Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1858-12-09
OFFICE SEEKING.

In the earlier, and we fear we must say the
better days of the Republic, when kings were
more fashionable, and all sorts of potentates
were held in greater respect and reverence by
the masses than they are now, it was the Gus
tom of the people to select for their leaders,
whether in the camp or the legislative hall, the
best men for every position of honor, response
bility, and trust. Men of character, men of
mind, and men possessing some peculiar adap-
tation, or recognized fitness for the Office which
was to be filed, were generally selected by the
united voice of the people, because the people
generally recognized the principle, that great
responsibilities should devolve only upon the
ablest and wisest of their number.
The first American Congress, was a COM
plete illustration of the idea that pervaded the
universal heart of the United Colonies, when
it convened for the purpose of taking measures
to throw off the tyranic yoke of Great Britain.
From noble John Hancock rich man and mer-
chant, to Roger Sherman, shoemaker, or Ben
Franklin, printer, the moral and mental lesson
of the presence Of each ill., independence Hall
at Philadelphia, on the 4th of July, 1915, as
one after another as representatives of the
people affixed their autographs to the Declara-
ton of Independence, was-"A GOVERNMENT
OF THE wIsEsT" The people had begun to
have their faith shaken in the traditional doc
trine of " the divine right of kings" but they
rigidly held fast in their esteem those manly
qualities, out of which kings who were not
born kings, were made kings and rulers, over
their fellows, in the early ages of the world.
OF the immortal fifty-six who met together
upon that sultry July day, to hurl defiance at
tyrannic old King George, history bears no
record that there was one among them all,
who had attained the honor of such position,
by seeking for 1t. Those great men, whose ex-
allied patriotism and clear, discriminating judg
ment laid the foundations of the republic up
on the everlasting principle of the equality of
all men, before the law and before God, were
not the nominees of caucuses; they had not
begged for the position by lives of serviHty to
the interests of any faction, or offered pledges,
which they never meant to perform, to secure
the votes of the people. Their fitness for the
duties which devolved upon them was unver-
sally recognized, in the communities in which
they lived and they were there in the pride
of their intellects, in the nobility of their vir-
tue, and in the strength of their patriotism to
act for the common veal.
In some eloquent Fourth of July grafton,
those men have been spoken of as "having
been especially commissioned by Heaven to
rule the storm of the Revolution" but we
are not of the number of those who believe in
special Providences and must still hold to that
more rational mode of accounting for the re-
suits of their labors, upon the principle that
their elevation was owing to the spontaneous
promptings Of the popular heart, animated bya
love Ofcountry, a love ofyirtue and of all those
other noble traits in the human character
which win for men the admiration and esteem
of intelligent communities.
And so in regard to the chieftains in the
field of strife, in that eventful period. George
Washington had no lobby agents hanging
about the purlieus of Pennsylvania Hall, if we
have studied his antenedents correctly, for the
purpose of button-hOling the members into a
recognition of his claims" to the post of COM
manderin-chief Heroic old farmer Putnam
did not feel called upon, when the news of the
battle Of Lexington reached him, to hurry off
to Cambridge as fast as his horse could carry
him, for the purpose of urging his "claims"
upon the commander-in-chief for some promi-
nent post of command. Nor did the brave
blacksmith, Gen. Green of Rhode Island, feel
any immediate and imperative call to put in
his "caim" to commission in the army, on
the ground that he was poor man and a me-
chanic Those men all loved their country,
and the cause of the country, with patriotic de-
yotion, and they were willing to toll suffer
bleed, and die, if need be, in their defence, but
the place, the manner, or the position which
they were to hold in the great struggle, never
prompted them to transgress the bounds Of
propriety, SO much as to seek honor or rank in
the army, as the price of their devotion.
In those days, really great men were will
ing to bide their time for capacity and fitness
for place and position were deemed to be quail
ifcations of 50 much importance in those who
aspired to lead and govern, that little men
were scarcely thought Of at all, and the little
fIiends of little men, who had axes TO grind
had not thou discovered the secret Of grinding
them in the modern way.
That was indeed the golden age Of the re
public for capacity and fitness for Office wer'
deemed to be essential possessions Of the per
sons who aspired to them; and the odious pc
litical game of "dickor" had not then been in
vented. In those days men were called from
their private avocations into the public ser
vice by the desires Of the people, and no
cgowded 10, by the Vaccinations of interested
partizaBs they were summoned TO act as th,
servants Of the people, because the people de
sired and would have their services, and no
because the official coveted the honors or th'
salary Of the position.
Would that such a condition Of things NIGH
again return, and, that 10 our little New Eng