratic party, hostile to
federal supremacy, and the friend
of slavery as the cornerstone of
the Southern wing of the party,
in public decried the war and in secret plotted
against the loyal citizens and the State gov
eminent of Indiana. The double duty of
guarding against invasion and of holding in
check Democratic ~conspirators devolved upon
Governor Morton. That he succeeded in the
herculean task stamped him as a character on
the same plane with the leaders of armies, and
made him conspicuous among the mighty men
of the age,
The renaissance of Indiana dates from Janu-
airy, 1861, since which time the State and its
in the American sisterhood of States. From
a position among the humblest, Indiana has
advanced to an equality with the best. Her
citizens have been freed from the. contempt
and derision that once attached to the appella-
ton fHoosier,F and are now among the fore
most of those who mold national politics.
Indiana, in saving herself from the treason of
some of her citizens, while at the same hour
of peril sending a hundred and fifty regiments
to the front, did proportionately more
than any other State in the Union.
1t is difficult for the new generation to realize
all this. 1t is as though a volcano had burst
forth, sweeping the land with lame and
smoke, sinking headlands here and raising
continents from out the sea. The beholder,
with the heat in his face and the ground rock
ing under his feet, who saw these mighty con
~vulsions for himself, doubtless had something
like a commensurate idea of the magnitude of
the political revolution; and from his expert
ence then can grasp the things that
followed therefrom. But to him who
must depend upon the pages of history for his
information and inspiration it is no easy task
to grasp the events of the past quarter of a
century. The national fabric, rent in twain
by civil war, has been knitted together; the
crime of human slavery no longer disgraces
the land; the nation is more prosperous than
ever, and the people more closely united.
With the exception of the obstruction offered
by the malcontents who murderously
refuse a free ballot to all citi-
zens alike, the machinery of gov
eminent runs smoothly, The nation, purged
of its iniquities, has made immense strides in
trade and wealth. The resources of the coun-
try have been developed, industry has been
wisely fostered, and internal improvements
have been accomplished on an unprecedented
scale. If the voters who have come to mans
estate since these marvellous changes have
been wrought out of the chaos of internecine
war shall learn as well by study what was
burned into the mind and conscience of the
older generation, the war shall not have been
in vain.
With the same solemn conservation to the
best interests of the republic as was made by
those who died that the nation might live, the
American people should be quick in every pa
triotic impulse and maintain an uncompro-
missing hostility toward every movement cal
culated to weaken or to destroy what has been
bought at such fearful price. Free speech