Cooper's Clarksburg register. [volume] (Clarksburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1851-1861, 1853-08-17
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POLITICS.

delivered q very aple address before the
Literary Societies of Princeton College
on Tuesday last, from which we take the
following extract with regard to the pur-
suit of politics. 1t is true and timely
consul, aud we hope sank deep into the
minds of his young listeners
- The time WAS in the early history of
this country when great men Were want
ed in public places to establish our in
stitutions-good men are needed now in
the walks of quiet life to strengthen them.
All the world over, the trade of a politl-
clan is the occupation of a gamester; 1T
is the business of q man whose time Is
spent in envy and strife. Public stations
can confer no rank and bring no dis
tinction to men who run after them. All
great public occasions command the men
best fitted 20 the necessities of the times.
The emergencies that excite great men
to action having passed by. tranquility
having been restored, order having been
established, new men--inferior men
men of doubtful parts-succeed to their
masters, and manage with ease, if not
with skill, the vast machine which wis
dom created and industry set in motion.
All history has afforded consistent example
of this-our history may yet do SO.
= Sir Robert Walpole in these latter
times, with mastery resolution, with a
power mightier than the storm, the power
that binds the storm-the calm-plucked
up the crown of England from the hedge
wherein contending faction had flung 1t,
established the Hanoverian succession,
suppressed conspiracy. quoted religious
discord, and secured that stability aud Dig
rity to public affairs, and that repose
to private life, which uurtured The strength
of England and gave her the power 20
resist world in arms. With infexiblc
purpose he suppressed all attempts to EN-
broil his country in war, and tor twem-
ty long years, as the first Minister of the
Crown, governed his country with hero
ic will. He was succeeded by inferior
men. but when the exigencies of public
life again required Il man-Pelhams gave
way for Pitt-as politicians and place
men in this country must hereafter give
way for patriots and statesmen.
1.-The highest public distinctions in this
country can have no attraction for right
minded men, unless they are the unsought
rewards of personal worth. dignity of
character. mental ability and blameless
life. Obtained in any other way, they
disgrace those who hold them. They
were intended to be great honors, not rich
siuecures. The compensation attached
to the best of them, will not equal the in
come that any man can earn who is fit to
hold them and discharge their duties.
elf men crawl to high places by craft
and low coutrivances- they hold them
at the cost of all love of truth and prac-
uce OF heroic virtue-if they accept sta
tons which they are unequal to, from
want of proper training; from want of in
formation and want of mental capacity,
and which they hold like imposters and
usurpers, pulled up with vanity, and
meanly greedy for the pay of the place;
they are in a pillory. Such adventurers
and serving men in their masters clothes |
will be laughed at and expelled with scorn
by the misguided people who exalted them
to power to establish an equeality OF vul-
garity, ostentation and wickedness. Let
not this be your fate.
Thus far the great men of this land
have with reluctance and humility, re-
ceiyed the dignities their countymen have
bestowed upon them.
Washington and Jefferson and Jack
son, never stopped to solicite place, or
accepted it as the result of secret contri-
vance.
Let me warn you against the temp |
tatlons that beset you to embark in this bu-
siness of politics. A life well spent. in the
steady pursuit of any calling, will yield |
youa better income, will give you an
independence of position, and manly
dignity of character, that no office ever
can secure for you. The small offices of
= a country are always small places; and |
the high ones must be filled by men of
mark, for little men grows less in them,
and dwindled 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 sta
tions bring with them trials and grief to
torture men to death. Oftentimes persons
OF merit are swept to run in these high
floods of vulgar excitement, or are stained |
for life, and their for usefulness hurt by |
stoopingto waive their rank, and be associa-
ted in those enterprises with mean, I'M
priucipled men. The shores of political |
life, in every country, are strewn with !
wrecks like these. and many of them were
rich argosies.
II you wish to know what public fame
Is, remember that the line of Roman con-
suls and Grecian magistrates is now for
gotten. while Esop, a slave; Socrates, a.
mechanic, and Horace, the son of freed
man, are immortal
AVALuABLE INvENr1oN-Levi 8. Rey-I
nolds, Esq, OF Indiana has obtained pa