Loudon free press. (Loudon, Tenn.) 1852-1855, 1853-07-22

/ A loving radiance to my spirit given,
/ For oh! picture thee in all my dreams
/ Of bliss on earth and plessedness in heavenl
| 4 Good Word on P0litics-B. H. BREws-
TER Esq, of Philadelphia, delivered very able
address before the Literary Societies of Prince
ton College on Tuesday week, from which we
take the following extract with regard to the
pursuit Of politics.
"The time was in the early history of this
country when great men were wanted in public
places to establish our institutions-good men
are needed now in the walks of quiet life to
strengthen them. All the world over the trade
of politician is the occupation of gamester;
1t is the business of a man whose time is spent
in envy and strife. Public stations can confer no
rank and bring no distinction to men who run
after them. All great public occasions COM
mand the men best fitted for the times: The
emergencies that excite great men to action
having passed by, tranquility having been re-
stored, order having been established, new
| men-inierlor men-men of doubtful parts
succeed to their masters, and manage with ease,
II not with skill, the vast machine which wis
dom created and industry set in motion. All
history has afforded constant example OF this
our history may yet do so.
Sir Robert " Walpole in these latter times, with
mastery resolution, with power mightier
than the storm, the power that binds the storm
the calm-plucked up the crown of England
from the hedge wherein contending factions had
flung it, established the Hanoveran succession,
suppressed conspiracy, quieted religious dis
cord, and secured that stability aud dignity to
public affairs and that repose to private life.
which nurtured the strength of England. and
gave her the power to resist world in arms
With lnfeXlble purpose he suppressed all at
temptS to embroll his country in a war. and for
twenty long years, as the first Minister of the
Crown, governed his country with heroic will
de was succeeded by inferior men, but when
the eXlgencles OF public life again required a
man-the Pelhams gave away for Pitt-as
politicians and Placemen in this country must
hereafter give way for patriots and statesmen.
The highest public distinctions in this coun-
try can have no attraction for ri ght minded-men,
unless they are the unSought rewards of person
al worth, dignity of character. mental ability
and blameless life. Obtained in another way,
they disgrace those who hold them. They
were intended to be great honors to the best of
them, will not equal the income that any man
can earn, who is fit to hold them and discharge
their duties.
If men crawl to high places by craft and low
contrlvance-if they hold them at the cost of
all love of truth and practice of heroic virtue
II they accept station, which they are unequal
to, from want of proper training-from want of
| information and want of mental capacity, and
which they hold like impostors and usurpers,
pulled up with vanity, and meanly greedy for
the pay of the place-they are in pillory.-
Such adventurers and serving men in their mas
fap'- olp hos h. Id
With scorn by the misguided people who exal-
ted them TO power to establish an equality of
vulgarity, ostentation and wickekness Let not
this be your fate.
Thus far the great men ofths land have with
| reluctance and humility, received the dignities
their countrymen have bestowed upon them.
Washington and jefferson and jackson nev-
er stopped to solicit place. or accepted it as the
| result of secret contrivance.
Let me warn you against the temptations
that beSet you to embark in this business of
politics. a life well spent, in the steady pur-
suit OF any calling, will yield you better in
come will give you an independence of posi-
| ton, and manly dignity of character, that no
othce can ever secure for you. The small Off
ces OF county are always small places-and
the high ones must be filed by men Of mark,
for little men grow less in them, and dwindle
into pigmies. Before you will consent to step
out of the respectable privacy of your own
calling to take Office, be sure that you are not
unworthy Of the place, or impelled by selfish
motives: for to the most worthy and upright these
stations bring with them trials and griefs that
torture men to death. Ofen-times persons of
merit are swept to ruin in these high floods of
vulgar excitement, are stained for life, and
their usefulness hurt by STOPPING to waive their
rank, and be associated in those enterprises
with mean, unprncipled men. The shores of
political life, in every country, are strewn with
wrecks like these, and many Of them were rich
argosies.
If you wish to know what public fame is, re-
member that the long line Of Roman consuls
and Grecian magistrates is now forgotten, while
A1Sop, slave, Socrates, a mechanic, and Hor
ace, the son of freedman, arc immortal"
The population of the Island of Cuba is a.
bout l,25O,OOO, divided in race as follows:
blacks, 644,67O; whites, 6Oj,56O. Of the
blacks, $4,000 are slaves and the rest free
blacks and mulattoes Of the whites, $4,000
are natives or creoles, $4,000 Spaniards, $4,000
troops and marines, and lO,5OO foreigners.
The Cincinnati Commercial learns from reli-