The Placer herald., 1859-07-09
Tha People and their Servants.

obligation, if the servant be in abject
unconditional slavery.
The servant owes service. He must be
docile, Industrious, honest, and in all things
respectful to superiors and at all times strict
y subservient to the will of the master
The best power Of the mind and body belong
to the master, when acting within the line of
his duty,-and these he must engage in cheer
fully and uncomplaingly. For these advan-
tages the master is under reciprocal obliga-
tons. He does not hold his position Of su-
perior to CRAFTY his vanity and avarce alone.
He-is not superior for the purposes Of pet
ty tyrsny, or to impose unfeeling tasks and
punishment.
If he is master, lie has great obligations
to discharge, a high duty to perform, Kind
ness to those whose feelings are entirely un-
der his control for good or evil, is one Of the
first and most delicate duties of the master. If
he censures heshould do it with the strictest
justice. His actions must be reasonable.
To protect the servant from insult and wrong
is as much, if not moro, his duty, than if he
was one Of his own children; for inasmuch
as it is the fortune of one to have lost or
never to have enjoyed the power Of protect
ing himself from wrong, the master is by all
reasonable rule to discharge that duty for
him. In sickness and pain he should be his
nurse and physician, and when stricken with
years and infermity, bis most induIgent pro
wider and friend.
These are mutual obligations, universally
admitted to obtain in the domestic relations,
for the time being there are similar obliga-
tons existing between public servants and
the people. If the agent be intelligent, eff
cient and faithful to his trust, the principal
is quite as much benefited in the main as the
servant who occupies that position, and it is
only demagogue who would tell the people
differently
Yet it is quite the mode in our day, to
imagine the favor to he all upon the side Of
the public officer.
He has been honored, he has been pam
pered, lie has been favored at our hands say
the sharp ones and therefore is under life
times duty of servility to compensate for
these advantages.
This is particularly true Of those POSITIONS
wherein the expense in canvassing as can
didate is quite as much AS all the money
flowing thorefrom, when in
place. THE servant is worthy of his hire"
says the good book, but what is the hire Of
a gentleman holding the position Of repre-
sentative, for instance?
We speak Of the capable man, who ac
,epts such places from correct motives. 1t
is not money, for the per diem in eight
cases out of ten, does not equal the neces-
sary expense of one occupying such place.
1t must then be something higher than mon
ey considerations, nerves him on to labor and
TO battle, for the rights, or to redress the
wrongs of people, 1t must be with lla.
sire to identify himself with that people, to
obtain their confidence and affection. In
deed he can do but little for them and to
their advantage without; for be it known,
that the legislator who is known 10 stand
fair with those he assumes to represent, has
in AN equally enhanced degree the confidence
Of his co olawinakers, and from that fact
alone, he carries into the legislative halls
moral power, borrowed from his people,
He is armed with confidence at once, his
lance and shield. This is we'll understood in
older communities than this, and the rule of
"rotation in Office" is made to accommodate
itself to common sense and practical ends.
The man who holds position purely hon.
orary, should not be lightly assailed, or if
ISLANDERS are circulated against him, the pub
lie should remember, that, the duties of such
an officer necessarily lead him, in the guard
ianship Of the public interest, to oppose and
thwart the schemes Of those who would prey
upon the purse or property of the people of
the State, and in such cases, suspend judg-
ment until facts were adduced sufficient to
confirm report.
We would not be understood as all apollo
gist, for the men who in this State have
grossly outraged. and disgraced place, by
acts of cupidiy and treachery. We would
not have such persons placed on a footing
with the true man; and if the people under
staud their true interests, they will make
marked difference between the two charac-
ters. 1t has been we'll founded complaint
that the public men of this State, have not
been true to their Obligations. This, how
ever, is only true in the aggregate, they have
always had some public men, who, relying
more upon the recttude of their own honest
motives than the applause Of the public,
standing in greater fear of disapproving
conscience, than the clalnorous Indignation
of pot house politicians, have ever been
vigilant sentinels over the interests of the
State. Such men have not been properly
sustained, or else the assumption Of office
would in itself confer honor, which now is
scarcely settled fact. The people have not
stood by the men who stood by them, else
we should now be able to point to more