The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-07-03
TOPICS FOR INDEPrNpENcE DAY.

1t has been announced that Independence
day will be more generally celebrated to-
morrow than It has been for years. Before
the war came several prominent citizens
urged the Importance OF a return to the old
! fashioned celebration of the Fourth The
patriotic impulse of the war has fixed upon
the day for an unusual exhibition Of ma
tional sentiment. The most hopeful indica-
| ton is that the people of the South, under
the inspiration of the war, will generally
celebrate the Fourth as their day. This is
a great gain.
Many orations and addresses will be made
tomorrow. The conditions and the expert
ences Of the last three months afford new
! topics and suggest to thoughtful men diff
! ferent treatment 1t may be observed at
the outset that tomorrow will be the fittest
possible season to drop all sectionalism out
Of addresses. 1t is time that people of both
sides should exercise the largest charity
each for the other. Nothing can be gained
| by stirring the ashes of the dead past 1t is
time that we exercise Lincoln's charity
for ALL If we must reflect upon the past,
we should make allowance for the differ
ence in conditions. surroundings and edu-
cation, but it is better not to recall, since
rejoicing that sectionalism is of the past
and that a broad nationality has come
should be so abundant as to occupy the
day. Not only should the sectionalism of
the war be denounced, but that later and
equally harmful sectionalism which would
array one section against the other because
of imaginary conflicting interests.
There never was time when bombastic
and spread-eagle oratory was not harmful
1t hurt our national vanity when Dickens
caricatured the Hon. Elijah Pogram, Major
Pawkins. Jefferson Brick and others, but
we yet have their descendants with US.
They are often orators on the Fourth of
July. They stimulate the American eagle
to unwonted flights. They make up in sound
the absence of thought.
We are a great and prosperous Nation
the richest and most intelligent on the
globe. We are too powerful in resource to
swagger like bully and boast of a willing
ness to click all creation upon the least
pretext If nothing else, the experience of
the last sixty days should cause us to drop
SA06SoNNOSAO' " iACh VIC uCCldISu war Will
Spain, this great government was in no DO
sition to bring fourth-rate nation to terms
Because of insufficient preparation we
might have been forced into a position in
which we would have been obliged to con-
sent to terms dictated by others but for the
positive friendiness of Great Britain. 1t is
not pleasant to contemplate this fact, but it
is we'll to remember it. We cannot click all
creation" and we should have no desire to
do so.
Tomorrow will be a fit occasion to assail
demagogy and demagogues. They are the
curse of the land, who are willing to array
one portion of the people against the other,
to support lawlessness and to create bitter
and harmful prejudices and hatreds to OBJ
tain office. To that class of men in all par
ties the country owes its chief woes. Our
unpreparedness for war is due to the dema-
gogue in Congress. Still, he is with is. and
he will desecrate the Nations birthday
with speeches the tenor of which is to di-
vide rather than fuse the people of all con-
ditions into a powerful nationality.
Tomorrow will be fit occasion for sin
cere and patriotic speakers to deal with the
foes of the Republic who dwell within it's
boundaries