The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1893-09-03
PATRIOTISM AND LOFTY SENTIMENT

Since time began men have gone to
war; while time lasts and human nature
remains unchanged the prospect OF mill
tary honor and glory will doubtless at
tract them as no other thing can. In
different ages of the world different
motives have inspired men TO warlike
deeds-sometimes ambition. sometimes
selfishness and desire for pillage; again.
religious fanadcism. as in the Crusades,
ard sometimes the love of country, or
patriotism. The last is surely the most
commendable of ALL it is, perhaps. the
only one that justifies men in going out
to Stay each other. Such warriors do
not meet their foe with personal enmity
in their hearts, but are animated. rather,
by thoughts of the final results-of
the perpetuatiOn of their country's in
situations, OF the security of their
liberties and their homes, of the public
welfare. which includes, also, the well
fare of their nearest and dearest. Men
have risked the loss of life and limb for
ambitions sake or for other sentiments,
but it takes q stronger, nobler cause to
bring the multitude from the pursuits of
peace to the battlefield. 1t was patriot
ism, pure and simple, the Journal be.
lieves. which stirred tho hearts of the
volunteers of our civil war. If among
them were some moved by the hope of
glory and distinction. it is but just to
concede that even these might have
loved their country too. Certainly the
majority of those who left their plows
in the burrows, their shops to other care
and their pens to rust while they
went to fight freedoms battles were
men were on earth. And surely men
never fought for more noble or sacred
cause. The wonder and glory of that
uprising of men OF peace when the
country needed defenders has never
been equaled In the history Of the world.
They loved liberty; they loved the
Union, and when danger threatened
they dropped the tools. of trade and the
threads of commerce; they put aside
their personal desires and hopes and
transformed themselves into soldiers,
ready to bleed and die if need be, that
liberty might live and the Union be un-
broken. The sacrifices willingly made
by the citizen soldiers when they gave
up personal loves and ambitions
and donnsd the blue can hardly be
guessed. They fill place only less
wide than that measured for wounded
and slain. Daniel Webster once asked,
"W hat is the Individual man, with oil
the good or evil that may betide him.
in comparison with the good or evil
which may befall great country like
this, and in the midst of great transac-
tons which concern that country's
fate" That question was answered by
million men in our civil. war. By their
deeds they said the individual was but
little, the country all. When at the end
of four weary and blood-baptized years
they who were left were mustered out and
went TO their homes. they had taught n
lesson to the ages. They had enshrined
freedom in a higher place than ever was
hers since time began; they proved that
peace and its occupations do not destroy,
but rather increase patriotism. and they
had shown the American ready for the
highest service. They had done more:
they had created national char
acter. 1t is by tho experience of
all fortunes and all feelings that
great national character is made.
says some wise man; they had shared
suffering as well as success with their
country, and had thereby created a
stronger bond of fealty than had exist
ed before; they had inspired their coun-
trymen with greater faith in each other,
and they had made the Americar name
a synonym for dauntless courage and
patriotic devotion where it had before
expressed only the shrewdness oil COM
merce.
The debt owed by the people to the
| eoldiers of '61 is for more than tho res