The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-07-21
MR.. RI.AINE,s LETTER.

rather than long The people will know what
the Republican administration intends as far
as its executive head is concerned, touching
every public interest, domestic and foreign
This is letter that needs no argument and
carries its explanation with it. Mr.. Blaine
knows our government and people as Glad
stone does England's He writes as both his
torian and statesman. There is no tinge of
sophistry; it is fact and common sense. As to
arrangement and general literary excellence,
it will rank with the great state papers of any
past presidential campaign. No Republican
should fail to read it and reread it; it is a
tower of strength. Mr.. Blaine writes with
the confidence of statesman who has'faith
in his party. We're he in the presidential
chair, and the present letter message to
Congress, its matter and method could not be
better conceived or better adapted to the in
terests and necessities of the people.
of the United States. Mr.. Blaine's
long service in Congress and Cabinet, his
acuteness Of observation his great reason and
Judgment, all stood him in hand in perform
ing this nominal '1etter of acceptance" but
really mastery discussion Of all that affects
American polity. It is full of epigrams.
There are sentences in it not only fitting to
go as newspaper headings and on campaign
banners but worthy of craving on the cor
ner-stones Of the Republic. Truth is never
old, and in restating the principles Of eco
nomics, of justice, of religious privilege, of
the sacredness of the ballot, Mr.. Blaine does
not fall into platitudes, but states them with
the vigor and freshness of profound belief
and constant conviction. Of the Mormon
question he says;
Religious liberty is the right of every citi-
zen of the republic. Congress is forbidden by
/ the Constitution to make any law respecting
| the establishment Of religion OF prohibiting
the free exercise thereof For a century, un-
/ der this guarantee, Protestant and Catholic,
Jew and gentle, have worshiped God accord
! ing to the dictates of conscience. But re-
| ligious liberty must not be perverted to the
1 justification of offenses against the law.
| The sacredness and unity of the family must
be preserved as the foundation Of all civil gov
| eminent as the source of orderly administra-
ton, as the surest guarantee of moral purity.
The law does not interfere with
| what man believes; it takes cognizance only
Of what he does. AS citizens, the Mormons
are entitled to the same civil rights as others,
and to these they must be confined. Polygany
can never receive national sanction or tolera-
| ton by admitting the community that up
| holds it as a State in the Union. Like others,
! the Mormons must learn that the liberty of
the individual ceases where the rights of So
ciety begin.
| As against the feudal system of landowner
ship which England still fosters, Mr.. Blaine
says:
"The strength of the Republic is increased
| by the multiplication of land-holders.
| One hundred thousand acres of land in the
hands of one man is far less profitable to the
| Nation in every way than when its ownership
/ is divided among 1000 men. 1t is but
fair that the public land should be disposed
of only to actual settlers and to those who are
citizens of the Republic or willing to become
/ soD
f'The United States" says Mr.. Arnold,
have the English liberty of bequest but
they have no feudal past and were not settled
! by class with feudal habits and ideas; the
United States have the republican sentiment
for equality" This feeling of the .'repub
lican sentiment for equality" which Mr.. Ar
mold commends and which secures for our peo-
pie as fair a division of estates as the Code
Napoleon, the actual law of France, does for
the children of French land holders, runs
throughout Mr. Blaine's letter, and is amarked
feature of it. No English earls or capitalists
should be allowed to carry. the oppress-
i've features Of feudalism into
the settlement Of our great West
and Northwest, nor will they if the spirit Of
our land law is carried out, as was intended,
on the basis of homesteads for the people of
the United States
OF the sacredness of the ballot there are
ringing things. He who corrupts suffrage
strikes at the very root Of free government
He is the arch-enemy of the Republic But
it is useless to attempt to compass the various
subjects Of Mr. Blaine's letter. Let every
Republican paste it in his hat; let him send
copies to his neighbors who have overlooked
it. Every young man should read it; he
should read it for its history, its philosophy
and, if business man, for its sound CONNER
cial policy.
It is just such letter as we expected Mr..
Blaine to write fair and judicial, non mar
tisan, historical, hopeful; an American writing
to Americans and not ignoring the principles
that have made the good land which the
Lord, our God, hath given u.s. that which, in
the providence of God, it has become.