The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-05-24
THE sEcEssIoNIsM OF TO-DAY.


as Memorial-day Sunday, hundreds of
sermons will be devoted to consideration
Of some of the duties of citizens suggest
ed by the results of the civil war, and
next Saturday thousands Of addresses
will be made along the same line II such
practical value.
There is one topic which 1t seems i'm
portant should be considered at the
present time-the danger in the attempt
OF demagogues to array one section of
the country against another. The war
was fought over the issue of secession,
which involves the right Of States to
withdraw from the Union and set up
separate governments. 1t is agreed
upon all sides that the question of the
right of secession is a theoretical right,
but none will say that it will ever again
be attempted or even suggested except
By some excited persons like those who
made up a meeting in Denver few
days since. In the South. as well as in
the North, the sentiment Of nationality
has taken deep root during the past ten
years. In five years that sentiment has
obliterated the last vestiges of Mason
and Dixon's line. He who would seek to
fan into life the expiring embers of the
strife of the war and the bitterness
which naturally followed the success of
the Union cause is generally believed to
be lacking in national patriotism.
But if actual separation of the States
and the formation of independent gov
ernments in States composed Of sections
would be disastrous to the interests Of
States. the arraying Of one section Of
the country against another to an extent
that the people in one locality consider
those of aDother as foes must be fraught
with unmeasured evil. When an at
tempt is made to convince the people
of one section that the general policy of
another section has been adopted with
view of depriving them Of their rights
or their earnings. the same evil spirit is
at work which led to the secession move
ment of 1860. When a faction in Con-
gress declares that the federal treasury
| shall not be relieved from the danger of
| bankruptcy except a special concession
| Is made to it, that section is moved by
the same spirit which inspired those who
| spirators of the earlier period would
have destroyed the Union to make sec
| tional independent governments, while
| those of to-day would wreck the national
credit and weaken the national power
for an imagined local pecuniary advan-
| tage.
| If the American people are to consti-
| tute a great nation which shall be re-
spected throughout the world. and if its
| citizens, generation after generation, are
to enjoy the blessings of that progressive
civilization which are possible only un-
| der our form Of government. the dis
| trust, the jealousies of sectionalism, the
| enmities which they beget must be
fought with persistence by every intelli-
gent and patriotic citizen. The truth is
| that no portion of the country can long
thrive at the expense of any other. The
| general prosperity Of one section must
contribute to the prosperity of other Sec
| tions The industrial and commercial
| interests of the sections so knit them
| together that prosperity or disaster In
| one is shared by the others. He is a
very narrow and ignorant man who can
not realize the fact that our industrial
and commercial interests would draw us
into that more perfect union" and only
the constituencies demagogue will ignore
this truth and preach the heresy which
involves sectionalism and practical Sc
| cession.