The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-04-24
A VERY PATIENT PERSON.
Uncle Sam Always counts a Hun
dred" Before Striking.

Leslie's Weekly.
In all the history of mankind there never
tient as Uncle SAM He is portrayed as
high-strung, nervous, excitable sensa-
tional person. apt to stumble into dangerous
troubles unduly, and almost sure to behave
himself awkwardly after he gets in. He is
charged with having upset the traditions
and precedents of centuries by speaking the
truth even in diplomacy, and he is supposed
to be the sort of a blunderer who eats with
knife and carries chip on his shoulder
When foreign caricature forsakes this view
Of the amiable old. gentleman 1t pictures
him as pork packer or a mercenary pur-
Suer of the Sordid dollar.
This is not material, except that it calls
attention to the real man. In his short
career of a little more than a century he has
made a great deal of history, and it has
show. Never has there been q time when
he was not slow in entering upon a quarrel.
Even the colonies, from whose dauntless-
ness he was born, bore injustice for many
weary years before resorting to force, and
the good Engiishmen of that century Won
dered why the revolution was not begun
earlier than 1t was
For fully a dozen years Uncle Sam saw
his ships searched, his seamen impressed,
his rights violated, and his name Spurned,
and he bore 1t heroically until he was sim
ply Obliged to administer to the offending
nation a second castigation He finally,
with much regret declared war and won the
fight He allowed the pirates of the Medi-
terranean plenty of time and full oppor
tunity to make amends, and then reluct-
dnCly taught lneM the lesson UHey neeO6Q.
In the war with Mexico he stood off in the
hope Of not being obliged to take heroic
measures, and when the time came he sue
ceeded as usual. In the civil war he never
abandoned the efforts for peace until destiny
showed him upon the battlefield and when
it was all over he was the forgiving and
helping father and not the depressing con-
querer. Recently, in the Venezuelan case,
he stood the conventional lies of diplomacy
and international politics long before he
spoke sharply to the guilty and brought
them to their senses.
A man of peace who has never sought
hostilities of any kind, he has uniformly
counted a hundred-or more-before saying
an angry word, and he grows more con-
sentative with age. We are daily seeing his
immense patience used, and through it all
he looms superbly as the kindest, most just.
and most powerful force of humanity and
civilization. It is gratifying, therefore. to
read the pleasant things that other nations
are saying about him. They do not yet
fully grasp his unparalleled magnanimty,
but they do begin to appreciate the great
fact that behind all his patience lies an
unconQuerable spirit, and behind all his pur-
poses rests the grim determination to do
what is right in the kindest and most merci-
full way.
He comes into the court of the world with
clean hands, and the most he has ever
asked is a fair judge and an honest jury.
In the events of the present year all the
patience of the past, all the humanity of
the present. and all the well-considered in
terests of the future seem perfectly united
in the ripe and cautious wisdom of the
policy that is sure before it is aggressive.
But there is time when patience ceases
to be virtue.