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 OUR rOLITICAL rRACnCE 
 
 There is no society without jacobins ; no free society -without a formidable ho?t 
 of them ; and no democracy whose powers they will not usuip ; — 
 
 To lessen the hopes of usurping demagogues, we must enlighten, animate, and 
 combine the spirit of freemen ; — Fisher Ames. 
 
 IN THREE PARTS, 
 
 i>A.R.T FIRST". 
 
 B S T O N : 
 
 ALFRED MUDGE & SON, PRINTERS, 34 SCHOOL STRXFT. 
 
 1864. 
 
 \ 
 
 -A 
 
 THE 
 
 1 
 
 USURPATIONS OF VICE \ 
 
 THROUGH THE 
 
 POPULAR NEGLIGENCE. 
 
 BY MOUNTAINEER. 
 
>Sv .v>l \vM Nn^^^^-^-A 
 
 .Hi^. 
 
 TO MY FELLOW CITIZENS. 
 
 It appears to me that our Government is in the way of ruin ; not from the 
 war merely — for that we could manage if we were more \irtuous — but from 
 our rottenness in the Representative relation. Our rule is, mainly, one of self, 
 under mere spoilsmen. A republic cannot prosper imder such a practice. Our 
 do-mifall would be inevitable, even if there were no war. It would come in 
 tune. But war affords opportimity in vice and hastens the catastrophe. 
 
 And our recourse, it seems to me, is in the vigilance of the people, under 
 our general morahty and intelligence. Oiu- special vice is negligence. We 
 have become careless of our personal efforts, and are apt to think that, somehow, 
 affairs will mend without our aid. As we abandon vigilance, we abandon 
 morality and intelligence. We fail to apply them, and hence we cannot prosper. 
 
 I intend to offer, herewith, brief items of testimony on our political debase- 
 ment ; and, in presenting the state of things as it appears to me, I shall venture 
 to urge means of safety imder an aroused vigilance. 
 
 This matter claims a higher view than a party view. It demands unbiased 
 action in the light of truth for the common good. We have a great trust. We 
 have an inheritance to conserve, not only for our own children, but for the race 
 as well, and, moreover, for the glory of the Supreme Being. 
 
 With these I'iews, I feel that my aim is a just one ; and if I should fail to 
 impress others, I shall cherish no disappointment, but shall rest in the satisfac- 
 tion of an honest effort. 
 
 C. W. 
 June, 1864. 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year one thoTisand eight hundred and sixty-four, 
 
 BY CHARLES WRIGHT, 
 
 In the District Court of the United States, for the District of Massachusetts. 
 
 /.. 
 
 '/ 
 
OUR POLITICAL PRACTICE, 
 
 PART FIRST. 
 
 A GENERAL VIEW OF THE CAUSE, 
 
 This is not the cause of faction, or of party, or of any individual, but the 
 common interest of every man in Britam. — Xunius. 
 
 The authorities of Government, some months ago, held in 
 durance an alleged rogue, whom they had seized as a public 
 plunderer. They were seeking to accomplish his proper pun- 
 ishment, when it was announced to the American public that a 
 distinguished senator from the New England states was involved 
 in the case as the paid attorney of the culprit ; — paid, it was 
 said, in a sum of thousands, to procure his deliverance from 
 impending penalties. The name of the senator was not long 
 withheld. It was John P. Hale. He owned the impeachment 
 in the boldest openness. 
 
 He alleged of himself an unconsciousness of wrong in a plea 
 of sweet and placid innocence. He was a lawyer — he ! — 
 and therefore he did it 1 Not as a senator ; not as a patriot ; 
 nor yet as a man of honor. no ! Not either. Are not these 
 characters for occasions of convenience, wliich are by no means 
 to interfere with the achievements of self, when self, in the eyes 
 of the public functionary, may assume the predominant place ? 
 Moreover, a man may he separated from his acts : So this senator 
 informed us some years ago. And he, .ostensibly a high-toned 
 statesman, in the exigences of self, may be merged, if need be, 
 in him, the paid and influential attorney ! He may ignore the 
 senator, abandon the patriot, forego the commonest dictates of 
 
honor J and, accepting the profits of imputed villany, he may 
 thwart the processes of public justice in the relations of a ser- 
 vice he is sworn to support. These acts are the lawyer's, not 
 Mr. Hale's. They are detached from him. Hence he is un- 
 touched, in high immunity, a senator still, the honorable John 
 P. Hale. 
 
 Mistaken republican system and practice, when the members 
 of government, in one of its departments, may, in the mere 
 acquisition of money, dii'cct their powers to the defeat of pro- 
 ceedings instituted in a coordinate department of government, 
 to secure the enforcement of public justice ; proceedings, more- 
 over, for the prevention of crime in the relations of an abound- 
 ing public infamy — in the relations of plunder and spoils. 
 Oblivious, innocent Hale ! * 
 
 Alas our statesmen ! Unfortunate land ! And yet, the people 
 have no right to complain. 
 
 We have surrendered politics to mere politicians, of whom 
 Mr. Hale is one. And since he is better than most of the class, 
 he should be left in his place, if it please the politicians, till 
 the people resume their political affairs, and select men to 
 administer government with a uniform reference to ability and 
 worth, — with a positive reference to the public good. Then our 
 
 * Judge Advocate General Holt is writing a review of the trial of Capt. James 
 M. Hunt, Senator Hale's client, in which he will take the ground that the fine 
 of two thousand dollars imposed was an msufficient punishment. The commis- 
 sion, in its sentence, stated that it was thus " lenient in consideration of the 
 imprisonment and the pecuniary losses already suffered by the said Hunt, by 
 reason of his arrest." It was proved that Hunt made several hundred thousand 
 dollars without investing a copper, and his losses were the fees he paid the sen- 
 ator, A\hile the imprisonment was too brief to do good or hurt. The judge 
 advocate will make out his case. —Sprmt/Jielcl Republican, March 12, "64. 
 
 The following is the concluding paragraph of a fair and discriminating dis- 
 cussion of this important subject by the Journal of Commerce: 
 
 " We have no hesitation in expressing our opinion on the acts of individuals 
 which become public property, as in the case of Mr. Hale. We do not think 
 he meant to be dishonest or dishonorable in accepting a fee for his services, 
 because we believe his perceptions were befogged by tlie atmosphere of fraud, 
 corruption and crime, surrounding him in the party to which he is attached. 
 But we do believe that, if he had carefully considered the question, he would 
 have found that he was paid as a Senator and not as a lawyer. He has been 
 demoralized by bad company." — Boston Weekly Courier, Jan. 7, '64. 
 
officials will serve the people. Now they serve themselves. 
 And they elect themselves for that one aim. Is our country 
 indeed " The Paradise of demagogues " ? 
 
 What is the recognized Republican theory ? It is the rule of 
 the people, through their own representatives. 
 
 The rule of the people involves action. It involves the elec- 
 tion, from among themselves, of men who are patriots, not 
 self-seekers; men who are eminent for ability and worth. 
 Their proper rule involves no less. These general statements 
 none will deny. 
 
 Nor will any one deny that if the people fail in the essential 
 requirements of the republican being, they will fail to realize a 
 suitable government. The republican form will become per- 
 verted. The prerogatives of the people, the public emoluments, 
 the rewards and honors of official position, will revert to mere 
 political seekers, to selfish demagogues, corrupt politicians, who, 
 in the rule of self, will bring on ruin, unless the people arouse in 
 time, and resume their political duty. And the maladministra- 
 tions already realized should amply suffice to awaken alarm. 
 They should arouse the people to reform."^ 
 
 * It were -well, no doubt, to present a few paragraphs from the public prints, 
 as significant of the state of things in public relations. 
 
 In an article on the practices in vogue at Washington, the New York 
 Journal of Cotmnerce draws the following frightful picture : 
 
 " The period in which we just now live is one of unbounded fraud and corrup- 
 tion. There was never an administration in Washington under which fraud 
 was carried on as openly and boldly as now. The millions that are the plunder 
 of the present army of hangers-on will never be counted. There is no end to 
 the terrible revelations. Nor does the trouble stop with the mere robbing of the 
 public purse. The most atrocious crimes are perpetrated with the stolen money, 
 and the people are growing used to the recitals. Legislators are bought and 
 sold in Pennsylvania, New York, and elsewhere. Elections are fraudulently 
 carried. The machinery of political parties is turned everywhere to the private 
 account of individual office-seekers or money-seekers. The taint is spreading 
 through the entire body politic. Men look calmly now on crimes from which 
 they would have shrunk two or three years ago. Men think on the whole that 
 it is a good thing when the Administration carry an election by shipping home 
 a few thousand selected voters. Men chuckle over some political ruse in which 
 a Legislature is bought for money. Men approve the action of the Treasury 
 Department in giving a responsible office to a man whose vote, conscience, and 
 reputation, as every one knows, were sold by himself and bought by the party 
 which protects him. No one seems to think that fraud, public robbery, is a very 
 great crime. We meet daily in the streets, nightly at receptions and grand 
 
These maladministrations are by no means local. Official 
 corruption is general. It is not a matter of a particular party. 
 
 assemblies, men who are known to be fattening on plunder, but whose social 
 position seems wholly unaffected by the fact. We are not drawing any too dark 
 a picture of the moral condition of affairs under the present Administration. 
 The doctrine is in principle everywhere acted on, that if a man professes to be 
 right on the negro question, he may be as black a sinner on all other questions 
 as he pleases, and not lose the social and public support of his party or his 
 daily associates in life." — Boston Weekly Courier, Jan. 7, 1863. 
 
 There have been mistakes. There have been speculations. Weak men have 
 disgraced, and bad men have betrayed the Government. Contractors have fat- 
 tened on fat jobs. Adventurers have found the war a source of private gaiii. Moral 
 desperadoes have flocked about the National Capital atid lain in wait for prey. The 
 scum of the land has gathered about the sources of power and defiled them by its 
 reek and offensive odor. There has been mismanagement in the departments; 
 mismanagement wherever great labor has been perfonned and great responsibili- 
 ties 'devolving. Men — even Presidents and Cabinet ofl3.cers and Commanding 
 Generals have erred because they could not grasp the fvill significance of the 
 drama, and because they were compelled to strike out on untrodden paths. — 
 Albany Atlas and Argus, Oct. 30, 1862, from, Eve. Journal. 
 
 The Chicago Tribime is one of the most ultra of the papers of the RepubHcan 
 stamp. Here is what its Washington correspondent writes to it of the state of 
 affairs at the Capital : 
 
 " The tone of morality here is considerably lower than it ever has been before. 
 This is admitted on all hands, and can be proved, or, rather, needs no proof, for 
 the air is heavy with public and private guilt. A few years ago a high Austrian 
 official, whose peculations were discovered, apphed the lancet to his own veins, 
 and another similarly situated hanged himself. There is no such sense of shame 
 here. Any coroner's jury in Washmgton would find a verdict of insanity for 
 such conduct, and the verdict would be accepted in good faith. The Southerners, 
 as a class, had a very nice sense of honor so far as the public treasury was con- 
 cerned. Floyd was an exception — almost a solitary exception — to the rule. 
 When they held the power here there was comparatively little thieving, and, 
 when any was discovered, it was promptly exposed and denounced. There 
 has been a change — a dreadful change for the worse. 
 
 The fraud* and attempted frauds in the treasury, in one channel and another, 
 come so fast and from such unexpected quarters, that one is bewildered in con- 
 templating them. Yet nobody has been brought to justice, and nobody seems 
 to think it possible that anybody should be brought to justice. ' Oh, those 
 rascally contiiicTors !' says some honest man in the rural districts. For every 
 dollar wrongfully taken by a contractor, five have been taken by public servants." 
 Albany Atlas and Argus, Oct. 30, 1862. 
 
 The small lax imposed on Distilled Liquors already manufactured is remitted 
 by the Senate bill. We expected it. When the proposition that Whiskey on 
 hand should be taxed was before Congress last winter, a mercantile house m our 
 city that held a large stock of the article was told : " You must sell to certain 
 parties operatmg in Washington eight thousand barrels at eighty cents per 
 gallon, or the tax will go on." They consented, and that same AVhiskey was 
 sold, after the tax had been defeated, at an advance of thirty cents per gallon, 
 without havuig been removed. Here was not less than $72,000 paid to defeat 
 the Whiskey tax by one house ; judge, then, what must have been paid in all. 
 Of course, the House tax on A\Tiiskey in store will be stricken out ; we have no 
 hope of any other result.— iV. Y. Tribune, May 21, 1864. 
 
 Debate in the Seriate : — 
 
 On motion of Mr. Grimes, (Un., Iowa) his bill m relation to Naval supplies 
 was taken up, and he addressed the Senate for over two hours m answer to the 
 adverse report made thereon by the Naval Committee. He gave a history of the 
 
It belongs to all tlie political ho.sts ; and is revealed, more or 
 less, in official position, irrespective of party, or section, or 
 
 manner of obtaining naval supplies since the organization of the navy, to show 
 that, under navy agents, ^vho originally were not legally authorized officers, a 
 system had grown up by collusion with contractors and master- workmen, and 
 that the system proposed by his bill would remedy these abuses. He defended 
 the Chief of the Bureau of Yards and Docks foV his efforts in detecting the 
 detects of the old system. He held that the subordinates were in fault. He 
 analyzed certam contracts heretofore made, under bids for suppUcs, showing as 
 examples, mstances where Scotch iron had been bid for at one dollar per ton, and 
 American u-on at twenty ;md thirty-six dollars per ton, and of the large amount 
 advertised of the former only nuie or ten tons were delivered ; while of the latter, 
 double or treble the amount would be furnished. The contractors, knowing by 
 collusion beforehand what amount would be required, were thus enabled to 
 secure the contract against honest men, by reason of their aggregate bid under the 
 contract system bemg less. He Contended that these thmgs showed collusion 
 between contractors and the employees of the Government. He mentioned 
 among these contractors, Smith Brothers & Co., of Boston, who had, since 1861, 
 furnished to the amount of $1,010,900 ; Schofield & Co., of New York, to about 
 a similar sum ; and another firm in New Hampshire, to the amount of f 1,382,- 
 6.52 ; also, Joseph L. Savage, of Washington ; items in the latter's bill to the 
 Navy Yard amounting in the aggregate to $4,687, he being the lowest bidder of 
 those whom Mr. Grimes presumed to be merely his confederates. The prices of 
 the articles actually furnished were double their market value ; as, for instance, 
 axes at $1 50, the market price of which was 75c., and manv other articles in 
 proportion. Mr. Grimes showed also from their books that Schofield & Co., 
 now under court-martial, hi September last, had furnished brass screws costing 
 $1,400, at $6,780, and forty-eight sheets of copper, costing $123, at $4,033 50 ; 
 leather costmg $1,866 at $6,043, Sec, &c. Mr. Grimes explauied at length the 
 necessity of his bill to remedy these defects. He said it would provide that 
 these matters of supply would be confined to regular officers of the Navy instead 
 of temporary political appomtees, and prescribed such severe punishment and 
 penalties as Avould diminish to a lai-ger extent the corruptions and frauds which 
 were now practised. 
 
 Mr. Hale remarked * * * that he had been arraigned for his denunciation of 
 fraud, and corruption, and profligacy, as opposed to this Administration. 
 His support of the Administration could not be appreciated by the thieves and 
 plunderers that clung aroimd it. They would only appreciate the Administra- 
 tion as long as they could rob it. 
 
 Mr. Davis said * » * From the gentleman's conclusions there never was 
 a more corrupt Government on earth. — iV. Y. Tribune, May 24, 1864. 
 
 The war affords opportunity merely, — opportunity of spoils and plunder. 
 The following paragraph is highly illustrative of the abounding means of 
 Tillainy. Will any of the " candidates " be properly punished ? Doubtful. 
 
 ' It is stated,' says the Intelligencer, ' that the investigations growing out of the 
 frauds in the quartermaster's department at Alexandria are still progressing, 
 and new candidates for the Old Capitol present themselves daily. Nearly all 
 of the contractors, together with the quartermasters and their clerks are now 
 in that institution. The Secretary of War expects to have the entire party 
 before the investigation closes.' The Union sa.ys: 
 
 'The frauds, it is believed, are far more extensive than was at first 
 supposed. From the fact that the officer whose duty it was to purchase forage 
 for the army had appointed his brother inspector of hay, and a son of the 
 principal contractor inspector of grain, there is every reason to believe that no 
 
state. Any party whatever tl.at secures an aseendeney remains 
 still in the lead ot politieians. Hence to change is not to reform. 
 A change is merely a change of politicians. It bnt serves to 
 elevate a new set of men, who have self to serve as then- prede- 
 cessors had; who have family friends, and political fr.ends, and 
 the friends of friends, all of whom, by the rnle of "spods that 
 has governed in the last thirty years, may be fitly attached to 
 the public crib.* Since the administration ol tln^^econdAdams, 
 
 Z^^^^^^^^^^^.^^^^^^^^^^^^-^^^ at the expense of the 
 
 Oo^aiimcnt:-BosMnWeekl!/Cou,;er.Jan.7. 64. 
 
 The opportunity ot the war, without any donht, would be a, readily .e.zed 
 by democratic official, were they i„ the position ot rule. The ^P""''™ J 
 n t .„»•.% wrong. T*. „« U ,»W. Does any one suppose ~™ - 
 politicians are ot a type more honest or pure > Let bun look at those ot New 
 Y h City, and contemplate their administration ot affairs. Let hnn examure 
 I: practices ot James Buchanan, and Ids immediate aid, and dependents. 
 Indeed, our corruptions originated largely in the theory and pr.ct.ce ot pods, 
 which, some thirty years ago were openly promulgated trom thehaUotthe 
 Senate, by the ruling democracy of the nation. 
 
 John C.Calhoun ^as right in ^^^J^^^'^i^ TllS S 
 together by the " cohesive power of the public plunder. A. i. 
 14, 1864. 
 
 S"has beeJthat the election might by some means be '^-"^^^;^^^^'!i^;,7th; 
 
 Much of northern subserviency to the slave interest came of that. And besides 
 ti^ the whole business of politics took on a look, so mercenary and mean and 
 selfisi, that honorable men who ought to have entered into it and controlled it, 
 tmiied away in disgnst.-Sprinfffield Republican, March 28, 63. 
 
 The system of " spoils" has become universal in the relations of party and 
 government. The two leading parties are equally corrupt, and the people of 
 each who arc not politicians, must begin the reform at home. Party is inevita- 
 ble in the republican form. Fisher Ames asks: -Is it in the nature of free 
 
9 
 
 no party in power, no set of politicians, has sought to curtail 
 official patronage or stanch the supplies of public plunder.* 
 
 Nor is reform to be found in simply a change among the 
 politicians of a party incumbent. We are assured there is in 
 the New York Custom House an abounding mass of practical 
 knavery — enough to confound the nation.t And has it not 
 
 governments to exist without parties ? " And he answers : «' Such a thing has 
 never yet been, and probably never will be." And De Tocqueville says : 
 " Parties are a necessary evil in free governments, but they have not at all 
 times the same character and the same propensities." * * * " America has 
 had great parties, but has them no longer." Corrupt politicians secure their 
 ends by inflaming party rage and warfare. Each party, then, must reform 
 itself through the action of its honest men. Each must oust its corrupt poli- 
 ticians. No majority party, with its best men at the lead, will ever ruin the 
 country. 
 
 K we fail to put down this rebellion it will be because political prejudices 
 and the lust for place and power, and the spoils of office, override the patrito- 
 ism of the people. — Boston Journal, Jan. 24, '63. 
 
 * Now, though such leaders may have many occasions of jealousy and discord 
 with one another, especially in the division of power and booty, is it not absurd 
 to suppose that any set ot' them will endeavour to restore both to the right 
 owners ? — Fisher Aines' Political Essays. 
 
 t The Delaware Gazette (Wilmington) says : 
 
 Our readers have already been acquainted with the exposure of immense 
 frauds in the New York Custom House, through the instrumentality of the Con- 
 gressional Investigating Committee, of which Col. Van Wyck is chairman. An 
 effort was made to prevent the evidence from becoming public, but the Colonel 
 was not to be deterred by threats or bribes, and msisted that his report should 
 be printed. The following extract from his speech in Congress on the subject, 
 expresses sentiments that must meet with a fervent response in the breast of 
 every real patriot. It should be recollected that Col. Van Wyck is a RepubU- 
 can,"and his testimony is the more valuable on that account : 
 
 " The neck begins to chafe where the yoke of this heavy burden is borne. The 
 Administration has feared to drive such men from its door, lest hostility should 
 be aroused against it. That which they supposed strength has been the great 
 source of weakness. With a single exception, when has one of these men been 
 court-martialed or punished ? To-day they have injured the republic more than 
 the South in arms. Had they been arrested and placed under the gallows or in 
 Fort Lafayette, your army would have been stronger, your people at home more 
 united. M iconder that your soldiers a?id friends are dissatisfied. They cannot 
 appreciate the patriotism of stealing. Your army, for a mere pittance, is deprived 
 of all the luxuries, and, at the same time, the necessaries of life ; endurmg all 
 the privations of camp and the dangers of battle, while they see base men making 
 mockery of the misfortune of the nation, coining gold from the sighs and tears of 
 the people." — Boston Weekly Courier, March 2, 1863. 
 
10 
 
 been thus tor many a year,, a thing of progressiou, constant, 
 regular, sure ? — wholly unchecked by a change of incumbents ? 
 Unchecked, no doubt, from the manifest fact that whoever is 
 placed in a public position, made vacant by a knave displaced, 
 is himself a seeker of the prescriptive class, — an eligible self- 
 pushing political seeker, — who has already earned a right to 
 preferment, and who therefore receives the reward. Who ever 
 heard of inquiry abroad, — of a government agent in pursuit of 
 fitness for positions of trust ? — in pursuit of integrity allied 
 to ability ? Wliat sections of country were ever explored for 
 thoroughly suitable men ? what counties canvassed ? what 
 villages searched ? The New York merchants find suitable 
 clerks ; and suitable men are in every position involving rule 
 and trust, outside of the government service.* That service, 
 
 Report of Mr. Jordan, Solicitor of the Treasury Department. He says 
 generally : 
 
 " As to the accessibility of many of those employed in the Custom House to 
 corrupt influence, the e^idence is, I regret to say, conclusive and startling. The 
 facts developed show that money, in large sums, was received by officials as the 
 undisguised reward of fraudulent acts of connivance. But, in addition to this, 
 the statements submitted seem to justify the belief that nearly the entire body of 
 subordinate officers in and about the Custom House are, in one way or another, 
 in the habitual receipt of emoluments from importers or their agents. One law- 
 yer declares that he has paid to a single record clerk the sum of .f 1800 within a 
 period of fifteen months. Entries from the books of an importing house doing 
 but a moderate business are discovered, showmg that about a thousand dollars 
 had been paid by it to an examiner within a period of a year. Van Vecht^n 
 (one of the officers of the Custom House) admits that he received not less than 
 §■2500 per annum from s\ieh sources. It is shown that a bond clerk, with a 
 salary of .f 1000 per annum, enters upon a term of eight years with nothing, and 
 leaves it with a fortune of $30,000. A majority of the officials questioned on 
 the subject admit that they receive such emoluments to a greater or less amount." 
 — Springfield Republican, Feb. 17, '63. 
 
 It is likely to be proved that officials of the Custom House havfe accepted bribes 
 for affording means in supplj'ing the rebel enemy. 
 
 Investigations into New York Custom House affairs, by the Committee of the 
 House, develop the fact that a trade of such magnitude has been conducted be- 
 tween parties in the North and the rebels on the Rio Grande, that the rebel 
 agent at Matamorns has pocketed out of it over a million dollars as his share of 
 the profits. Who the guilty parties in the Custom Hovise are, of course is not 
 known, publicly at least, but the arrest of an employe, on Saturday last, directly 
 by the Committee, it is strongly believed, Avill lead to fui'ther arrests. — Spring' 
 field Weekly Republican, April 2, '64. 
 
 * The litter incompetency of many of the clerks in the Executive Departments 
 is getting to be a subject of universal comment. In one of the bureaus of the 
 
11 
 
 alas ! the politicians hold. That service they hold through a 
 popular negligence. The people fail. Hence our peril. 
 
 And however much the people are assured, by preliminary 
 pledges of reform, still, led on as we are by self-seeking men, no 
 party seeks the public good, except as a subordinate aim. The 
 first good is the good of self, on the part of tlie men who lead. 
 The second good is the good of party, which, indeed, is the 
 means of self. * The third, perchance, is the public good, 
 which is never justly achieved. And our evils breed their own 
 immensity. The plunder of government is the stimulant of 
 party, the support of politicians, their hope, their strength, their 
 stay. And the host multiplies ; — greedy, ravenous, ruthless. 
 And the people rest. The public concerns they regard as 
 remote. They pursue their farms, they pursue trade; while 
 the far-off interests of public affairs remain in the hands of 
 demagogues.'!- Can the republic stand? How long will 
 
 Treasury Department, for example, the second man in command is said to be 
 incapable of writing correctly even the most ordinary letter, and a clerk under 
 him cannot write at all. In one place mere boys are intrusted with highly 
 responsible duties, while men who have grown gray in the service have to devote 
 their time to copying. The extent to which this style of incompetent engineer- 
 ing is carried, is really astoimding. It was with au eye to reform in these mat- 
 ters, that Mr. Boutwell introduced a bill for creating a Board of Examination, 
 whose dutj' it should be to examine all clerks appointed to office, as well as 
 those now in office who are unfit for their positions. — Boston Weekly Courier, 
 April 7, '64. 
 
 * In the progress of our confusion, these men will effectually assert their claims 
 and display their skill. There is no governing power in the State but party. 
 The moderate and thinking part of the citizens are without power or uiflu- 
 ence ; and it must be so, because all power and influence are engrossed by a fac- 
 tious combination of men, who can overwhelm uncombined individuals with 
 numbers, and the wise and virtuous with clamor and fury. — Fisher Ames' Politi- 
 cal Essays. 
 
 t Who will be the associates r Certainly not the virtuous, who do not wish to 
 control the Society, but quietly to enjoy its protection. The enterprising mer- 
 chant, the thriving tradesman, the careful farmer, will be engrossed by the toils 
 of their business, and will have little time or inclination for the unprofitable 
 and disquieting pursuits of politics. It is not the industrious, sober husband- 
 man who will plough that barren field ; it is the lazy and dissolute bankrupt, 
 who has no other to plough. The idle, the ambitious, and the needy will band 
 together to break the hold the law has upon them, and then to get hold of law. 
 Fisher Ames' Political Essays. 
 
12 
 
 it last ? Are the developments of vice regarded as perilous ? 
 If they are so regarded, who, pray, is alarmed ? What meas- 
 ures of reform are already instituted ? — how many ? Not one ! 
 No doubt there are those whose sentiment is that the sway of 
 demagogues in the affairs of a republic is the natural evil of the 
 republican form ; that, indeed, their rule is inevitable ; and 
 that, therefore, it is vain to anticipate a change which shall 
 effectually ameliorate the condition of things in the relations of 
 politics and government; that, in short, we are doomed to an 
 ephemeral being. It is not to be denied that in eidightened 
 
 Man is a docile animal. If he wasn't, the professed politicians wouldn't 
 have things their own way so often as they do. They get together and go 
 through the farce of a nominating convention, putting up the men for office 
 whom they think will best serve their own purposes in the future, and the 
 people quietly ratify the nomination at the polls, no matter whether they 
 approve the nomination or not. In fact very few of those who go to nomi- 
 nating conventions have any hand in the selection of a candidate. It is a 
 pleasant thought to them to imagine they do, but they are deluded. The thing 
 was probably decided, if not ft-om the foundation of the world, at any rate 
 from the time there was any prospect of an office becoming vacant. It is all 
 very pretty to talk about a popular government, but the people have really 
 very little hand in the matter, the politicians do it all, and have things their 
 own way. — Springfield Republican, Oct. 23, 1863. 
 
 Mk. Chase's Declination. * * * « We believe his example ought to be 
 immediately imitated by half a dozen other gentlemen who are now prominently 
 named for the next presidency — whose friends are engaged night and day, to 
 our personal knowledge, establishing parties, cliques, committees, newspapers, 
 and other agencies, all having in view a victorious capture of the Baltimore 
 Convention. If we were to uncover what we know of these secret and manifold 
 machinations — and perhaps we will at a convenient season, speaking impartially 
 and sparing no man — our simple-minded readers would open their eyes in 
 wonder. At this moment, letters and telegrams, innumerable, are flying over 
 city and country, all converging upon the presidential nomination of several 
 gentlemen who are now struggling to outwit each other next June. 
 
 In this country Presidents are elected by the People ; but they have heretofore 
 been nominated by Politicians. Now, for a novelty, let us have both nomina- 
 tion and election by the People. We Avould like to see the next nominating 
 convention composed of plain men, not politicians, not wire-workers, not 
 party engineers. It would produce a salutary change in our politics if, here- 
 after, no man who is an office-holder should be eligible to a seat in a presiden- 
 tial convention. At present, men in official positions are either saving or losing 
 their heads, according as they stand affected to this or that prospective 
 candidate ; bargains are being made ; threats used ; screws brought to pinch ; 
 pressure of all kinds applied ; and all apparently without a thought that the 
 men who do these things are dishonoring themselves. We are not speaking of 
 the Democratic party — of whose interior we know little ; but of the Republi- 
 can party — whereof we know more than goes to form a flattering opinion. — 
 Indapendent, March 17, 18'>4. 
 
13 
 
 Europe such an opinion prevails. It cannot, then, be regarded 
 as strange that, to some extent, it should obtain with us.* 
 
 * Mr. Riggs says the paper currency scheme will produce money, and make 
 every man richer. He is a banker, and ought to kuoAv ; but to my ignorant eye 
 it seems likely to prove most destructive ; and I confess that, -vvhatevor be the 
 result of this war, I have no desire for the ruin of so many happy communities 
 as have sprung up in the United States. Had it been possible lor human beings 
 to employ popular institutions without intrigue and miserable self-seeking, and 
 to be superior to faction and party passion, the condition of parts of the United 
 States must cause regret that an exemption from the usual laws which regulate 
 human nature was not made in America ; but the strength of the United States 
 — directed by violent passions, by party mterests, and by selfish mtrigucs — was 
 becoming dangerous to the peace of other nations, and therefore there is an utter 
 want of sympathy Avith them in their time of trouble.— 3/y Diary North and 
 South, by W. H. Eusscll. 
 
 Paid a visit to Colonel Seaton of the National hitelligencer, a man deservedly 
 respected and esteemed for his private character, which has given its impress to 
 the journal he has so long conducted. ************ 
 Li the minds of all the very old men in the States, there is a feeling of great sad- 
 ness and despondency respectmg the present troubles ; and, though they cling to 
 the idea of a restoration of the glorious Union of their youth, it is hoping against 
 hope. ' Our game is played out. It was the most wonderful and magnificent 
 career of success the world ever saAv, but rogues and gamblers took up the cards 
 at last : they quarelled, and are found out.' — Same. 
 
 But in democratic states there will be factions. The sovereign power, being 
 nominally in the hands of all, will be effectively within the grasp of a few ; and, 
 therefore, by the very laws of our nature, a few will combine, intrigue, lie, and 
 light to engross it to themselves. All history bears testimony that this attempt 
 has never yet been disappointed. 
 
 We are to be subject, then, to a despotic faction, u-ritated by the resistance 
 that has delaj^ed, and the scorn that pursues their triumph, elate with the inso- 
 lence of an arbitrary and uncontrollable domination, and who will exercise their 
 sway, not according to the rules of integrity or national policy, but in conformity 
 with their own exclusive interests and passions. 
 
 This is a state of things which admits of progress, but not of refonnation ; it 
 is the begmning of a revolution, which must advance. Our affairs, as first 
 observed, no longer depend on coiuisel. The opinion of a majority is no longer 
 invited or permitted to control our destinies, or even to retard then* consumma- 
 tion. The men in power may, and no doubt will, give place to some other fac- 
 tion, who will succeed, because they are abler men, or, possibly, in candor we 
 say it, because they are worse. Intrigue will for some time answer instead of 
 force, or the mob will supply it. But by degrees force only will be relied on 
 by those who are in, and employed by those who are out. The vis major will 
 prevail, and some bold chieftain will conquer Uiberty, and triumph and reign iit 
 her name. 
 
 Yet it is confessed, we have hopes that this event is not very near. — Fisher 
 Ames' Political Essays. 
 
 If men are capable of governing themselves by reason, why have all demo- 
 cratic and republican governments come to ruin ? Why have they not been 
 permanent ? Corruption, it will be said, has ruined them. True ; and this is 
 conceding the whole question. It is the depravity of man which has ruined all 
 former free governments, and which will ruin otiis. ******** 
 Must we, then, despair of the Republic ? No, Sir, not yet. The people of this 
 country are republican in principle, and will not abandon the hope that a repub- 
 
14 
 
 Let us look at this sentiment. It is not unimportant in its 
 general influence; for, if our ruin remains but a matter of time ; 
 if our future is hopeless in the political relation, then our efforts 
 for reform arc vain ; or, at best, can only delay our doom. We 
 cannot deny that if an evil rules, and rules, moreover, in an 
 increasing strength, in the relations of a government for the 
 public good, the evil must, in the course of time, defeat that 
 government's aim. But does the evil of the republic necessarily 
 rule ? Is the sway of demagogues inevitable ? 
 
 The demagogue, it is clear, has no proper power. He is a 
 mere usurper. His achievements of place are through the 
 popular ignorance, or popular negligence. The 'popular vices 
 are Ms manifest means ; and by a virtuous people who are 
 properly vigilant, he may be readily deposed and precluded 
 position. 
 
 It were well nigh superfluous to repeat a truth universally 
 recognized among thinking men who sustain the republican 
 theory — that the life of the system is only found in the intelli- 
 gence and morality of the popular mass.* It has external 
 
 lican government can be sustained. But Sii-, tliat hope must be abandoned, 
 Tinless the great men of our country will lay aside their party strife, and unite in 
 some vigorous efforts to amend the defects of our Constitution. The leading men, 
 Sir, must * * * * mount up to the source of our public evils. — Mar- 
 cellus, by Noah Webster. 
 
 * Republics, according to Montesquieu and De Tocqueville, are founded on 
 two great principles — public virtue and the intelligence of the people, includ- 
 ing eternal vigilance. When one or the other of these foundation stakes is 
 removed the structure must fall. Let us not, therefore, imagine that God will 
 work miracles in our case. Heaven helps those who help themselves. K we 
 are not lit to govern ourselves events will soon put a despot over us who wQl 
 rule us with a rod of iron. Americans are no exception to human nature. We 
 are of the same flesh and blood as the men who have gone before us for 
 thousands of years, and the same fate happens to all. Human government 
 seems to be moving round in a circle. First kings, then republics, then despots, 
 and so on to the last syllable of recorded time. The American government is 
 only a modification of the governments which have preceded it. It is a represen- 
 tative confederation of representative republics banded together by a constitution 
 in an indissoluble Union, liut its founders said it was only an " experiment," 
 and its permanence depended on the moderation and wisdom of the people in 
 all sections of the country. — Xew York Herald, April 14, 1863. 
 
 Well, therefore, and in the highest spirit of philosophy, did Montesquieu say 
 that the Roman Republic was overthrown, not, as is commonly supposed, by 
 
15 
 
 perils, no doubt. An external physical force may destroy it, — 
 it may be overborne by the arms of a foreign power. But 
 from internal causes it can never decay among a people of 
 ample intelligence and worth. The important question, then, 
 manifestly is. Have we the intelligence and the moral worth 
 that will suffice to maintain the system ? It is not my purpose 
 to attempt herein the full consideration of the question. I, 
 however, conceive it may be well maintained, that with us, at 
 least with some of our states, the republican form will endure. 
 That the elements of failure, whatever they are, will be recog- 
 nized before our ruin is sure, and the competent remedy applied. 
 
 the ambition of Caesar and Pompey, but by that state of thuigs which made the 
 success of their ambition possible. — Buckle's Essays. — Mill on Liberty. 
 
 For Liberty is the one thing most essential to the right development of indi- 
 viduals and to the real grandeur of nations. It is a jDroduct of knowledge, 
 when knowledge advances in a healthy and regular manner. — Same. 
 
 Of all the dispof^itions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion 
 and morality are indispensable supports * * *, The mere politician, equally 
 with the pious man, ought to respect and cherish them. A volume could not 
 trace all theu- connections with private and public felicity * * *. And let us 
 with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without 
 religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on 
 minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect, that 
 national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious prmciple. 
 
 It is substantially true, that vii-tue or morality is a necessary spring of popu- 
 lar government. The rule, indeed, extends with more or less force to every 
 species of fi-ee government. Who that is a sincere friend to it. can look with 
 indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric ? 
 
 Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general 
 diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives 
 force to public opinion, it should be enlightened. — Washi^igton' s Valedictory 
 Address to the people of the Utiited States. 
 
 They (the French revolutionists) have attacked the foundation of civil soci- 
 ety, by endeavoring to root out from the human heart, all belief in revelation, 
 and in the moral government of a Supreme Being. — Rights of Neutrals, by Noah 
 Webster. 
 
 Although a democratic government is founded upon a very simple and 
 natural principle, it always presupposes the existence of a high degree of culture 
 and enlightenment in society. At first, it might be supposed to belong to the 
 earliest ages of the world ; but maturer obser^-ation wUl con\7nce us that it 
 could only come last in the succession of hiunan history. — '* Democracy in 
 America" by De Tocqueville. 
 
 It cannot be doubted that, in the United States, the instruction of the people 
 powerfully contributes to the support of the democratic republic ; and such 
 must always be the case, I believe, where the instruction which enlightens the 
 understanding is not separated from the moral education which amends the 
 heart. — Same. 
 
16 
 
 That though the interests of the present national Union may 
 prove too remote for individual concern, in our present state of 
 enlightenment, and that hence it may fail through the popular 
 negligence — the people leaving it a prey to demagogues — we 
 shall not abandon the republican system. That by means of 
 reform we shall still retain it in separate states, or in minor 
 unions, if not in the extended form of the present. That 
 popular effort will supersede negligence. That we shall finally 
 manifest intelligence, morality, and a popular vigilance, sufficient 
 at least, for means of relief in time to avert a general ruin. 
 
 The condition, then, of republican practice, in the general 
 proficiencies of mind and morals that we as a people have 
 secured, is not a condition of permanent excellence. Of a steady 
 success it presents no assurance; it affords no immediate hope. 
 It presents both tlie fact and the prospect of change. We are to 
 experience relapses in the public weal, from the dominant rule 
 of inherent vices, which, for the time, secure a dominion through 
 the general immorality, the general ignorance, or the habitual 
 or casual negligence of the people. We have now to do with 
 the popular negligence. This I conceive to be the dominant vice 
 that has induced the imminent peril of the times. And herein 
 we need a reform. Our honor demands it, our just prosperity, 
 indeed, our republican being. 
 
 Our imminent peril is found, I believe, primarily, in the 
 popular negligence — more immediately, in a lack of political 
 integrity. A lack of integrity manifestly appears in all the 
 relations of government; and an upright government is utterly 
 impossible, through the agencies of corrupt politicians. Corrupt 
 politicians secure the ascendancy through the general neglect of the 
 people. Usurping demagogues appear in government. They 
 elect themselves. The machinery of party is theirs. They 
 hold the conventions. Not one in scores of the mass of the people 
 bestows any effort in the primary means that elevate men and form 
 the government. Our elections are not — who does not know it ? 
 
— our elections are not on the days of election ; nor are they 
 accomplished by tlie legal ballot. They are secured at the 
 caucuses ; they are made at the conventions ; where mere poli- 
 ticians interchange strength, and cordially support one-another. 
 The people, at the ballot box, ratify their acts, affording the 
 requirements of law. Our government, then, is really the gov- 
 ernment of adroit self-seekers, political adepts, who have self to 
 serve, not the people: who find opportunity in the popular 
 indolence, indifference, negligence. Vice umrps the place of 
 virtue through the popular failure in vigilance.^ 
 
 * The apathy of all, or at least of most well-to-do persons, in the affairs of 
 the coiintry, is something amaziuir, appalling. Your rich merchant and banker 
 is here altogether absorbed by his anxiety for making money, or all agog with 
 the pleasure of spending it. He is either nailed to his desk at his counting- 
 house, or heaping luxuries in his country-house, or displaying his wealth at the 
 watering-places. Politics is the bushiess of politicians — t. e., of nameless 
 adventurers, without a stake in the country. — N. Y. Correspondent of London 
 Times, Aug. 11, 1863. 
 
 To meet the subject fairly we must begin, I think, by acknowledging a general 
 decay of what may be termed the civic virtues, — a decay which has been going 
 on for many years, affecting all parties and all classes. 
 
 Even an unexampled and uninterrupted prosperity has indh-ectly contributed 
 to it. Until the recent outbreak no amount of maladniinistration has been found 
 perceptiblj' to impair this prosperity ; fi-om which sensible and well disposed 
 men have hastily concluded that civil government, well or ill administered, at 
 least ui a country like ours where the people are self- governed, is not of much 
 consequence after all. In this way government generally, except, perhaps, 
 that part of it which is represented by the local police, has lost in their eyes, 
 little by httle, the support derived from a sense of its sacredness and necessity. 
 They have been led not only to take less and less interest in it, but also to feel 
 less and less anxiety about it, — content to build up each one his own private 
 fortune, and leaving it for those who have nothing better to do to look after the 
 State.— Election Sermon of James Walker, D. D., Jan. 7, 1863. 
 
 We believe ourselves to be right when we say that the causes of this terrible 
 civil war show nothing more aggravating and lamentable than the fact that so 
 many of our ablest class of citizens have left their interests in politics, and given 
 their attention exclusively to business and the pleasures of social life. They 
 have left the adventm-ers "to govern the caucuses, to control the conventions, to 
 name the candidates for public office, and to direct the affairs of the nation. — 
 N. Y. Journal of Commerce, June 13, 1864. 
 
 Nothing but the most scandalous disregard of public decency coidd induce 
 nominating committees to present three-fourths of the names which the commu- 
 nity is asked to vote for. Many of them are notorious for their malfeasances in 
 office, their ignorance and their boorishnesa. They have not one single thing to 
 recommend them ; and, to their credit be it said, they do not claim to have. — 
 N. Y. Jour7ial of Commerce, Nov. 16, 1863. 
 
 The nation has been ruined by politicians. Politicians work by the machinery 
 to which we now refer. It is a puzzle to some men to understand how the few 
 3 
 
18 
 
 If our political action came from the people, the result, no 
 doubt, would generally be the election of ability and worth. 
 They would seek, in the main, the requisite qualities for a fit 
 performance of official duty. The ready dictates of a common 
 sense, and a personal interest, as well as the requirements of 
 the republican form, would call for and secure no less. Then 
 
 can govern the many in these primary meetings, but the explanation is simple 
 to the mitiated. The organization of every party includes leaders and follow- 
 ers, and the bond between them is a bond of support for re-svard. Success 
 ensures the distribution of ofRces and plunder, and the pay for service is gradua- 
 ted -with reference to past dues and future ability to render valuable aid. 
 
 Thousands of respectable and mtelligent citizens in New York, men of wealth 
 and character, are too indolent or too careless to attempt any reform of this state 
 of things. — X. Y. Journal of Commerce, May 30, 1864. 
 
 The theory of our government is that the people select their wisest and best 
 men for the important and honorable service of national legislation. If this 
 were fact as well as theory, our members of Congress would be men to whom 
 the pecuniary rewards of the service would be of small account, because they 
 could do better in their professions or business at home. After their congress- 
 ional terms had expired, such men would not be found hanging about Congress 
 and the executive departments, begging for places. They would be above it 
 and have no temptations to it. The crowd of ex- Congressmen now in inferior 
 positions, and the still larger crowd supplicating and intriguing for places, 
 furnish conclusive demonstration that our ablest and best men are not sent to 
 Congress ; that, by some means, inferior men, men of small calibre and less 
 character, are entrusted with the responsibilities of national legislators. Of 
 course the fault is primarily with the people, who have no right to send as their 
 representatives insigniticant and mean men when there is really no lack among 
 us of men of high culture and honorable position. It is no excuse to say that 
 the plotting wire-pulling politicians are at the bottom of it ; the voters should 
 not surrender their personal judgment and their votes to the control of the 
 small, bargaining politicians. — Springfield Repuhlican, Nov. 21, 1863. 
 
 On entering the House of llepresentatives at Wahhington, one is struck by 
 the vulgar demeanor of that great assembly. Often there is not a distinguished 
 man in the whole number. — " Democracy in America" by De Tocqueville. 
 
 Senator Wall, cf New Jersey, tells how it happened that the indemnity bill 
 got through the Senate without opposition. "Four of our men" — and he 
 named them, — " four of our men were so drunk they couldn't leave their rooms ; 
 and the others, not knowing how drunk these men were, had gone off to Count 
 Mercier's party." — Springfield Reptiblican, March 6. 1863. 
 
 We have learned too habitually in times of peace to have it thrust upon us 
 now, that we are " thirtj- millions of people, led by thirty thousand petty caucus 
 politicians." — Boston Transcript. 
 
 To be sure, the forms of free suffrage are left us, and this suffrage has been 
 more and more extended ; but to what purpose, if the whole is merely to sanc- 
 tion a foregone conclusion agreed upon elsewhere. A printed list of names is 
 thrust upon me, which I transfer to the ballot-bo.x, with the not very pleasing 
 or flattering consciousness that I am used by somebody, I know not whom, for 
 some purpose, I know not what. — Election Sermon of James Walker, D.D., Jan. 
 7, 1863. 
 
 Policy is a snare, and politicians, in the sense which that word has acquired 
 in America, are a curse to us. — '• God in the War," a Discourse, by Henry 
 Smith, D. D. 
 
19 
 
 we should have, generally, at least, integrity, ability and worth 
 in office. These, generally, we already have, wherever the 
 people, in our republican forms, are brought into personal and 
 familiar action in the selections for positions of trust. 
 
 This is, indeed, an important truth in aid of the republican 
 theory. It may be well established, as a general truth, by a fair 
 survey of our country towns, in the conduct of their local affairs. 
 Men dishonest, incompetent men, cannot be elected and held in 
 position in our minor rural communities. In the country towns, 
 within their sphere, the people at large are duly familiar with 
 men and measui-es in public relations. They demand in the 
 main, they secure in the main, the accomplishment of the public 
 good. But here their efforts end. They perform enough to 
 vindicate their ability, to evince a fit intelligence and morality, 
 within the precincts of the minor towns. They perform no 
 more. Not one in a score, scarce one in a hundred of these same 
 men pays any attention whatever to the Countij, or District, or State 
 conventions through which the mere political seekers achieve ambi- 
 tions and secure the Government. The people fail in vigilance. 
 
 But how many men, and who, are alarmed ? To what extent 
 of public depravity, to what degree of national imbecility, 
 will we permit ourselves to attain, before we arouse to political 
 reform ? We indulged Slavery for fifty years, in regular attain- 
 ments of strength and position. And we now receive our 
 reward. " Ye shall bear the sins of your idols." * How 
 
 * The Montreal Witness thus moralizes on our Rebellion and Civil War : 
 " The present desolating contest m the United States is the result of a long 
 train of antecedents. The man who, by a career of industry and frugality, adds 
 to his possessions year by year, does not more certainly accumulate a fortune, 
 than a nation, by a career of injustice an* pride, treasures up wrath against the 
 day of wrath. The mischief was done then ; it has only become apparent now. 
 When the United States consented to sanction Slavery, however indirectly, in 
 their Federal Constitution, the evil seed was sown which has grown into a great 
 tree and overshadowed the land. When they, for considerations of expe- 
 diency, allowed the Slave Power to obtain the ascendancy, and to spread Slavery 
 mto Louisiana, Missouri, and Texas, they were striking deadly blows at their 
 own future peace. When they put the army and navy of the United States at the 
 service of Slavery, as in the case of the Amistad negroes, Greytown and Kansas, 
 and when they haughtily proclaimed to the nations that their flag must not even 
 be visited to ascertain whether it was covering the prohibited slave trade or not, 
 great trouble was evidently drawing nigh. The Scripture says : — 'A haughty 
 
20 
 
 loug will we venture to forego Integrity in the relations of 
 party and government? How long will we rest in shameful 
 negligence in the pitiful narrowness of self? How long will 
 we pursue our private affairs, — our farms, our shops, our 
 trade, — and permit, outside of the minor towns, the sole and 
 unlimited sway of demagogues ? May men of integrity, of 
 delicate honor, of eminent ability and worth, no longer hope 
 for political preferment through the just judgments of the 
 people ? Must the country continue to forego their aid in 
 deference to mere political seekers, through the popular neglect 
 of manifest duty, in clear derogation of the public good, and 
 to the imminent peril of our republican form ? Shall we con- 
 tinue to attach to our highest honors, and to the vital interests 
 of the common weal, the political adventurers and mere deb- 
 auchees, or even men like the free and mellifluous Hale ? We 
 do not disown his genial soul. We fear his virtue. Is he 
 open, alas ! in his easy hours, may he yield to the fatal allure- 
 ments of vice ? Can he reject money, forego fees, maintain an 
 untouched republican honor? Such are the concerns that the 
 times suggest. These, and similar forms of enquiry, would 
 appear both common and necessary were there a present vigi- 
 
 spirit goeth before a fall ;' and the fall could not be far off when such unheard- 
 of pride was manifested. It is said, and said truly, that these measures were 
 th^ result of slave-holding ascendency at Washington — that they were planned 
 and carried out by the very parties who were now in rebellion ; but the North, 
 which had always the majority of votes, could have prevented them. The 
 North acqmesced for the sake of tmion, peace, and protit ; and, therefore, the 
 whole nation is responsible for them, and fearful has the weight of that responsi- 
 bility proved. 
 
 " Never, we suppose, in the history of the world, were injustice, oppression, 
 and inhimianity more haughtily proclaimed, and more unblushingly defended, 
 than in the United States ; and a rightepus Providence stood pledged, as it were, 
 to make the punishment, as signal as the offense." — Netc Yo7-k Tribune, Oct. 23, 
 1862. 
 
 Cotcmporaneous with our indulgence to slavery, has been our neglect of 
 political integrity. Indeed, the former is involved in the latter. We have no 
 right to expect, even with the suppression of the rebellion, a relief from the 
 pressure of evil. Political corruption will suffice for our ruin. Were we " treasur- 
 uring -wTath " in indulging slavery ? We are no less surely treasxiring wrath in 
 permitting the politics of the times. 
 
21 
 
 lance on the part of the people, under a suitable sense of 
 personal duty in the aflairs of politics and o-overnment. 
 
 "It has been remarked by an eminent Frenchman that ' Gov- 
 ernment will be as rascally as the people permit.' " * This 
 sentiment implies the popular rule; and indeed with us, the 
 popular morals continue to hold a degree of control. Men 
 grossly and notoriously vicious and criminal can hardly secure 
 the popular vote, except in especially negligent constituencies. 
 Such men, it is true, may rule in New York, which has probably 
 the basest rule in Christendom. f And possibly there are other 
 governments still, within our boasted republican precincts, 
 where the public virtue is similarly impotent. But in most of 
 our constituencies, notorious implications in positive vice so 
 militate against the means of success, that politicians forego the 
 more prominent knaves, and substitute those who, if not more 
 virtuous, are less notoriously vile. Still, the direction of affairs 
 in the hands of politicians is constantly towards an increased 
 baseness. The people no sooner forego their duty than the 
 vicious agencies assume the sway, and go forward as far in the 
 prosecution of vice as the popular negligence allows. This 
 negligence allowed the election of Mr. Hale to his second term 
 in the Senate. It has permitted the election of other senators 
 
 * New York Independent. 
 
 t Judge Barnard of New York, to the Grand Jury : 
 
 " A few years since, a body of unprincipled and corrupt men banded together 
 for the purpose of controling the legislative branch of the City Government by 
 their votes, forming what is now kno-\\'n as the ' Ring.' It is still in active 
 operation. There is no scheme, no matter how corrupt or wicked, but what will 
 pass through, provided a sufficient pecuniary inducement is brought to bear ; 
 and no measure, however meritorious, is sufficient to become a law unless a like 
 influence is used. They seek to control every branch of the City Government. 
 There are men also who band together and live by the presentation and collect- 
 ion of fraudulent claims against this city, originated in fraud and carried through 
 by perjury. The remedy lies with the people themselves. As long as they 
 abstam from voting, or vote for unworthy men, just so long will the taxes of 
 this city go on rapidly increasing until in a few years it will amount to a confis- 
 cation of property. If the community are desirous of preserving their property, 
 they should begin at once and organize themselves into associations for the pur- 
 pose of efi"ecting mxmicipal reform." — New York Tribune, April 8, 1864. 
 
 It is little to know, as the public have long known, that the whole system 
 of municipal government in New York is a system of organised robbery. — New 
 York Tribune, April 7, 1864, 
 
22 
 
 still, who are still more obnoxious to a just republicanism. We 
 may revert, and properly, to illustrative incidents. Our public 
 men are fairly subject to a just public criticism.* It is fit, 
 moreover, to review our policy, and to illustrate our political 
 practice. 
 
 Prior to his second election to the Senate, there were ways 
 and means in the course of Mr. Hale, which, in an aspirant for 
 public position, a vigilant people might well have observed. 
 They were not unrelated to the public interests. He was 
 reputed a lobbyist in the congressional purlieus ; and inthe Brooks 
 and BmiingSime faux jMs of a duel, he appeared the defender 
 of a dubious faith, a disjunctive philosophy, ingenious and 
 novel, and manifestly potent in shielding iniquity if only received 
 and accepted. It was devised, no doubt, to appease Mr. 
 Brooks and avert the bloc Jy arbitrament. Significant chivalry ! 
 A man, it was said, could be detached from his conduct. A man 
 could be separated from Ids acts. He might thus, it is obvious, 
 be counted a gentleman though his conduct should prove him a 
 pitiful knave. This sapient system, thus sagely resultant, Mr. 
 Hale maintained in the cause of his friend. He put forth an 
 essay to support it. 
 
 Had the legislators of New Hampshire been the just repre- 
 sentatives of an honest and high-minded constituency, they 
 would not have elected a man who had pursued exceptionable 
 measures of practice. The intelligent and high-toned patriotism 
 of the State would have demanded, in a candidate for the 
 national Senate, a high-toned integrity — an untouched honor. 
 
 * I know not how we are to preserve political virtue in a republic, unless we 
 expose political vice, and do it freely. And it is right, no doubt, in making 
 the exposure, to name the offenders freely. Buckle says, having reference to 
 three officials whom he held to be delinquents, a clergyman, a magistrate, and a 
 judge, — "To discourage a repetition of the offence, the offenders must be pun- 
 ished. And, surely, no punishment can be more severe than to preserve their 
 names." So Junius declares, of one who "preserves no measures with the 
 public," — "I would pursue htm through life, and try the last exertion of my 
 abilities to preserve the perishable infamy of his name, and make it immortal." 
 
23 
 
 The cause of the republic demands no less. The national wel- 
 fare and fame demand it. But the New Hampshire legislators 
 were like other legislators. They were mainly, no doubt, self 
 constituted rulers; the supple managers of primary caucuses 
 and general conventions, especially seeking their own ambitions. 
 We may presume they selected themselves. The people of the 
 State, like the Massachusetts people, and the people of other 
 States of the Union, as a whole, no doubt, surrender politics 
 to mere politicians, and rest content in ratifying their acts 
 at the legally appointed elections. Hence they, like others 
 elect politicians. Hence Mr. Hale was elected ; while their 
 superior men, able and honest, scorning to manipulate the politi- 
 cal wires in elevation of themselves to position, remain discon- 
 nected from public affairs, aloof, unsought, unknown. The 
 republican theory looks to the people. The politicians look to 
 themselves. Is the republic to prosper ? It must be through 
 the people, in the selection by them of the ablest and best. No 
 honorable man can descend to the politics that are needful, now, 
 to success. Hence honorable men are not in office, except occa- 
 sionally, and then by accident.* Alas, the popular negligence ! 
 
 * "SVe never had greater men in science, in learning, in art ; we never had greater 
 lawyers, or greater merchants, or greater engineers. Evidently, therefore, the 
 problem to be solved is not. why men of large capacity have failed us, but why 
 such men are so apt to turn aside from politics, and devote themselves to other 
 piu'suits. It is because the new doctrines and new policies have had the effect 
 to make an enlightened and experienced statesmanship a disqualification for the 
 highest offices in the national government. Not the tittest, but the most avail- 
 able candidate is sought for, one who will revive no grudges, awaken no jeal- 
 ousies, a new man, and, above all, a man Avho is not a power in himself. Thus 
 all the candidates educated for the place are passed over ; and what is worse a 
 policy is inaugurated which makes it certain that soon no such candidates will 
 be left. Hence the answer to the oft repeated question, by which it is thought 
 to silence complaints against official incompetency. "Where can you find better 
 men ? AVhere, indeed ! You can find good men and great men ; but why 
 wonder that you cannot find great statesmen, men educated and trained for 
 public life — men who have already won the public confidence, and whose names 
 are in everybody's mouth — why wonder that this is impossible, when you 
 have been pursuing for years a course which has made it impossible. — James 
 Walker, D. D. 
 
 Whilst the natural instincts of democracy induce the people to reject distin- 
 guished citizens as their rulers, an instinct not less strong induces able men to 
 retire from the political arena, in which it is so difficult to retain their indepen- 
 dence or to advance without becoming servile. — " Democracy in America," by 
 De Tocqueville. 
 
24 
 
 But the people of New Hampshire, in this prevalent negli- 
 gence, b}^ no means present an especial remissness. The evil 
 is general throughout the republic. The little state of Rhode 
 Island stands badly distinguished. She gave us a Simmons. 
 No doubt she knew him ; and knowing him well she ought to 
 have kept him away from the Senate. But it is more than 
 likely that the interests of self, with a leading few, if not with 
 the mass, discovered in him the facile means of its own especial 
 achievements. He was, no doubt, the manufacturers' man; 
 moreover, a manipulator, keen and accomplished, in the sinuous 
 and selfish means of the " tariflfs," wiiich were held as essential 
 to Rhode Island " interests." But the man who can be used as 
 the tool of a class, in clear abnegation of the common good, 
 may be capable, also, of serving himself in outrage of common 
 honesty and honor. The result so proved, A sworn legislator, 
 in the highest relation, this senator's service was due to the 
 country. He gave that service in her hour of peril — he gave 
 that service to himself. He sold his aid against the treasury. 
 He accepted money. * 
 
 With us our organization of party is a conspiracy for the success of medi- 
 ocrity. Strong men, men of decided ability or strength of character, are not 
 available, -which means that the -wire-pullers cannot mould, turn, t-wist, or hood- 
 whik them at pleasure. — New York Conunercial Advertiser, Jimed, 1864. 
 
 * We ought to learn fi-om our enemies. De Tocqueville says : — 
 
 " Men -will not receive truth from their enemies, and it is very seldom offered 
 
 to them by their friends." 
 
 " The majority lives in the perpetual utterance of self applause ; and there 
 
 are certain truths -which the Americans can only learn from strangers or from 
 
 experience." — Boston Weekly Courier, March 17, 1864. 
 
 The whole history of our former association with the Northern States admon- 
 ishes us that in a common government they will never fail to employ their 
 power to take away our property. Their present malice springs chiefly from 
 baffled cupidity. But for this master passion of their natiire, an honorable and 
 speedy peace would be easy. — The Assembly of Virginia to the Virginia Soldiers. 
 
 The Richmond Enquirer thus responds to the peace propositions of Cox, the 
 democratic congressman from Ohio : " The seductive song of the impassioned 
 swain means, Help us, Carolina, to a democratic ticket for next Congress, and 
 you shall have part of the stealings. Have we not always, oh child of the sun ! 
 lived and loved and stolen together ? How often have our hands met in the 
 pocket of the same innocent public, and fondly pressed one another ! Without 
 
25 
 
 It was a case of dishonor that concerned Rhode Island. Has 
 she ever revealed her sense of his conduct, and of her own 
 negligence, in a manner indicative of thorough reform? No, 
 never. The ways of dishonor are but the common ways in the 
 relations of politics and government. They fail to alarm us. 
 The self-constituted influences that control our elections still 
 continue in being. They are permitted still. They organize 
 action and accomplish their ends, with scarcely a reference to 
 the popular sense, which, in the passing times, from the popular 
 
 our dear South the democrats can plunder no more ! "Without thee that once 
 imterrified party pines in isolation and despair ; it is one blade of a pair of 
 scissors ; it is the half of a hook and eye. So sings the swain of Ohio. Will 
 Carolina hearken to the gay seducer ? " — Springfield Republican, March 17, 1863. 
 In reading the accounts of what is said and done at the South, I am not 
 offended. I can hardly say I am disappointed at the courage and constancy 
 manifested amidst great sacrifices and privations, for what they have been made 
 to believe is right. These are qualities which I can admire even in a foe. Eut 
 I am filled with mingled sorrow, disgust, and dismay, when I see the false views 
 and intense hate entertained there against the Free State?, not merely by the 
 principal actors in the rebellion, but by clergymen and women, — many of them 
 our own brothers and sisters, and children, our own flesh and blood. Never- 
 theless we must be just. I do not ascribe this unnatural and unrighteous alien- 
 ation of the Southern mind to a spontaneous movement among the people, nor 
 to the legitimate working of our institutions. It is the accursed fruit of the 
 irresponsible, underground machinations of the leaders of party. — James 
 Walker, D. D. 
 
 It would be well if we knew how much of the southern hatred towards us, 
 indeed, how much of the war, comes from a view of the venal baseness, and 
 general meanness, which, through the popular negligence, have misrepresented 
 the North at AVashington ; and especially from the strenuous persistence of many 
 in selfish and oppressive tariffs. Have we sent men who, in the interests of 
 class, pushed the South to the extreme of endurance ? Have the people surren- 
 dered the broad prerogatives of a national patriotism to the narrowness of class 
 and self — through the agency of men of the stamp of Simmons ? Is it strange, 
 then, that the South hates us ? 
 
 . The exposure of senator Simmons, of which we give the evidence in another 
 column, is exciting a great deal of mdiguation at Washington, and will have the 
 same effect all over the country. People have not forgotten that he has been 
 engaged in other trading speculations. His notorious schooner load of yankee 
 notions, stopped on their way to Port Royal, has been newly brought before the 
 country of late, by a demand of Mr. Simmons for payment, on the plea of 
 damages done by the Secretary of the Treasury in arresting that commercial 
 venture. But he is better known at Washington by the manner in which he 
 has persistently urged trade legislation to benefit himself. He is largely inter- 
 ested in manufactures of a peculiar kind, and it is notorious that he has been 
 the uncea-ing advocate, iir his place in Congress, of duties whose direct effect 
 was to enrich him and the manufacturing company with which he is connected, 
 at the expense of the country. — New York Evening Post. 
 4 
 
26 
 
 Nor is negligence the lowest vice of our practice. A popular 
 venalitj is sometimes manifest. There are men in high positions 
 of government whose distinctive means of success is money; 
 and Rhode Island is the State, of the New England States, of 
 which allegations of baseness are made in the debauchments of 
 money at the polls. Mr. Sprague had wealth. The political 
 managers found, it is said, that witli him and his money freely 
 applied, they could oust an existing State regime. Mr. Sprague 
 was willing. His money abounded. He was elected Governor; 
 and thence, without any strength distinctive, in the relations of 
 talent and worth, he was elected to the United States Senate. 
 Alas, Rhode Island! Her people, careless, if not debauched, 
 are untrue to the cause of the country.* 
 
 * The Brookl^jTi Ea^le thus daguerreotypes Senator Sprague : 
 wealth, which they would gladly spend to oain DosiHon At -f .f ' °^ '?^* 
 
 closed purse was opened, and with great generosity his rnP,lr.f ' ^°i'°- 
 
 the Pri:.ce of Wales that if he would^isit KToTelland h^ shoufd beC""f -^ ^° 
 hke a prmce, and in a peculiarly reckless manner ^^ entertamed 
 
 " He was chosen Senator with but little trouble althni.o-lT h^ , 
 required age. Indeed, we doubt if he is yet oM enough f tvf. ' •''°* °^ ^^^ 
 wdl take his seat at the approaching session He ^1 Sake no sjeech^'^ "J' 
 neither writes nor talks ; he will no! contribute to the di^t, orthTsen^^^^^^^ f" ^ 
 andTe ; \T\ """^ ^P^^P°T^«i"g in appearance ; he will Jote re'iflX'f l\^ 
 and he wil always regret that he forsook his conc-enial factorv ?v .! ^i' , 
 
 a mark and could hold his own with the best of t W f. Idctoiy, ^^ here he made 
 legislators whom he can neither ^ucnce 2 oi^^^^^^^^^^^ 
 Arffus, Nov. 17,1863. Lujnprenena. — Albajiy Atlas and 
 
 I'he democrats made a show of nommating a ticket but not n.„.i • 
 for It, and the only interest m the election was in the ^^1?^,,?.!!^^°^"^^ 
 elect a U S. Senator in place of Mr. Anthony Governor Wh''''' '' ,*° 
 place, and so does Mr. Anthony, and the split has become n,^^ • ^^""^^ *^'^ 
 yet quite certain how it will come out llhod Wandr aTmaff T.' ' T \^' 
 pohtiesseemtobe no purer there than in largtr s'ttt^ VnTi^ 'ffcfthf rich 
 
27 
 
 It is not my purpose to go out of New England, in pursuit of 
 illustrative incidents. It were enough to attend to ourselves; 
 though, possibly, incidents more palpaljly flagrant, at least in 
 their ordinary features, might be readily adduced fiom abroad. 
 Indeed, a Cameron's name might be brought forward, and pre- 
 sented in connection with a line of achievements unsurpassed in 
 the history of self. It is scarcely needful. He is familiarly 
 known. We recently saw him in the acme of assurance, when 
 we were told he aspired to the Vice President's place, through 
 the next Presidential election. Persuasive statesman I Badly 
 off as we are in the relations of vice, we may yet look in pity 
 on poor Pennsylvania, in view of her subjection, through polit- 
 ical wiles, to the bestowal of Simon Cameron ; for he was the 
 bearer to President Lincoln of her legislative proceedings, 
 engrossed on parchment, in behalf of his second election. Poor 
 sons of Penn ! What stronger evidence were it possible to 
 afford, if not of ignorance and immorality, at least of the gross- 
 est political negligence, than the continued sway of Cameron ? * 
 
 politicians have more chance of buying a good place. Senator Spraguc had no 
 difficulty in stepping into his present place from the Governorship, and now 
 Smith wants to play the same game, and if he buys up a few more newsjiapers 
 may succeed. — Springfield Republican, April 9, 1864. 
 
 * Resolved, That Simon Cameron, late Secretary of War, by investing Alexan- 
 der Cummings with the control of large sums of the public money, and authority 
 to purchase military supplies, without restriction, without requiring from him 
 any guarantee for the faitliful performance of his duties, Avhen the services of 
 competent public officers were available, and by involving the Government in a 
 vast number of contracts with persons not legitimately engaged m the business 
 pertaining to the subject matter of such contracts, especially in the purchase of 
 arms for future delivery, has adopted a policy highly injurious to the public 
 service, and deserves the censure of the House. Resolution passed by a Republi- 
 can House of Tlepresentatives. 
 
 Mr. Camel-on was rewarded by the mission to llussia. — Albany Atlas and 
 Argus, Oct. 30, 1862. 
 
 T. J. Boyer, a member of the Pennsylvania legislature, publishes a circumstan- 
 tial statement of the attempt of Simon Cameron to buy his vote for the United 
 States senatorship. Boyer feigned to enter into the arrangement and was 
 promised ,f 20,000 for his vote, the money being placed in the hands of a third 
 person, a Mr. Patterson. The original idea of Cameron was to hire three demo- 
 cratic members to stay away from their seats, and so give him an accidental 
 majority, but Boyer, whose real object was to defeat Cameron, objected to any 
 dicker with any other member, as his vote for Cameron would accomplish the ob- 
 ject. Boyer says that as soon as Mr. Cameron supposed the business was settled, 
 
LiBRftRY u^ 
 
 012 028 365 f 
 
 28 
 
 "We may turn from abroad ; we may recur to ourselves. 
 
 Massachusetts sends Henry Wilson to the Senate. Osten- 
 sibly she sends him. But really he secures the position himself. 
 Massachusetts essentially abides in negligence. She is amused, 
 it is true. She accepts asseverations, steady and strong, in 
 opposition to American slavery. She permits herself to be plied 
 witii those ; and she permits, therewith, the application of tac- 
 tics to tiic general control of her political affairs in whatever 
 relates to place and spoils. She permits the rule of mere poli- 
 ticians, of whom Mr. Wilson is the veriest chief Foregoing 
 honor, foregoing patriotism — foregoing both as she foregoes vigil- 
 ance — slie permits the achievements of self 
 
 The author of this essay, some years ago, in the legitimate 
 pursuit of political affairs, was brought in contact with Henry 
 Wilson ; and for several years, in matters of politics, was neces- 
 sarily familiar, not inconsiderably, with his general tactics and 
 practical measures. He saw his modes of success ; and, seeing 
 his modes, he was led to observe, with a degree of distrust, 
 his -bearing in official position. Regarding the public acts 
 ofofficials as suitable subjects of popular comment, he reduced 
 his observations, for a limited space, at an eventful period in 
 American affairs, to the form of a public letter. He offered that 
 letter to the press. It was withheld for the time. As a 
 part of this essay, in a future number, he intends to present it 
 to the public. It may serve in illustrating the American states- • 
 man of the modern type, in the full fruition of modern modes. 
 It may serve in presenting Oulf*" Political Practice; and, hence, 
 our need of reform. 
 
 he threw himself upon the bed and exclaimed, "I shall be senator. I will then 
 be the most powerful man in America. These southern people will gain their 
 independence. We will have a northern republic, and with the aid of the 'New 
 England states govern matters pretty much as we like." Mr. lioyer seems to 
 tell a straightforward story, and there is nothing in Mr. Cameron's case that 
 renders it improbable. — Springjicld Republican, Jan. 26, 18G3. 
 
 END OP PART FIRST. 
 
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