Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1854-07-01

SEEKING AFTER OFFICE 1t is said that Mayor Con-
rad is besieged in his Office, waylaid in the Streets
and even hunted down in his house, by applicants
for Office The fact dsgraceful at first thought
it seems inexplicable That men should be eager
for petty offices, in country where honest labor
can always find employment; that they should be
so ready to sacrifice the certain independence of
business of their for the precarious tenure of
public post-these anomalies that require
some explanation, and demand considerable charity
not to awaken scorn.
uncertain. A man may do the dirty work of his
party for years may crnge to this leader and depre
cate the anger of that may for year after year.
may spend his money; and yet may lose the prize
after all. Just when he thinks himself, perhaps,
positive of success, candidate, who has never
before been heard of, suddenly starts up securing
the appointment. The chances of the faro table
almost reliable those politics. The gambler
is doubtless more dishonest man than the Office
seeker, but he follows business which is nearly as
certain, and scarcely more demoralizing.
For there is nothing which vittates the character
effectually than the pursuit of precarious pro-
fession. In proportion men exposed to great
vicisstudes of fortune, in that proportion do they
become unsettled, improvident and often reckless.
He who has sought Office for year two, gener-
ally becomes untitled for any regular pursuit. He
lives in a fever of hopes and fears If the office is
of the great prizes, he dreams continually ofthe
wealth he is to acquire when his luck has at last
cured to him triumphant election. fit is of
the smaller posts in the gift of the public, he is just
d
good shoemaker, bricklayer, carpenter tailor or
stronghanded operative, has been sacrificed to make
indifferent policeman, or worse tide-water. To
have longing for Office is like catching the lottery
fever-ten to one the victim is good for any
thing again. He who once respectable work
man. aborious business man, becomes tavern
brawler, hanger-on to some demagogue, mis-
called great man.
Even when the aspirant succeeds in his Wishes
the chances even that he is ruined by the tr-
umph. We have more than estimable man
utterly destroyed in both character and fortune by
what was at first considered his good luck, in OBJ
tanning fat office. An appointment to public post
of less lucrative description is often the end
that happen to the recipient. Rarely is he able
amid the fluctuations of parties, to hold it for many
years and when he is turned out, he finds he has
saved nothing and lost his former business quali-
cations. Is he mcdaniel Want of practice has
made him an Indifferent workman so that he is the
last to receive employment and the first to be dis
charged Was he originally merchant? New
methods have succeeded to the old ones and he dis
covers in consequence that he is utterly incompe-
tent. Is he lawyer? He has to build up prac-
tice anew, with the notifying fact before him, that
men of less ability are enjoying lucrative income,
merely because they stuck to their profession from
the first. This is not indeed, the fate of ALL But
it is so result that justified in con-
sidering it of the results of Office seeking and
in pronouncng that every third man who holds
prominent post and two out out of four in petty ones
ruined by ofhce-seeking.
Occasionally there solid reasons why man
should solicit Office. But generally, ofice-seeking
is the result of inherent defect in the charac-
ter. The applicant is too lazy, proud, or thrift
less for ordinary pursuits. OF course, getting into
Office does not help the matter; only the poor dupe
thinks that it will and when he wakes to discover
his illusion, it is generally too late. Every person
of sense, every alive to his duties to his family
will avoid office seeking, and seek establish him.
self in some independent business. He then becomes
his own master, and holds in his own hands the
prosperity of his family, and security for comfort in
his old age
PhiLa Ledger