The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-02-24

renee, at the conclusion of the dinner. in
troduced Mr.. Depew. who said. in part:
Provincialsm and isolation from the
world produce magnificent enthusiasm. The
effect OF higher civilization and universal
knowledge is to repress IL. Enthusiasm is
like the thunder and the lightning, which
clears the atmosphere and gives new vigor
TO life. In lamenting the disappearance of
its manifestations. I often wonder IL the
passion Is lost. We have all OF US been
carried along on the waves of emotion,
swept against the unmoved and immovable
figure of General Grant. But where are our
enthusiaSms of to-day? We are in the pres
idential year-the year of all others for
idols and idol worship, the year when the
politician becomes q statesman and the
statesman becomes endowed in the popular
imagination with supreme qua,ities-and
yet the American people are calmly analyZ-
ing, instead of frescoing; they are doubling
prophet. sage. leader and savior chosen
favorite. and they are subjecting them all
to the frightful processes OF the Cathode
rays. All of these are unquestionably the
result of more universal education, of the
universal reading of the newspapers and OF
electric touch, day by day. with all the
good old times, believe that people
should be stirred at least once in a genera
ton by Peter the Hermit enthusiasm,
which sinks the commercial considerations
that now control all the transactions of
life and sacrinces everything for an idea
or a name 1t is that which makes patriot
ism and patriots; 1t is that which creates
heroes and statesmen. They are carried to
the heights where they lead, and the multi
tude follows as much by the uplifting APP
plause and inspiration OF the people whose
enthusiasm condenses in them as by their
own superior genius and requirements.
This February for the first time both
Washington's and Lincoln's birthdays have
been made legal holidays Never since the
creation of man were two human beings
so unlike, so nearly the extremes of oppo-
sition to each other as Washington and
Lincoln
by breeding and association: the other in
every sense and by every surrounding a
democrat. AS the richest man in America,
a large STAKEHOLDER, the possessor of an
enormous landed estate, and the leader and
representative of the property. the culture
an the ooileges or the colonial period;
preservation of law and order. And yet,
millionaire, STAKEHOLDER and aristocrat, in
at any time ne would have died for the
immortal principle put by the Puritans in
their charter, adopted in the cabin of the
Mayflower and re-enacted in the Decara-
ton of Independence, of the equality of all
men before the law; of the equal oppor-
tunity for all to rise.
Lincoln, on the other hand, was born in
a cabin among that class known as poor
whites, in slaveholding times, who held no
position and whose position was so hope
less as to paralyze ambition and effort.
His situation, so far as his surroundings
were concerned. had considerable mental
but little moral Improvement, by the re-
moval to Indiana and subsequently to Illi-
nois. Anywhere in the old world a man
born amidst such environment and teach
ings, and possessed Of uncomfortable en-
ergy and ambition, and the greatest pow
manship. would have been a socialist and
the leader of a social revolt He might
have been an Anarchist. His one ambition
him and shatter it to pieces. tie would see
otherwise no opportunity for himself and
his fellows in social, or political or pro-
feSciOnal life. But Lincoln attained from
the log cabin of the poor white in the will
derness the same position which Washing
ton reached from his palatial mansion and
the same fight unselfshly, periodically
and grandly for the preservation of the
Republic that Washington had done for its
creation and foundation. Widely as they
are separated, these two heroes of the two
great crises of our national life stand to-
gether in representing the solvent powers,
the inspiring processes and the hopefui OPP.