Weekly hawk-eye and telegraph. [volume] (Burlington, Iowa) 1855-1857, 1855-07-18
From the Boston Atlas.
POLITICAL TOM F0oLERY.


m rry andrews are AL giants and its antics
leviattan. 1t often falls to carcaturc, and
oftener f we may adopt the distinction OF
Iogurth) 10 cariturd. 1t has been consider
ed, with It's cant phr sses and fashionable
Fash, its queer fances and odd slmlles, its
wide metaphors and thubderous se-laugh'
ter, to have borrowed color and character
from our sublime scenery, high mountains,
deep, wide rivers, dismal swamps, measure
less prairies; 10 hare borrowed also from
our social id josyncras:es, our steam style OF
business, our hurry and intensity. But from
whatever sources our general humor may
spring, and by whatever accidents 1t may be
mod fed, certainly that branch OF it which
We devote to politics is unspeakably wonder
full. We have such great national memories,
so nearly related to tho present that thew are
almost great national ext eriencrs; we have
so lately passed through the throes of polisi-
cal birth; our emancipation is SO recent, and
our colonial dependence has been such lit
Ito while thrown of; we have such a problem
to solve, such n work to do, such evils TO es-
cape, that politics, it seems to US, ought 10
appear awful and reverend to thinking men.
In many of our public places the great face
of Washington, with its antique. energetic
severity, and cold, irresistible will, its almost
womanly purity,its more than manly strength,
looks down upon throng of veual, selfish
beings, who are trading upon old traditions
and coming catchwords out of our historic
scripture. It's face to s,artle the indifier-
emit, to awe the light headed, 20 rebuke the
unprinciplcd. That it does not do its work
need not astonish us while slaves creep in the
shadow of the Parthenon and lazaroni defle
the Coliseum.
Every body knows the story of the French
man who flung u filthy jest at the Moses OF
Michael Angelo and perhaps we arc rapidly
becoming galliczed N spirit if not in speech.
If Grcenough's great work fails to arrest the
levity and looseness, the bagatelle and bur-
lesqr, the coarse brutality and cringing SER
Witty which spin, reel, and curtsy near it
perhaps it is not the fault of the chissel
which has now fallen from the dead hand of
the sculptor. We must have our laugh let
what will come Of II. 1t is not of SO much
Importance that we laugh at each other, but
we laugh quite rs heartily at ourselves. If
some Ephraim Square,oes, mourning over
the degeneracy of his time, charges us with
vcnality orinsincerity, we admit the justice of
the lmpuGatlon chaeriy, and gigglc with in
finite jocosty at our own wicse1ncsS. The
poor newspapers which used to s9cnd their
breath in proving the incc nsistency or the in
terestedness Of the other side find their occu-
patton gone. Tho other side, with sublime
sang troid, admits hat it is moons stelit and
interested; that 1t intends, God or the devil
helping, by fairness or foulness, by some
means at leas', to get office; it does not pro-
fess to be CincinnatLs, or William Tell, Or
John Hampden it will admit with pleasure,
If requested. that is Pertinax NlcSycophan :,
:,
simply avows its purpose of winning in the
game just now going on either apretiy place,
or Il fat contract, or a social aivantag'.-
Alas what can the poor newspapers say to
this?
Isit strangN, then, that politics IRE bncom
ing joke and The newspapers only daily
comic nmanncs? We have not time to
speak of the different manifestations Of this
humorous spirit, but p rhaps that of Presi-
dent n minating is the most NOTABLE. This
is the height, The apex, the crown of the
comedy. Tho method is to find out some
poor foil to whom gruaging Nature has Civ.
en- only half handful of brains, or who has
been hopelcssly crazed by tho whrling mas
queradc of the times; to treat him, in his
raggedness and wrctchrdness and idiocv, not
only as a sensible being, but as great man;
to raise him up as candidate for the Presi
dency of this great people; to put speeches
into his mouth, obtain letters from his zen,
| and make him the subject of nonsensical res
olutions. His bad spelling is delightful, h S
bad grammar exquisite, his gibbering and
squraking sets the sham caucus in a roar. -
The newspapers take up the jest; the conta-
gioD of nonsense spreads: ali the seaboard
giggles, all the interior chuckIes; the friends
| of Pratt and Alellen array themselves, and
the mock battle goes on. And this is the
pastime of those who call the Puritan faith
crs their ancestors; whose home contains
Plymouth Rock and Faneuil Hall; whose
State was founded by Samuel Adams and
John Adams, by james Otis and Jesiel Quin-
cy! ss
But We do rot stop here. 1t is when this
| nonsense, by hook or crook, attains certain
forlorn seriousness that it becomes espec-
| noteworthy. Sometimes we hsve a strange
compound of ribadry and dead earnest Mr..
--has made fortune in steamboats,, and
| he is nominated. lie must have a varo
competitor. and Mr.--,who has also
made fortune in steamboats,, is also nom-
mated. The work goes on. Eminent dry
salters, distinguished ship builders, celebra-
ted captains of celebrated clippers, illus
trous village attorneys, famous bush fight
ers, renowned India rubber manufacturers,
and extraordinary agriculturists are ali
s'talke6 OFF for the Presidency.
All of them have their champions, and
each of them his chance of success. When
they are mentioned men laugh, and if the
meanest of them should he elected men
would tumble into commissions of glee The
office has been so belittIed that any dwarf
is big enough to fill it. We may be sure of
of one thing: it i'll shrink to the proper
tons Of its incumbent.
Fun, of course, is fun; but the govern
ment of Republic has sometimes been es-
tsemed sober affair. How much powder,
life and trouble it would have saved if our
fathers bad only laughed at the statutes Of
George Ill. and only grinned at the tea in
Boston harbor! How much livelier would
the proceedings of the Congress have been
If Yorick had been put in the place of Pew.
ton Randolph, and members had sent for
some Joe Miller to jest instead of Mr. Duche
to pray. They We're moping set, however,
and took to what the actors call s:a serious
line of business" We live in iocoscr DAYS.
Mr.. Felix Grundy Mcconnell. of Alabama,
moves that the American House of Repre-
sentatlves dopresent to Mr.. Sawyer, of OHIO.
sausage OF vast proportions; the House
only laughs. Mr.. Nike Walsh, of New
York, treats honorable members 10 choice
variety OF Bowery oaths and low Tammapy
jests; and the House still laughs. Ii is
pleasant to laugh in season. The French
aristocrats praetised in prison the art Of 60.
lpg up the steps of the gnil!otine gract fully:
gallant men measured their PAGES, ard gig.
Ing girls adjusted their pe.ticoa,s, some
what hideous rehearsal. The GIfond SITS
spent together their last night upon cnrib
drinking Wine and pointing epigram.. just
before the ship sinks JACK, 10 u state of mu-
tiny, maugre the circumstances of tie chan.
IAN, sometimes performs hornpipes upon the
quarterback. Our ship may BE- in no such
strait, and hornpipes may be scasonablr; blu,
There is that below which ought to make us
careful at least of fire, il not of light.
This is a free country. tree
70 think in, free also to be stupid in or mad.
a WISE Answer -aYou must not n,.v
With that little girl my dear,s said an iniud,.
Bn', ma, Ike her, she is good little girl.
and I'm sure she dresses as prettily as ever / do:
and she has loisof tays.n --s.41.s ,
al - - =