The Indianapolis sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1880-1904, 1885-01-11
JUST A CENTURY AGO.
How Cur Ancettors Lived After the Kew
olutton.
Boston Globe.1

HOW 0uG SuCettDTs Lived AFTER tue Kew
o~lution.
Boston Globe.1
a woman ali in white sat peacefully aud
meditstively in the Old South Church yes
teTday. Her chair was placed on a level
with the heads Of some hundreds OF people.
and she seemed TO smile gently over them
and bless them es she looked across the room
at a man standing on the platform directly
opposite her. He was o large man with a big
head, and he didn't seem to mind Harrist
Martinesu's marble stare q bit IS he talked
to the intelligent men and women. young
and old, who filed the door OF the. ancient
Westinghouse. The TACT that he vas ten
minutes late seemed q matter OF perfect in
difference to him, and, without q word of
apology, he began as interesting q lecture as
ever he gave on American history. 1t was
doubly interesting because it was about the
days just a century ago. and IN these CEN
tennial yearssuch able discourses come home
to the nearer with double force.
1t is not too much to say, declared the
lecturer, Philosopher Historian John Fiske,
that the five years following the peace OF
1888 Wss the most critical period OF our his
tory. 1t was more critical than the days
after the close OF the Rebellion in 1866. The
men OF 1883 dwelt in o long, struggling
series OF republics f~ringing the Atlantic
coast. The length Of the war and ius worst
bardships had been due to Reorganization.
No strong sentiment had grown up in favor
OF union, but a very strong sentiment had
| sprung up in favor of local self-government.
George III. believed we should get into such
q snsrl that many of the States would re-
| pent and beg on their knees to be taken back
again.
Tn people in the United States were all
English IN speech, and mainly English in
blooc. The governments OF the thirteen
States were essentially similar, and the peo-
pie OF "a understood thoroughly the
! government OF the other. Yet is Is hardly
J possible that our country have held together
| without the railroad. Railroads and tele-
graphs have made
OUR COUNTRY MoRE sSUS X CONTACT
than Switzerland was In the Middle Ages,
or New England q century ago. When the
! Oregon bill was discussed In 1873 the idea Of
our having anything TO do with so remote q
region as Oregon was highly ridiculed in
Congress. Why said 8 gentleman named
! McDufie, lit will take ten months to gel
from there 20 the District of Columbis and
back again." To-day one can 60 quicker to
the capital oil Oregon than John Hancock
could 90 rom Boston to Philadelphia.
The thirteen States had worked in concert
for only nine years, but the several state
| governments had been in existence since ths
settlement OF the country, and were looked
upon with the most intense loyalty. Durine
the war the colonies, with the exception o.
Rhode Island and Connections, had re
modelled their governments, q by nc
means IN q revolutionary way. The Amer
lean revolution was the most conser vativs
revolution that ever took place. Il va.
thoroughly English. The various State gov
ernments were repetitions on a small scale
OF what was supposed to be the triplsx gov
rnmen of England. In all the thirteen
States the common law OF England re-
NAMED ia force as it does to-day, except
where modified by statute. It was Georgis
that first set those pernicious or.
amples of ~electing judges for short terms. q
practice which has brought justice to such
degradation in many instances. and will vi.
tInately have to be restored. Slowly and r.
regularly the states drifted tovsrd universal
J - 90