St. Charles City Republican intelligencer. [volume] (St. Charles City [Charles City], Iowa) 1857-1861, 1860-11-08
The Moral Element in Politics.

Many of our readers will doubtless
rccollcct the analysis which Macaulay
makes of the character of the Count
of Avaux, an accomplished politician
and ~diplomatist in the service of Louis
XIV. His vigilance, his penetration,
his adroitness, his fertility of resource,
his skill in discovering the weak parts
Of a character, his bland temper,
pleasing dcmcanor and handsome per-
son, his thorough-going devotion to
the King he served, are all exhibited
in the historians most felicitous peri
DDS. What was wanted to make him
a perfect politician? His defect was
this, that "of the difference between
right and wrong, he had no more no
ton than a brute" Macaulay tells
us that he would have been a more
sagacious politician eff he had sym
pathized more with the feelings of
moral appreciation and disapproba-
ton which prevail among the vulgar"
Without scnsibility or conscience him
self, he could not understand the eXis-
tcncc of scnsibility or conscience in
others. When his schemes involved
in their execution wickcdncss so hor-
rible that even ordinarily wicked men
refused to act, nc could not under
stand their scruplcs. "To every re-
monstrance,' we are told, "hc listen
ed with a cynical snccr, wondering
within himself whether those who lee
turcd him were such fools as they pre-
tended to be, or were only shamming."
Some of our American politicians
of late years, while they may have
shown no small portion of the ability
and accomplishments of Avaux, have
also been tainted with his leading de-
feet. They have exhibited a dcficien.
cy, not merely of moral character, but
of moral perception. Now, in a de-
mocracy, no man can be a great poll
tician, unless he includes the elements
Of power in a community, and of
these clements benevolent feelings
and moral instincts form no inconsid-
cradle part. To overlook these en-
tircly and address simply the selfish
elements of human nature, is to COM
nit q blunder as damaging to the
shrcwdness of the politician as to the
character of the man. And yet this
is exactly what numbers of our most
adroit and ~schcming politicians are
in the habit of practising.
Daniel Webster once indicated how
short-sightcd a that policy which
aims to get the favor of the people by
measures which outrage their moral
sentiments. "On the question Of
slavery" he said, "a great portion of
the community is strongly excited.
The subject has not only attracted at
tention as a question Of politics, but
it has struck a far deepcr-toncd chord.
1t has arrested the religious feeling
of the country it has taken strong
hold on the consciences of men. He
is a rash man, indeed, and little con-
versant with human nature, and es-
pecially has he a very esti-
mate of the character of the people of
this country, who suppose that a feel
ing of this kind is to be trifcd with
or despised."
So it is with regard to all questions
Of public policy. The great mass of
the people are honest in their public
acts, and they will not long tolerate
the politician who practices a decep-
ton upon them, and obtains their sup
port by strategy and fraud.