The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-03-09

lakes, or rivers or mountain passes deter
mined the area and confguration OF the
new nation. The lines were run 20 include
France and Holland and other lands. who
had felt the hard hand OF oppression. re-
ceived the new gospel OF liberty and now
waited in faith for the institution of the
free state in which religion would be
matter of conscience and not OF legal de-
matter OF ante-natal assignment. Homo
geneity is the essential OF true common
hopes and purposes and interests are It's
progenitors. / do not mean that ell nopss
and purposes and interests. great and small;
the condition the state would be small and
its people few. A safe and enduring
state exists when the large. dominating
hopes, purposes and interests Of It's people
are common The struggle between me
the large and enduring benefts of a union
was fierce and long, and TO human thought
doubtful. Some caught the glory of tts
coming day and its light made them blind
to all small things. For the majority there
was the memorable alternate union with
national powers or the speedy resumption
of foreign domination made more cruel
by resistance
INFLUENCES IN AMERICANS.
Some of the influences that made the
American citizen should have our attention,
and first 1 remark that If free govern
ment is to have stability and endurance
its citizens must give their love and ale
glance TO Institutions to principles, 70 con-
situations, rather than to leaders And
herein is very largely the explanation OF
the stability of the American Union, its
comparative exemption from domestic in
surrections, and It's absolute immunity from
successful revolutions.
Our Spanish-American neighbors the
south are lovers Of liberty. They are brave
ana spirited, but they have not learned to
cockade rather than a constitution; and the
sad result is that revolution follows revo-
luton, and their great resources lie unde-
veloped Not so the Anglo-Saxon; for here
men may come and men may go, but they
cannot break the fast hold of the citizen
on the established civil statutes. He fol-
lows q man only when the man stands for
a cause; and loyalty abides the judgment
of appointed tribunals All of the condi-
tons that surrounded the American colo
nists tended to strengthen this inherited
characteristic. They fled from oppressive
king. but to build up institutions Their
religion tended to creeds and their politics
TO codes, and sturdy democracy charac-
teriZed them.
Mr.. Grote attributes to the Greeks that
love for a constitution rather than a ruler,
which is characteristic of the American. He
says: But in the mind of every man some
what in modern times is called a constitu-
tion was Indispensable to any government
entitled to be called legitimate or capable
or creating in the mind of a Greek a feel
ing OF moral obligation 10 obey IL. The
functionaries who exercised authority under
IL might be more or less competent or pop
ular, but his personal feelings toward them
were commonly lost in his attachment or
aversion to the general system" (Bage-
Joseph Warren, in his Boston grafton, In
March. 1772. says: so long as this noble at
tachment to constitution founded on free
and benevolent principles exists In full vigor
in any state that State must be fourishing
and happy"
The religious faith and practices of the
people also exercised q strong influence in
developing. the American love of institu-
tons and in freeing men from subserviency
TO leaders. The pastor was given great
Difference, even reverence. but only the
expounder of the Written Word. The
word and the church were before him and
would be after him. and only to them was
allegiance given. In the New England col
onies this influence was dominant Christ
tncavidualized men and endowed them. He
introduced new standard OF valuation
That every man is pOssesseu or an inmor-
tai spirit of equal value in the sight Of
God Is a leveling doctrine. we'll as an
eievating one. Caesar was to have the
things that are Caesars; but the linita-
tons were very strict. There were things
that could not be rendered to Caesar. Inc
humbieSt OF the kings subjects was a
brother, to be loved for himself; a king was
a servant. The State bore the sword for
the defense Of innocence. The ruler must
bow to the great king. So the divine right
of kings became the divine obligation of
kings.
FREEDOM FROM GOD.
The man for whom the son of God died
upon the cross, for whom the material
universe had been builded, fitted and
adorned, must not be enslaved and de-
graded. Not Plato. nor Buchanan nor
Lecke. but the word, read with reverence
daily in the household and eXpounded i'm
the sanctuary, was the chief instructor of
the body of the colonsts in the theories of
populate rights. Iconoclasts, but of a dis
terminating Sort-men who did not DESTROY
for the mere pleasure of destroying but
TO make room for better things. Independ-
ency Of thought is the first requisite of the
Inh ixi i,,.lr
ence necessarily exceeded community indie
pendence. The free man came before the
Tree state, and the free state will not sur
vive him. Religion has a mighty hold on
them; those men who wrought out our
freedom and nodded our civil institutions,
as the public feastS, thanksgvings prayers
In Congress and the legislatures and the
reverent appeals and strict njunctions to
religious duty that abound I'm the military
orders and In the correspondence of Wash
inSton very fully show. There had been
olgotry, narrowness, even cruelty. in the
the old lessons but the idea OF the nobility
and freedom of the idividual was there
ana an i charity was fast widening this thought
and strong.
Mr.. rockingham says: This peonle-
a new race, molding their institutions un-
der CHRISTIAN infiuences-were fixed in the
traits that characterize Americans. With
out the infection of wild political or social
theories, they were animated by a love of
liberty and a spirit of personal independ-
ChSC OHhHOWH 10 the great body of the
people of Europe. While at the same time
recognizing the law which united the indj-
vidual 10 the family and to the society in
which he is appointed to live, to the mn
inequality and the commonwealth which
gave him protection. and to a great Nation
which met and satisfied the natural sentI-
ment or country: buckingham, 4Oi) Like
the pioneer miners in Your California
gulcheS, the colonists organized communi
ties and made laws adapted to the local
needs. INC i0N<'i
no Cortez or Pizarro led our colonists in
piuhdering. cruSades. or organized their de-
Iense against savage neighbors. They were
not gold seekers, but home seekers They
came IN families and were thoughtful of
posterlty. They sought country-a better
country than that from which they had
come out-a country not only to live and
Ole in but to live and die for. The Puritan
nome lie was auStere, but those homes
produced men and women whom no threat
or danger could move from their convic-
lions nor any master enSlaVe. ENGLAND
threw her colonists much upon themselves
and the savage effectively co-operated i'm
developing them into strong self-reliant
men. Both were cruel teachers but tbe
product was that high type of American
manhood that finally overcame both The
men and women who came to these distant
and dangerous shores were individualized
by the very act of coming, and every Incl
dent of pioneer life had the same tendency
The savage foe introduced a new human
valuation that took no account of titles or
ancestry, but only of achievement-the
leader was the man in front.
The Indian wars exercised the colonies
in arms, introduced into every cabin an
effective weapon. in the use of which even
boys became skillful During the French
and Indian war the colonies furnished 25,-