The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1853-11-10
NO. 2
The Standard Of Craftsmanship
and its application at tie Ballet
Box.

DUAt
Are brains, learning, and virtue requ-
site to form thoroughly-furnjshed Iegls-
tor. or is it enough to commit ourselves
to funkeys and nobOdys, and then expect
that Providence will work miricle and
bestewd the gift of common sense upon
them, at the proper exigency?
1t is marvel, that in country like
ours, where there is SO much legislation,
where the community is law abiding one,
where the contact between the govern
ment and the people is close, there should
nevertheless be such low standard of
legislative capacity. Laws are the ultl-
mate and authoritative expression of pub
lie opinion. Law is the basic conception
of form and mode of government. The
codes which departed nations have left to
US, are, perhaps to philosopLic observer,
their most significant and interesting rel
les, for in them are embodied the customs,
beliefs, polity and spirit of the people,
The Legislator has ever been considered
as occupying position of the most solemn
and responsible character He requires
certain qualifications. The history of the
people for whom he legislates, their laws,
customs and institutions, should all be fa-
mila to him. He should be acquainted
with the history of other nations, and be
able to draw therefrom such lessons and
/ illustrations as their fruitful experience
may suggest. Legislation should present
itself to his mind as vast social science,
profound study, a problem with whose
right solution are bound up the most pre-
cious hopes and the common veal or woe
of the governed.
A low order of mind, and imperfect ed
ucation or none all, real desires, base
propensities, tricking gstrategy, yendibility,
dependence, subservience, and jobbing-
these may, and mostly do, characterize
those who take up the trade of Legisla-
tion as a handicraft; but the time, we fain
hope, will come, when these corrupt parts
shall slough off from the living body,
when the community shall properly appre-
ciate the true qualities Of a legislator, and
put no man at the statesmans post who
is not gifted with states manlike character
istics 1t is time for mind, not craft to
enter upon legislation, as an arena of
Thought. On that vast stage are to be
discussed all questions of law, of liberty,
of trade, of finance, as they may affect the
resources, the wants, and spirit of the peo-
pie, and bear upoh the manifold forms of
their social, industrial, and political de-
velopment. What resources of knowl-
edge, what purity of purpose, what en-
largement Of views, what acquaintance
with the stores of wisdom laid up in the
works of the mighty reasoners, ancient
and modern, upon the various subjects of
civil polity, and at the same time what
practical familiarity with the daily life
and doings of the people, are required to
make up a thoroughly-furnished states
mani TO the hands of such an one, We
may confdentially commit the helm of
State, assured, if we may have any faith
in man, that the goodly ship shalt not be
tossed adrift, like an ill-guided bark.
Which angry waves, cast out on distant
shore,
And then retireing, leave il there, to rot
And moulder in the winds of theaVen.
Astatesman thus equipped, will not only
be the passive expression of the times, but
will himself be creative power, and en-
abled to explore new paths Of progress,
to call into being new elements of pros
perity, and to suggest original concep-
tions, to be embodied into legislation.
IF we seek to realize this lofty ideal of the
legislator, the Senate-house will then be-
come an object of honorable ambition
At present, good men, great men, wise
menyayoid it. Jotham's fable seems to
be rehearsed in our midst. Voters, like
the trees which went forth on a time to
anoint king over them, have been put
up by the olive, the fg-tree, and the vine,
until in very despair, they have been con-
strained to say unto the bramble-Come
utOH, and reign over US! 1t is high time
the people of the United States should a
mend this state of things altogether
Conventions cannot make statesmen. A
nomination cannot metamorphose loater,
du!lard, mercenary noisemaker, hab- :
erdasher of the most petty intellectual
wares, or an ale bench politician, into
competent legislator, though it would
seem that, when political party puts a
ny Doe or Roe on its legislative ticket, he
becomes at once a thoroughly qualified
law-maker for great commonwealth of
two millions ofpeople!
Refuse to vote for the suspicious medi
ocrities and half-cuts put forward of late
years on the partizau tickets, and you may
thus purge the halls of legislation, We
see no other way, We should form some
adequatn conception of theitrue character
of Iaw-maker, and then discriminate ac-
cordingly at the ballot-box. Thus we may
I l. - l.,