The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-01-15

dollars would construct a highway to the
Pacific he would not give it,"
The ruin of the Republic has been dated
over and over, from the hour of each Of
these extensions of territory, exactly as
now ruin takes date from the declaration
of war with Spain. There is not a new or
original wall in all the chorus of forlorn
representations of disaster which we hear
to-day. our whole history has been of ex-
pansion attended by these wailing but vain
protests. Had these protesters been needed
we should this day have been fourth-rate
strip of territory lying along the Atlantic
coast, If we could have maintained a nation
al existence at ALL But, overriding these
protests, the half of our citizens are resi-
dent ard blest, thriving in these vast re-
gions, rich in the precious metals and fer
tile in all products of the soil, from which
the prophets Of evil so lugubriously warned
US off.
MUST ACCEPT THE RESULT.
However these things may be, the die is
cast. 1t has proved again impossible to
dam the Nile with bulrushes. The treaty
is signed and will be ratified We are in for
it. History is history. That which 1898
has made cannot be unmade Our shoulders
are under the responsibility. We cannot
shirk or shake it off. 1t is poor statesman
ship. poorer patriotism and poorest man
hood to stand haggling about what might
have been done to avoid ''this shameless
war" and its consequences. The condition
is upon us. We have nothing, absolutely
nothing now to do but to face the facts,
to meet the existing conditions, for God and
humanity
1t is time, too, to lay aside ali petty, hag-
oil for ynaYffcap al I know
nothing which ought to-day to bury any man
or group or cabal of men in so profound an
abyss of contempt. or which will do it so
thoroughly, as that he or they be discovered
hunting around, nosing about in the mud,
for some plan of action or opposition, in
these vast and vital matters, with view TO
partisan or personal success in 1900!
God has bestowed upon this Nation I'M
exampled favor, in which we can but plain
ly recognize the smile of His approval and
His beneficent design. He enabled us, in
campaign of little more than 100 days, to
win through to glorious conclusion war
for humanity, while we weep over fewer
graves than the Nation was used to mourn
a generation ago at the end of a single
battle-day. Our sons have shown a hero
ism like that of their fathers. The Union
is at last welded into one splendid unity.
Our northern President, veteran of the civil
war, is received through the cities of the
South with, if possible, an even more fervid
enthusiasm than in the North and West.
Hereafter we shall scatter the flowers and
speak our memorial orations over the graves
of the blue and the gray alike. There is
no more North or South, an East or West,
thank God OF this great year. too, has
come a new union of hearts and hands and
world policies bteween old Mother England
and her sturdy daughter, in which union
lies the scepter of earth's new era.
Behold Almighty Gods great gift TO
the Republic into whose care He commits
so immense a trust, and under whose ban
ners they shall begin their march up toward
the heights of a Christian civilization.
who shall haul down the flag which He
mas so evidently flung to the breeze?
Every covenant which duty has made for
us in the year 1898 we must keepr Aye,
brave and magnanimous executive keep
those covenants of duty by Gods help we
will! And keeping these we do devoutly
believe we shall be that Nation and King
dom which serves Him and therefore shall
not perish! Faithfully keeping them we
shall be, according to the divine law of the
universe. doing our best to succor the OPP
pressed, teach the ignorant, enoble and up
lift mankind and bring in the kingdom of
righteousness and truth-of our God and
of His Christ.