State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1831-1836, 1836-05-24
(yT.) MAY ~, 1896.
From the Ontario Freeman.
OFFICE HUNTERS.

OFFICE HUNTERS.
Mr.. Editor: | have just risen from read
ing the sold Bachelor by the late William
Writ, and ] must say that | have never
read book that pleased me more. 1t is
n mixture of every thing from grave tC
gay-from sober to severe all together
But the passage that pleased me most, was
the following, taken from volume LIST, No
xiv. Never was there truer picture of al
office seeker drawn.
lit is amusing to observe, at what a dis
lance one of these hunters of office will
wind his prey; and how the first tainted
breeze that saIutcs lis sense will give the
alarm to all his faculties set his brain OH
work: how he will discern at one glance
that such an appointment will create such
a vacancy; which filled by Il particular
| character, will create such another and SO
on; until by series of successive promo
tons or changes, the distant post is vacated
on which his heart is set. And then with
what indefatigible industry will he labor at
his purpose According to the morality
of such gentleman, it is by no means an
| important inquiry, whether the characters
whose promotion is to make way for him,
be worthy Of that promotion; whether they
be the best that could he selected for the
service of the country--it is sufficient for
him to know, that they are the best that
could be selected for his good us to the
good of the people that is minor consid-
alton, and comparatively, of little account.
! As il would not do for him, however, TO
avOw the real motives of his conduct, the
! characters who stand in his way are imme-
| dately tricked off in a the feathers and
lewelry of panegyrlc, and scarcely recog-
nize their own image, again, as reflected by
their unknown and unlocked for encomiast.
In the mean time, with what patient and
perseverng assiduity will the office hunter
study the humors and whlns of those on
whom the gift of the office depends and
with what adroit and dcXterous versatility,
will he adapt himself to them. Has he
heretofore committed himselfby advancing
correct, but an obnoxious opinion? lie
will support it no longer, however loudly
the occasion may call for it; and thus art
fiji us he may be when he speaks, his very
silence, too, becomes art and eloquence
Or is he drawn out by acompulsion which
he does not think it prudent to resist? He
prunes and pares down his former opinion
until he finds that it fits the popular stand
ard or if the emergency he pressing, and
his character bold one, he openly renoun-
ces and repudiates it altogether, and under
the assumed sanction of the peoples viii,
embraces its converse and advocates it with
all his energies.
With one of these adopts there is nothing
however apparently careless, that is done in
vain. There is no bow, no smile, 10 IA
miar inquiry that is thrown away. Ac-
cording TO the cant phrase, every thing
tells And us it was said of Alexander
| Pope, that he hdrdiy drank his ten lCitiou
q Strdtagem--so it may be truly said of one
of those intrguers for Office, that every glas,
Of wine he drinks, is Il snare for the gen,
tIeman of whom he begs the honor TO join
him. There is no opinion that such an one
advances or represses, no man that he cen
sures or praises, no dissenting shake of the
head, no expression ofcountenance, no stcI
that he takes either in conversation or con
duct, but what touches some wheel, o.
yerges to some goal connected with til,
great affair of self. What an immense
chain of causes and consequences, linl
after link, will he forge and put together
in orderto grapple the remote prize, ant
F bring it within his reach How will h
complcate and involve his machinery witt
spring after spring, and plot behind plot
until there are few who can pierce through
the whole scheme and detect the dark an,
, distant purpose. Sooner or later however
it will lie detected and once detccted-th
man is gone foreverp
think that would apply to some of on
E politicians nowadays very well.