The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-01-08

alike at fault in seeking to derive support
for their respective views from those of the
trainers of the Constitution The latter had
certain grave duties to perform and great
problems to solve and they met them well,
but they were too busy with the problems
of their time to think about those of our
time The issues of the closing years of the
eighteenth century were very different from
those of the closing years of the nineteenth
century The craftsmanship of the fathers
was mainly confined to the Atlantic coast,
land it's broadest flight stopped long way
east of the Mississippi river. They knew
no more about the problems that are now
pressing for solution than they did about
armored war ships, submarine telegraphs or
a thousand other modern inventions. Their
craftsmanship was adapted to their day,
and they were much too wise to attempt to
establish policies for the imitation of pos
terity. Washington's farewell address is
great and wise paper, but much of it is not
applicable to present times. For example,
speaking of the danger of sectional and
geographical determinations, he said:
The inhabitants of our Western country
nave lately had a useful lesson this head,
They have seen in the negotiation by the
executive and in the unanimous ratification
by the Senate of the treaty with Spain, and
in the universal satisfaction at that event
proof how unfounded were the suspicious
propagated among them of policy in the
general government and in the Atlantic
States unfriendly to their interests in re-
gard to the Mississippi. They have been
witnesses to the formation of two treaties
that with Great Britain and that with Spain
tn aW
could desire in respect to our foreign rela-
lions towards confirming their prosperity.
viii it not be their wisdom to rely for the
preservation of these advantages on the
union by which they were procured?
This appeal to the States of the Mississippi
valley to remain in the Union because of the
advantage gained for them under a recent
treaty with Spain is as little applicable to
the present time as other parts of the adj
dress That great paper was addressed to
the Americans of 1885, and not to those of
1898. Jeffersons warning against entangling
alliances in his inaugural address in 1901 re-
lated only to political alliances. 1t could not
have related to the acquisition of territory,
as two years later he purchased the Louis
lana Territory by which the national do
main was doubled
Abraham Lincoln said in a speech deliv-
cred in New York in February, 1860:
1 do not mean to say we are bound to fol-
low implicitly in whatever our fathers cid.
TO do so would be to discard all the lights
of current eXperience-to reject all progress
all improvement. What l do say is that if
we would supolant the opinions and policy
of our fathers in any case, we should do
SO upon evidence so conclusive, and argu-
ment so clear that even their great authori-
ty, fairly considered and weighed, cannot
stand.
This puts the wisdom of the fathers on
the right ground. 1t was good for that day
and for the situation to which it applied
but for their posterity to follow them inn
plicitly would be to discard all the lights
of current experience-to reject all progress
all improvement" The conclusion of the
whole matter is that the great questions
of to-day must be settled by the men of
to-day, and settled upon their merits in the
light of existing conditions without refer
ence to what the fathers did under very
different conditions. The fathers had their
work to do, and they did it well. To this
extent posterity should emulate their eX-
ample, but they should not invoke the ghosts
of the dead to settle living questions.