The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-05-22
NATIONAL EXPANSION.
The New Line of Policy to Which the
Nation Is Committing Itself.
0 the Editor Of the Indianapolis Journal:

Whatever may be the duration or issue
of the war our country will be committed
to lines of policy and dedicated to duties
hitherto undreamed of. Our horizon will be
enlarged and. willing or unwilling, we must
in the future bear large share in the work
of directing the affairs and civilizing forces
of the world. The founders of the Nation,
some of them at least, were given to
prophesying. July 4. 1776, John Adams, writ
ing to his wife, said:
II am well aware of the toll and blood and
treasure that 1t will cost us to maintain this
declaration, and support and defend the
states. Yet through all the gloom / can
see the rays OF ravishing light and glory
l can see that the end is worth all the
means"
Thirty-six years later he wrote to Jeffer-
son:
Many hundred years must roll away be-
fore we shall be corrupted. Our pure, virtu-
GUS, public-sprited federated Republic will
last forever, govern the globe and introduce
the perfection of man."
And in the same strain Jefferson wrote
to Edward Livingston ten years later:
"A constitution of government destined to
be the primitive model of what is TO change
the condition of man over the GLOBE
De Tocqueville said of us in 1890:
1.-THE Americans of the United States
whatever they do will become of the
greatest peoples of the earth. The con-
It cannot escape them. There will arrive a
time when there will be seen in North
who will all belong to the same family, who
will have the same civilization, the same
language, the same habits, the same man
ners, and over which thought will circulate
in the same forms and paint itself in the
same colors All else is doubtful but this
Is certain: There is fact entirely new
ly seize the extent"
John Bright, speaking of us and for the
English people in 1862, said:
1T may be but a vision, but cherish
It. see one vast federation stretching from
the frozen north in unbroken line to the
glowing south, and from the wild pillows of
the Atlantic westward to the calmer waters
or the Pacific main, and I see one people
ana one law and one language and one
faith, and over all that wide continent
the home of freedom and refuge for the
oppressed of every race and of every Cline -
Ten years ago, when the storm swept the
Samoan bay, our ship the Trenton as she
was going down saw the British steamer
Calliope making her escape. The band on
the sinking ship played our national airs
and her crew sent up cheer for the Cal
Hope. The London Telegraph speaking of
it said:
1--WE do not know in all naval records any
sound which makes a finer music upon the
ear than the cheer of the Trenton's men.
1t was distressed manhood greeting trium-
phant manhood. the doomed saluting the
saved. 1t was pluckier and more human
than any cry raised upon the deck of a
victorious line of battle ships. 1t cannot
be forgotten by English-speaking people
of Americans. That dauntless cheer to the
Calliope was the expression of an immortal
courage"
The blood of the Collingwoods and Nell
sons flows in the veins Of the Deweys, the
Simpsons, the Evanses and the Browns.
How it must warm the cookies in the heart
Of- n
ess of his old comrades. recall the words of
the admiral in his address to the Loyal
Legion, in which he spoke with such I'M
reserved and generous confidence of our
ships and the men who are fighting them.
Henceforth there must be no cheeseparing
niggardliness in regard to our navy and
coast defenses In 1885, speaking of the dis
position of Parliament to lessen its efforts
to strengthen the navy Sir Graham Berry
said, who could estimate the loss involved
in even brief period of disaster to the
imperial navy? Any amount of money time
ly expended in preparation would be quite
| insignificant when compared with such a
| possible calamity" And this moved Tenny-
| SON to write his poem, 1.-The Fleet" 1t is
well worth reading now:
| You, you, if you shall fail to understand
What England is, and what her all in all.
/
| Should this old England fall
| Which Nelson left SO great.
His isle. the mightiest ocean-power on
Our own fair isle. the lord of every sea-
Her fuller franchise-what would that be
worth
Her ancient fame of Free
were she fallen state?
Her dagntless army scatter'd. and SC
Her isIand-myriads fed from alien lands
| The feet of England is her all-in-all:
| Her fleet is in your hands,
And in her fleet her fate.
You, you that have the ordering of her fleet
| II you should only compass her disgrace.
| When all men starve, the wild mob's million
| feet
| VIII kick you from your place
But then too late. too latel
| L like to read these lines along with
Chamberlains speech. and the news that
when France and other powers We're dis.
/ posed TO intermeddle England said Hands
| Off, / like to think of the Nelson monu.
ment in Trafalgar square; I see the efigy
OF the old hero facing the south, his hand
on his sword hilt as he seems to bid de-
| fiance to France and the other powers. How
| small the concert" sings now since the
| British lion gives even a gentle roar II
seems to me that the war will be worth the
| cost If it only brings about a better under.
| standing between England and ourselves
| We should prove ourselves worthy of the
| generous sympathy and support which Eng
/ land offers.
Pray God our greatness may not fail
Thro craven fears of being great
w. p. FISHBACK.