The national leader., 1889-09-14

talk the matter over, and settle it. as settle
| it they could, rather than the North pay in
| cost of war four billion seven hundred mil
hon dollars and the South pay four billion
| seven hundred and fifty million dollars, the
destroying angel leaving the first born dead
in so many houses all the way from the Pen
obscot to the Alabama. Ye aged men,
| whose sons fell in the strife do you not think
| that would have been better? Oh, yes! we
have come to believe, l think, in this coun-
try, that arbitration is better than battle.
l may be mistaken, but l hope that the
last war between Christian nations is ended
Barbarians may mix their war paint
! and Afghan and Zulu hurl poisoned arrows,
but / think Christian nations have
gradually learned that war is disaster
to victor as well as vanquished, and that
| almost anything bought by blood is
bought at too dear a price. I wish to
God this nation might be model of
Willingness for arbitration. No need of
killing another Indian. No need of
| sacrificing any more brave General Clusters.
Stop exasperating the red man. and there will
! be no more arrows shot out from the reserva-
| ton. A General of the United States army
in high repute throughout this land, and
! who, perhaps, has been in more Indian wars
than any other officer, and who has been
wounded again and again in behalf of our
Government in battle against the Indians,
told me that all the wars that had ever oc-
E, CURED between Indians and white men had
been provoked BY white men, and tnaU
was no exception to the rule. While we are
arbitrating with Christian nations, let us to-
ward barbarians carry ourselves IN a manner
unprovocative of contest.
inherit large estate, and the waters are
rich with fish, and the wo Ids are songful with
| birds. and my cornfields are silken and golden
| Here is my sisters grave. Out yonder un-
der that large tree, my father died. An IN
vader comes and proposes to drive me off
and take possession of my property. He
crowds me back, ne crowds me on, and
! crowds me into closer corner. and still
closer corner, until after a while l say:
| 'Stand back, don't crowd me any more, or
| I'll strike. What right have you to come
here and drive me off my premises? got this
| farm from my father, and he got it from
bis father What right have you to come
''Oh, know more than you do. | belong to
a higher civilization ] cut my hair shorter
| than you do | could put this ground to a
great deal better use than you do" And
| you keep crowding me back and crowding me
| on into closer corner and closer corner, I'M
! til one day l look around upon suffering fam
! lily. and fired by their hardships I hew you
in twain. Forthwith all the world comes
to your funeral to pronounce eulogiuln,
| comes to my execution to anathema-
tie me. You are the hero, [ am
| culprit. Behold the United States Govern
| red man has stood more wrongs than |
would, or you. We would have struck
sooner deeper That which is right in de
fense of Brooklyn home or a New York
| home is right in defense of g. home on top of
| the Rocky Mountains. Before this dwindling
red race dies completely out, I wish that this
! generation might by common justice, atone
| for the inhumanity of its predecessors In
the day of Gods judgment, I would rather
there be a blood-smeared Modoc than
a swindling United States officer on an In
dian reservation! One man was barbarian
and a savage, and never pretended to be
anything but barbarian and a savage. The
other man pretended to be a representative
| of a Christian nation. Notwithstanding all
| this, the general disgust with war and the
| substitution of diplomatic skill for the gilt
tering edge OF keen steel is sign unmistaka-
BILE that the day is at handn
find another ray of the dawn in the COM
preston of the worlds distances. What
slow, snail-like almost impossible thing
would have been the worlds rectifcation
with fourteen hundred millions of population
and no facile means of communications but
now through telegraphy for the eye and
telephone intimacy for the ear, and through
steamboating and railroading, the twenty.
five thousand miles of the worlds circumrer
ence are shriveling up into lnslg
niicant brevity. Hong Kong is near
er to New York than few years ago New
bourne within speaking distance. Purchase
a telegraphic chart, and by the blue lines see
| the telegraphs of the land, and by the red
| lines the cables under the ocean. You see
what opportunity this is going to give for the
final movements of Christianity. A fortress
| may be months or years in building, but after
| it is constructed it may do ell its
| work in twenty minutes Christianity has
| been planting its batteries for nineteen CEN
| turieS, and may go on in the work through
| other centuries but when those batteries are
| thoroughly planted, those fortresses are fully
| built. they may all do their work in twenty
| four hours. The world sometimes derides the
church for slowness of movement. Is science
| any quicker? Did it not take science five
| thousand six hundred and ffty-two years to
| find out SO simple thing as the
circulation of the human blood?
! With the earth and the sky full of electricity.
science took five thousand eight hundred
| years before it even guessed that there was
| any practical use that might be made OF this
subtle and mighty element. When good men
| take possession of all these scientific forces,
ana ali these agencies Of invention, do NOT
know that the redemption of the world will
be more than the work of half day. Do
we not read the Queens speech at the
| proroguing of Parliament the day before In
| London? If that be so, is it anything mar
velous to believe that in twenty-four hours
] divine communication can reach the whole
earth? Suppose Christ should descend on the
nations-many expect that Christ will come
among the nations personally that
tomorrow morning the Son of God from
lowering cloud should descend upon these
cities. Would not that fact be known all
the world over in twenty-four hours?
Suppose He should present His Gospel
in few words saying: II am the Son
of God; l came to pardon all your sins and to
heal all your sorrow; to prove that l am
supernatural being, have just descended
from the clouds; do you believe Me, and do
| you believe Me nowT' Why, all the tele
| graph stations of the earth would be crowded
as none of them were ever crowded just af-
/ Ter q shin1uracLc tell Won all these thinpS