The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1892-10-22

Declaration and the gentlemen in knee
breeches and powdered wigs who made
the Constitution. We see the little ma
tion menaced from without. We see
the riflemen in hunting shirt and buck
skin swarm from the cabin in the wilder
ness to the rescue OF country and home;
and our hearts swell to a second ana
final decree Of independence won by the
prowess and valor OF American arms
upon the land and sea.
And then, and then-since there IS
no lite OF nations or OF men without Its
shadow and its sorrow-ihere comes
day when the spirits OF the fathers no
longer walk upon the battlements OF
freedom; and all is dark; and all seems
lost, save liberty and honor, and, praise
God, our blessed union. With these
surviving, who shall marvel at what
we see to-day; this land filled with tho
treasures OF each: this city, snatched
from the ashes, to rise in splendor and
renown, passing the mind to precon-
ceive?
Truly, out of trial comes the strength
OF man, out of disaster comes the glory
OF the state!
THE OCCASION.
We are met this day to honor the
memory of Christopher Columbus, to
celebrate the four-hundreth snnuol re-
turn of the year of his transcendsnt
and, with fitting rites, to
dedicate to America and the universe
concrete exposition OF tho worlds
progress between 1902 and 1892. No
twenty centuries can be compared with
those four centuries, either in import
ance or in interest, as no previous cere-,
monial can be compared with this in its
wido Significance and reach; because,
since the advent OF the Son OF God, no
event has had so great an influence
upon human affairs as the discovery OF
the western hemisphere. Each OF the
centuries that have intervened marks
many revolutions. The merest cata-
logue would crowd thousand pages.
The story of the least OF the nations
would fill volume.
We are plain, practical people. We
are race OF inventors and workers, not
of poets and artists. We have led the
worlds movement, not its thought
Our deeds are to be found not upon
frescoed walls, or in ample libraries,
but in the machine shop, where the
spindles sing and the looms thunder;
on the open plain, where the steam
plow, the reaper and the mower con-
tend with one another in friendly war
against the obduracies of nature; in the
magic OF electricity as it penetrates the
darkest caverns with its irresistible
power and light. Let us consider our
selves and our conditions, rs far as we
are able, with candor untinged by
cynicism, and confidence having no
air OF assurance.
THE TRUE AMERICAN PoL1TY.
A better opportunity could not be de-
sired for a study OF our peculiarities
than is furnished by the present mo-
ment.
We arc in the midst OF the quadren-
NAL period established for the selection
of chief magistrate. Each citizen has
his right OF choice, each has his right to
vote and to have his vote freely cast
aud fairly counted. Wherever this
right is assailed for any cause wrong is
done and evil must follow, first to the
whole country, which has an interest in
all its parts, but most 10 the community
involved, which must ac-
tually drink OF the cup that has con-
tanned the poison, and can not escape
its infection.
The abridgement OF the right OF sut-
fraye, however, is very nearly proper
toned to the ignorance or indifference
OF the parties concerned by 1t, and,
there is good reason to hope that with
the expanding intelligence Of the
masses and the growing enlightenment
OF the times this particular form OF cor
ruption in elections WILDE reduced be-
low the danger line.
To that end, as to all other good ends,
the moderation OF public sentiment
must ever be our chief reliance, for
when men are forced by the general de-
sire for truth, and the light which our
modern vehicles OF information throw
upon truth, to discuss public questions
for truths sake, when it becomes the
plain interest of public men, as it is
their plain duty, to do this, and whom,
above all, friends and neighbors cease
to love one another less because OF in
dividual differences OF opinion about
public affairs. the struggle for unfair
will be relegated to those
who have either no character to lose or
none to seek.
1t is admitted on all sides that the
current presidential campaign is freer
from excitement and tumult than was
ever known before, aad it is argued
from this circumstance that we are
traversing the epoch OF the common
place. Ii this be so, thank God for it!
We have had full enough OF the dra-
matte and sensational, and need sea-
son OF mediocrily and repose. But may
we not ascribethe rational way in which
the people are going about their BUSH
ness to lorger knowledge and expert
encc, and fairer spirit than have hith-
erto marked our party contentious?
LIFT UP YovR HEARTS.
sursum Corda. We have in our own
time seen the republic survive an ir-
repressible conflict, sown in tho blood
and marrow OF the social order. We
have seen the federal union, not too
strongly put together in the first place,
come out of great war OF sections,
stronger than when it went into it, its
faith renewed. its credit rehabilitated,
and its flag saluted with love and hom-
ago BY sixty millions OF God-feGring
men and women, thoroughly reconclled
and HOMOGENEOUS. We have seen the
federal constitution outlast the strain,
not merely of a reconstruciory ordeal
and a presidential impeachment, but u
disputed count OF the elec toral vote,
deadlock, and an extra
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