St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-02-23

us, surely NJ one of secular cha ter
is so suggestive and impressive as the
day we celebrate on this occasion. We
not oniv commemorate the Dir h of the
greatest American who ever lived, but
we recall, las inseparably o Injected with
his career, all the events and incidents
which led up to the establishment OF
free institutions in this land of Ours and
eliminated in the erection of our won
drOus nation.
Washington had more to do with the
formation of the constitution than our
enthusiasm for other phases OF the
great work he did for his country usu-
ally makes prominent. The beginning
OF anything like a public sentiment
looking to the formation of our nation
is traceable to his efforts. The circular
letter he sent to the governors of the
states as early as the close of the war
of the revolution contained tn, germ of
the constitution; and all this was recog-
nlZed by his unanimous choice to pre-
side over the convention that framed
it. His spirit was in and through it all.
Standardization VS.. Truth.
When we are told that we are practical
and common sense people, we are apt to
receive the statement with approval and
applause. We are proud OF it's truth
and naturally proud because its truth is
attributable to the hard work we have
had to do ever since our birth as ma
ton, and because of the stern labor we
still see in our way before we reach our
determined destiny. There is cause to
suspect, however, that another and less
creditable reason for our qualification
arises from feeling that there is some
thing heroically American in treating
with indifference or deriSiOn all those
things which in our view do not directly
and palpably pertain to what we call
with much satisfaction, practical affairs,
but which. if we were entirely frank,
we should confess might be called
money-getting and the betterment of
individual condition.
1t is a mistake to regard sentiment as
merely something which, If INDUCED,
has tendency to tempt to idle and use
less contemplation or retrospection, thus
weakening in people the sturdineSS of
necessary endeavor and diluting the
capacity for national achievement. The
of people should not he counted as
amiable weaknesses because they are
not at all times noisy and turbulent.
Sentiment is the cement which keeps in
place the granite blocks of govern
mental power, or the destructive agency
whose explosion heaps in ruins their
scattered fragments. Appeals to senti-
ment have led nations to bloody wars
which have destroyed dynastles and
changed the lines of imperial territory.
Such an appeal summoned our fathers
to the battle fields where American in
depence was Won, and such an appeal
has
Scattered Soldiers Graves
all over our land, which mutely give
evidence of the power of our govern
ment and the perpetuity of our free in
situations. Sentiment is the very life
blood of our nation. Our government
was conceived amid the thunders that
echoed "Ail men are created equal"
and it was brought forth while free men
shouted, 1--WE, the people of the United
States"
None of us can be ignorant of the
ideas which constitute the sentiment
underlying our national structure. We
know they are 4 reverent belief in God.
a sincere recognition of the value and
power of moral principle and those
qualities of heart which make noble
manhood. devotion to unreSeryed patri-
otism, love for mans equality, unques-
tioning trust in popular rule, the ,exac-
ton of civic virtue and honesty, faith
III The saving quality or universal edu-
cation, protection of a free and unper-
verified expression of the popular will,
and an inSistence upon strict ac-
countability of public officers as servants
of the people.
When any one of them is displaced
the time has come when a danger sig
nal should be raised. Their absence
among the people of other nations
however great and powerful they may
be-can afford us no comfort nor reas-
surance. We must work out our des-
tiny uEaided and alone in full view of
the truth, that nowhere so directly and
surely as here does the destruction or
degeneracy Of the peoples sentiment
undermine the foundations of govern
rpaptot rItlp