Weekly Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1853-1861, 1856-09-18
The Presid entail Election,

The most abStruSe and complex points of
controversy are sometimes GOlyable by the
plain principles of common sense We would
apply this TO the great, debatable issue in
volved in the pending presidential campaign.
The President, as the head of the govern
ment, has to represent the great body Of the
people in taking charge of their business and
protecting their interests. He is the respon-
sible person TO whom all the people look,
and he is held amenable as such. To show
the practical relations between the people
and President the consequences involved,
and the prophecies that should govern the
people in their choice of President, we will
illustrate by asking the following plain, COM
nonsense question:
Suppose a firm engaged in very large,
extended and complicated business, and it
was made indispensably necessary to intrust
it to the control and management Of some
one man, who was to take their place and
represent their interests; who is it most like
ly the firm would select? Would it be
person wholly mex perienced in the peculiar
character of the business, without any of the
appropriate training to qualify him for the
task, whose habits and pursuits had been al
together alien to all the wants of that espe-
cial class of business, with no security against
the hazards of novice? Would it be a per.
son whose testimonials of character and rec
ommendation were from spectators, office
brokers, and political lottery-dealers, who
were to share the fortunes of their endorser?
Or would it be a stable and reliable person,
qualified by long training, long experience,
profound wisdom, careful habits, laborious
industry, and substantial fidelity; whose
schooling and training had been to take him
through all the degrees of preparation
whose diploma was qualification, and whose
character was stainless :? Which of the t,oo
persons would the intelligent prudent, and
careful firm select for the high trust and safe
reliance in conducting their business honor
ably, honestly, safely, sagaciously, and pros
perously? There ought to be but one an
swer; and there would be but one, if the
people would not make the Presidential
election exclusively political, to be influenced
by thousand extraneous considerations, as
potential as the actual merits of the case
If they would reduce this tumultuous con-
troversy 10 the rules that govern business, it
would simplify the vexed question, and lead
to the harmony and safety of the counting
house and factory in decisions of business.
In'this Presidential matter, the people are
the business firm, and the President is their
agent or representative. Strip the question
OF Its extraneous political vestments, and it
is business, in the acceptation of the term
To this simple standard we wish to see the
matter brought
If sound, common-sense rules govern bus
mess in the private and ordinary relations of
life as the best guarantee for success, why
should they not apply to the popular will
bearing upon the great concerns of nation?
The greater the consequences involved, the
greater the obligation to pursue the best de-
lined path of safety and success Washing
ton Union.