Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-04-23
American Reprc.entntive Men.


sketches of some thirty-four gentlemen en-
gagged in political pursuits, and, either by
| themselves or their friends, deemed suitable
material out of which to manufacture Presi-
dents of the United States. 1t is an useful
book for the politician and the journalist
and, if sufficiently comprehensive, will, per-
haps, save members of the latter profession
from falling into errors such as have hereto
fore been committed, when some not-very- |
generally-known celebrity has been called |
from well-earned forgetfulness, and thrust
into the candidacy.
It Is not, however, of the book, but of its
title, and things connected with the same,
that we propose to speak. The title is-so it
seems to us-a misnomer. Are these gen.
tlemen whose lives are devoted to the bust
ness Of seeking and holding office through
the agency of political parties? are they the
true representatives of the character, dignity,
energy, intellectual force, mental direction
and moral conclusions Of the people of the
| United States2 Are Messrs. Breckenridge,
Chase, Douglas, Everett, Fillmore, Guthrie,
Houston, johnson, Lane, Mclean, Orr, Reed,
Seward, Wise, or any, or all the class to
which they belong; are they, in any just and
rational sense, "our representative men2
These gentlemen have, it Is true, filled
very considerable space in the public eye;
but is it because they have been the evangels
or peculiar representatives of any leading or
prominent theory, or principle, or movement,
social or economical2 or because being, under
our political system, agents, either actually
or prospectively, of the people, in respect to
concerns deemed of moment, the interest in
the thing has given q Fictitious importance
to the agency In other words: is their rep
resentative character actual or only formal
natural prerogative, or thing of accidental
place and position? We suspect there will
be but little dispute upon this question. Take
away all that they have acquired through
f Office and party, and what would any of them
represent?
Since the battles of the Revolution, and the
creation of the national polity, the great
works of the counlry-those which have
f given to the people their distinctive charac-
ter-have been in the line of material
| IOlOSbo hdNO pSOh ohOpJ
away, wide regions subdued aud made pro-
ductive, cities built, manufactures established,
and a vast foreign and domestic commerce
brought into existence. In literature and the
elegant arts, we have done little; in philoso-
ply and speculative science less. Our true
representative men, therefore, are those in
whom the spirit of material progresshas found
ifs 1ngA E,,1A
Whitney, Stevens, Hoe, Lawrence, Wander
bilt, and many of their fashion, are the men
who far more truly represent the American
ideal, than any political magnate in or out of
the list of possible candidates for the Presi-
dency.
We might go further, and lay it down as
an impregnable proposition that no party
politician can be, in any respectable sense, a
representative man. In his best phase, he
represents nothing but his party and in all
ordinary aspects, the thing which he repre-
sents is simply his own private interest. To
be inhexibly welded to any principle what
soever-that is to say, to the extent to accept
it in all its logical consequences, would be
too dangerous. His representative character
must therefore, always depend for its con-
tinuance upon accidental circumstances To-
day he stands as the representative of one
dogma; tomorrow, perhaps, of its opposite.
A nation of weathercocks might find in him
the fulflment of its ideal; but not nation
where productive industry is the great and
pregnant fact of its condition.
fany one were to be asked who were the
true representative men of this city where
would he be likely to look for his answer
To the City Council, the Ward meeting, the
political societies, party executive commit
tees, or offices in the Courthouse or City
Buildings, or to the counting-rooms, the foun-
deries, the porl-houses, the shops and manu-
factories, the Merchants and Manufacturers
Exchanges? Probable the latter. Very few
! would even think of the others. Our mem
bers of Congress and such like celebrities, we
regard srising gentlemen, doing the bestthey
can for themselves; but when we think Of
those by whom the growth of the city is pro-
NOTED, its wealth increased, and its business
and fame extended-the representatives of its
will and its energy--we look in quite another
direction.