The mighty ruins of temples in the old world teach us that ages in long procession will come and go before time will lay its destroying hand heavily upon the edifice we are now rearing.

Meanwhile, what shall be the history of the people by and for whom this house is being built? Shall this structure, like the public edifices of the old world, outlive the institutions that produced it, and stand a witness of social convulsions and revolutions in government? Or shall it witness that stability of social order and political institutions that come of popular education, the love of justice, and constitutions founded upon the true principle of government? Shall it stand sentinel to distant ages over a people engaged in all the useful and pleasing activities of life but still governed by immutable laws of order, as the great Colossus stood at the entrance of the harbor of Rhodes, watching the ceaseless flow and ebb of the unchanging Mediterranean Sea? We can judge of the future by the causes only that have operated in the past and that are operating now. While the religion of a people should be, and in this country is, kept separate and distinct from its civil government, still the religion of a people insensibly molds the national institutions. It tempers their character, and to this temper their laws must conform. It is the atmosphere that surrounds and pervades the very structure of government. In conjecturing as to the future of a people, its religion should be regarded. The social and political institutions that have taken their form and spirit under the influences of the prevailing religion will be beneficent in their influence, and of longer probable duration, in proportion as it is true and enduring. Christianity has breathed its spirit upon the institutions that surround us. Some of its solemnities have attended the laying of this corner-stone. If the frightful thought could enter our minds that Christianity is all a delusion that must fade away before the advan

cing light of science, still a comforting assurance would remain that its gentle and humanizing and elevating influences have already so potently acted upon the minds of men that no pernicious or degrading superstition could ever take its place in any land that it has enlightened. If it were possible that skepticism, born of science, could destroy our belief in the divinity of Christ, and overthrow all that part of our religion which teaches our duties to Heaven, it can not be conceived as possible that any form. of faith could be substituted that would better teach man his duties in his relation to earth, or that would be incompatible with our political institutions.

The bright hope that we cherish, that our national life time may be a long and prosperous one, is founded chiefly, of course, upon the nature of our institutions and the character of our people.

Few great thinkers of modern times have doubted that the theory of popular self-government is the true one for an enlightened and virtuous people. But its practicability depends upon popular enlightenment. In this country republican government is no longer an experiment. It has successfully stood the tests of more than a hundred years, and of a great civil war. Obviously, that form of government must be the most stable that in the largest degree combines and employs the physical force and the intelligence of the people. The occupant of a hereditary throne holds his seat subject to the pleasure and the caprice of the physical force. Habit, national traditions, ignorance or servility may hold the people in subserviency to royal or autocratic authority. But when the passions of the masses are once stirred to revolution, their power is irresistible. Thrones fly before them like chaff before the whirlwind.

"A thousand years scarce serve to form a State;

An hour may lay it in the dust."

On the other hand, their mere physical power, while it is competent to destroy, is incompetent to rebuild and maintain government. Unless the best intelligence of a nation is called into requisition, they build in vain that would build up a permanent structure of government.

In the form of government that we enjoy, these two elements of political power are found more closely and indissolubly united than in any other. Here this physical power is itself educated and intelligent; and the higher the standard of education is raised, the more closely still the physical and moral elements of governmental power become allied.

There are very few political communities in the world, including even our own sister States of this Union, where the standard of popular education is as high as it is in Indiana to-day. With the educational system that we have established, and that we are so jealously guarding-a system that we justly regard as the crowning glory of our State-we have good right to indulge the proud hope that before another generation shall have come and gone popular education in the State of Indiana will be higher advanced than in any other nation or State on the face of the whole earth.

When we regard the character of our institutions, and the character of our people-their virtue and intelligence and their established educational system, and when we consider the agricultural, the mineral and the manufacturing capabilities of our State, we are justified in anticipating for it a long and splendid future.

But it is not upon the soil, the mine, or the factory that we may chiefly rely for the realization of the grand possibilities that lie before us as a State.

It is upon the virtues, the intelligence and the patriotism of our people that we must depend, if we would attain our highest possible greatness and lay strong and deep the foundations of a State government that will en

dure as long as its structures of marble and granite shall stand.

"What constitutes a State?

Not high raised battlement or labored mound,

Thick wall or moated gate;

Not cities proud, with spires and turrets crowned;
Not bays and broad armed ports

Where, laughing at the storm, rich navies ride;
Not starred and spangled courts

Where low-browed baseness wafts perfume to pride.
No!-men, high minded men,

With powers as far above dull brutes endued

In forest, brake or den,

As beasts excel cold rocks and brambles rude,

Men who their duties know,

But know their rights, and, knowing dare maintain,

Prevent the long aimed blow,

And crush the tyrant while they rend the chain;

These constitute a State;

And sovereign law, the State's collected will,

O'er thrones and globes elate

Sits empress, crowning good, repressing ill."

XII. SHALL TWO STATES RULE THE UNION?

ARTICLE CONTRIBUTED TO THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW,

Volume 133, October Number, 1881.

"If we intend to remain honest and to pay the public debt, as good people of all parties do, and if we mean to administer the functions of government, then we must raise revenue in some way or other. With a reunited and harmonious country, we shall certainly in time pay off the public debt; but the necessity of raising money for the administration of the Government will continue as long as human nature lasts. All parties agree that the best way for us to raise revenue is largely by the tariff. So far as we are concerned, therefore, all talk about free trade' is folly."-General Hancock.

For many years there will remain among the statutes a law for the collection of import duties. It will certainly continue in force until after the payment of the public debt, and probably for a period in the future much more remote. The collection is so distant from the people by whom, as a part of the price, the tax is really paid, that it seems easier of payment than a direct tax, and is therefore likely to continue in public favor as a mode of collecting revenue. Assuming that the tariff will be, then how shall it be, and what will be its effect upon party politics?

The important incident in the political contest of 1880 was the abrupt change in the issue joined between the parties. That change was made shortly before the election. It was universal in the North, and almost immedi

The war had been fought over again during the preceding months, and its causes and consequences had been considered. But it was found that the war issue would not do. The people refused to respond in the passion addressed. The embroilment of the sections was abandoned. The eloquent champions of the cause that had been won and settled fifteen years before, disappeared from the field. Men of business came to the front. They presided at the meetings. They addressed the people. To the working-men their assurances were positive and confident that, with Democratic success, employment would cease. Intimidation prevailed in the shops and factories. The Republican party at once sprang from a sinking upon a buoyant platform. It was a feat of the greatest hazard, yet it was successful, and probably saved the result. It was possible only in an organization under perfect drill, and occupying a favorable position, and with an opponent badly located.

At Cincinnati, as at St. Louis, the Democracy declared in favor of a tariff for revenue only. The force of the declaration was probably not considered at Cincinnati.