The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1894-12-26

Wayne. cavaliers each and every onel In
deed. from Israel Putnam TO Buffalo Bill,
II seems TO me the puritans have had much
the best Of it in turning out cavaliers So
the least said about the puritan and the
cavalier-except as blessed memories or hor-
nd examples-the better for historic ac-
curacy
IF you wish to get at the bottom facts,
don't mind telling youth confidence
that it was we Scotch-Irish who van
pushed both Of you-Some of us in peace
others Of US in war-supplying the miss
ing Ink OF adaptability-the needed in
gredient of common sense-the conserv-
ative principle of creed and action, to
which this generation of Americans owes
It's intellectual and moral emancipation
from frivolity and pharisaism-its rescue
from the Scarlet Woman and the mailed
hand-and its crystalliZatiOn into a ma
tionh character and polity. ruling by force
OF brains and not by force of arms.
'Gentlemen-Sir-I, too, have been to
Boston. Strange as the admission may
seem, it is true; and live to tell the tale.
1 have been to Boston; and when declare
mat l found there many things that sug-
gest the cavalier and did not suggest the
puritan, shall not say 1 was sorry. But,
among other things, / found there a civil
lzatlon perfect in its union of the art Of
living with the grace of life; an American
ism ideal in its simple strength. Grady
told us, and told us truly, Of that typical
American, who, in DIR. Talmage's minds
eye, was coming, but who. in Abraham
LlncOln's actually, had already come. In
some recent studies into the career of that
great man, have encountered many start
ing combinations of this judgment; and
from that rugged trunk, drawing its sus-
tenance from gnarled roots, interloclIed
with cavalier sprays and puritan branches
deep beneath the soil, shall spring, is
springing shapely tree-symmetric in
all its parts-under whose sheltering
boughs this nation shall have the new
birth Of freedom Lincoln promised it, and
mankind the refuge which was sought by
the forefathers when they fled rom op-
preston.
Some Things Have Changed
Thank God, the AK the gibbet and the
stake have had their day. They have gone.
let US hope, to keep company with the lost
arts. 1t has been demonstrated that great
wrongs may be redressed and great re-
forms be achieved without the shedding Of
one drop of human blood; that vengeance
does not purify. but brutalizes; and that
tolerance, which in private transactions is
reckoned a virtue. becomes in public af-
fairs dogma of the most far-seeing
craftsmanship. Else how could this noble
city have been redeemed from bondage?
1t was held like castle of the Middle
Ages by rObber barons. Yet have the
mounds and dykes of corruption been car
ried-from buttress to belI-tower the walls
OF crime have fallen-without a shot out
Of a gun, and still no fires Of Smithfield
to light the pathway of The victor, no
bloody asslzes to Vindicate the justice Of
the cause; nor need of any.
so / appeal from the men in silken hose
who danced TO music made by slaves-and
called it freedom-from the men in bell
crowned hats, who led Hester Prynne to
her shame-and called it religion-to that
Americanism which reaches forth its arms
to smite wrong with reason and truth, Sc
cure in the power of both. / appeal from
the patriarchs of New England to the
poets OF New England; from EndicOtt to
Lowell; from Winthrop TO LongfellOw;
from Norton to Holmes; and I appeal in
the name and by the rights of that COM
mon citiZenship-of that common origin
back both of the puritan and the cavalier
to which all of us owe our being. Let
the dead past, consecrated by the blood of
its martyrs, not by its savage hatreds-
darkened alike by kingcraft and priest
craft-let The dead past bury its dead. Let
the present and the future ring with the
song of the singers. Blessed be the les
sons they teach the laws they make.
Blessed be the eye to see, the light to re-
veal. Blessed be tolerance, sitting ever on
the right hand Of God to guide the way
with loving word as blessed be all that
brings us nearer the goal of true re-
ligion. true republicanism and true pa
triotism, dlstrust of watchwords and
labels, shams and heroes, belief in our
country and ourselves. 1t was not Cotton
Mather, but John Greenleaf Whittier, who
cried:
Dear God and Father of us all,
Forgive our faith in cruel lies,
Forgive the blindness that denies.
"Cast down our idols-overturn
Our bloody altars-make us see
Thyself in Thy humanity"
Col. Watterson's address was listened to
with rapt attention, and at its conclusion
he received a perfect ovation, his auditors
rising as one man and cheering him loudly
The other speakers We're the Hon. Charles
A. Boutelle, the Rev. DIR. Edwin c. Bowles
and John DalZell.