Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1860-08-30
WHEELING, VA, THURSDAY MoRNING

inc pest energies of their lives to political
eplPLoyments.1--Sof often see men in
other professions who waste a Iarre nor
tlonsef their abilities, from never disc0y--
eringsuntil it is too late thatitheytwere out
OF place. We only speak of the tendency
OF our institutions to. attract the average
virtue and intelligence into, the public SER
vice, and when it does attract Il higher
RE"ge. OF men: 1t is, as n general thing,
!.l'! tne!r sMisfortnnei it condncss neither to
thftr happiness nor. to- their usefulness
and, III nine cases out of ten, discharges
them from its service disappointed if not
| brOke6-hearted. ,tt
! The reason why the best order of men
are rarely. found in the public service lie
upon the surface. There is no principle
OF. political economymore universal in its
application than that the supplyof every
thing Will be proportional to the demInl.
This isas true of stateInIn as it is of sea
men or soldiers, or wheat or cotton. 1t is
the tendency of the representative system
constantly to circumscribe the sphere of
government, and to limit its function to
the simple duty of keeping one mans
hand OFT 6of another aud off from his
property This, duty does not REQUIRE the
hrst order of men; tits sort of upper
constnble'si work at the best, for which
| certainaqualities.th that are not rare are most
important. Ofcourse the supply will cor
respond %the demand. The public will
not nay for n better grade of ability than
tho service requires, and if it does, the
| competition with the mmltitudes who are
| supposed competent for it is such that the
chances of success arc not sufficient to
induce thosef who are good for anything
else TO incur It's risks.
If Republican Institutions did net have
i ! 8" -.
The encomi6Hlsy which have been passed
upon them. ~.
Hence lit, isitthat, ,sMith honors literally
raining upon him from every quarter, Mr..
Banks has not seen the day since he en-
| tered political life when he would not
gladly have exchanged the pleasure which
any of them conferred, for an assurance
that the very. moderate expenses of his
family from week to week could be con-
venicntly and surely met. lie knew too
we'll the value of his own self-resDect to
exchange it for atlluence, rs he readily
might have done at anytime in the various
exalted positions he has held. With his
views OF statesmauship it was impossible
for him to work for any but the State, and
tue Consequences that he finds himself
to-day, after ten years of most honorable
public service, and with every temptation
to continue in it that political life can
offer, poorer man than he was when
earning daily wages in II New England
factory. And yet Mr.. Banks has no cx-
pensivc habits, and has lived with all the
truSality which the positions he has occu-
pied have permitted.
While doing SO little for himself Mr..
BankS's services to. his country have been
such AS will only be appreciated in anoth-
er generation. Without speaking of snch
as are political in their character and still
more or less the subject of. controversy, IT
is but just.to say that he has done more
PIE c3gfodtten Hff Of her property; titan any
person who ever occupied his seat before
him. To his indefatigable exertions Mass
achusetts owes q reduction of her State
taxes of nearly S9O0,OOO in two years;
! reduction of town taxes to the amount of
nearly SS00,0OO, and an increase in the
valuation of her property in eight years
of SSl4 100000. While he has been do
ing all this, with the cooperation of the
excellent men which superior adminstrn-
tive talent is sure to bring about it, Mr..
Banks himself has .prOspered only i'll hon
ors; lie is still one of the very poorest meu
| in all New England.
| And of all his distinctions which the
future biographer of Mr.. Banks will have
to record, this deserves to occupy the very
highest rank. He who possesses the abil-.
ity to bring himself within the reach of
the greatest temptations, and the virtue to
withstand them, lacks nothing but tue
crown of poverty to prove him to be of the
genuine blood-royal and n ruler by Divine
right.
Without affirming that Mr.. Banks leaves
| political life for position in (which he can
be more useful, we may with propriety say
that he leaves it for a position in which
such talents rs his are more needed, and
therefore are much better remuncrated.
He will be the local or resident manager
of the largest railway property on this
continent, representing capital of more
thnu thirty millions, covering u territory
larger than the State of Connecticut, or
even than many of the States of the Ger
man Confederation, and furnishing daily
employment to between three and four
thousand men. For the management of
such property no one has too much ca
pncity or character, and the direction of
the Illinois Central Railway Company has
never exhibited more sagacity and fore
cast, and they certainly was never in bet
ter luck, than when they enlisted in their
service the proved and distinguished ad-
ministrativc talents of the Governor of
Massachusetts.
Domestic Romance,