The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-04-11

conlmudated himself to the pressure that
left to himself and to that wisdom and guild
ance which are given to man when he
faces great crises in the holy of holes OF
his own soul, it is not improbable that the
President would have dealt with this issue
in such way as to protest against inhu-
mainly and to save the honor oil the Ma
ton, except in the eyes of those who can
think of honor only in the code of the duel
list, that code which is as barbaric and inn
moral as inhllmanity itself
THE MAINE HORROR.
But what about our war ship and our
dead sailors who lie to-day at the bottom
of Havana harbor? The first thing to say
is that the horror of it is greater than the
imagination depict; that the desolation
coming to the mothers, wives and children
Of the men who persisted is even more pitt
full and dreadful than the death of the
men who so suddenly gave up their lives.
The next thing to say is that so far as the
finding of our own court is concerned the
responsibility is not yet laid at the door Of
the Spanish nation, and however morally
certain we may be of her responsibility,
near or remote, it betokens moral weakness
II nation Will not brook delay; If, having
counseled the principle of arbitration to
others, 1t VIII not submit its own cause to
the conscience and judgment of the world.
And. finally, If the responsibility for that
awful tragedy should be laid at the door
of Spain, can you not conceive q nation
having such moral dignity. such moral
strength and grandeur, that it would refuse
to atone for the lives of it's three hundred
iardS, even as it would spurn to receive a
bribe? The punishment of Cain, an exile,
greater than would have been the punish
ment of swift and yengeful death. The pun
ishment of Benedict Arnold left to wander
on the face of the earth, was greater than
would have been his fate at the hands OF
court-martial. The punishment of nation
which should be made to feel the whitening
n N
be greater tnan All otner peLaI.les.
"rhe conscience of the world has moved moved
i law to capital punishment ff It Oi admins
tered by the state, and, by the
same process of moral evolution. is
imprisonment and from imprisonment to the
indeterminate sentence based upon the ldea
of reformation and of hope for what is d.
vine in even the darkest heart. so on the
plane and theater of nations, the movement
has been away from war Tor vengeance,
away from war for territorial aggTan1 I1tae
ment, away from war for material inter-
ests, toward that moral dignity and that
moral integrity which shall make war i'm
possible.
II do not suppose it is possible to believe
or hope that these higher motives will as
yet sufficiently appeal to our Christian Ma
ground of reasonable hope to-day to expect
that the conflict will be averted, and DO
not know what you people here to-day
think. nor whether have appealed to your
judgment and conscience, but for my own
part / can only record as my deliberate con-
cluSion that If we come to arms with Spain
on the basis of the reasons which have
been marShaled and announced as the rea-
sons for war; If we allow the method or
moral intervention to be cut short before
it's uttermost resource is exhausted, we shall
one day be ashamed, and we shall be moral
ly accountable for the lives that may be
given in sacrifice upon the altar of our haste
or our revenge. For one, | cannot see thac
we have yet cast out from our household
the last morsel of the leavened bread or
malice and wickedneSs. For 1t is the sena-
tor with the sneer upon his face asking II
we are to have any message from the PFeSl-
dent when the unwished-for delay was
made; it is the professional warrior pattlng
the Steely sinewS of his untried cannon; IT
is the sensationalist journalist crowding mis-
columns with lies; it is the man on the
street valiant in words, but to be proven less
valiant in heart when the fateful moment
this crisis to tine point of the inevitable con-
f1ict: it is not those men and women whose
motives most lie open to the light, and who
would keep this Christian festival in sin
certify and truth, who have yet despalred
of less terrible solution of our duty; 1t is
the unpurged remnant of malice and pas
sion which dshonors the festival 1t is the
bitter consciousness that we have not yet
cast off the brute inheritance to the utter
most. If war comes. we must bow our
heads and accept it's issue: but we must ae-
cept it with something of humiliation and
shame, something of the conviction that
there was not in us enough moral strength
to calm the madness caught from mind to
BY wisdom drawn from ED and counsel
sane. "
mind