Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1864-09-27
Merchants for Congress.

We pray our readers not to be alarmed, we
are not going to put forward the claims Of
any politician or any class Of politicians to
Congress, but we are DESTROYS Of attracting
attention TO what we feel has been yery
great evil in the selection OF representatives
70 the National Legislature. We mean the
undue preponderance which has been gener-
ally given in that assembly to the lawyer
class. Il is easy to understand how this oc-
ours. LAWYERS, from the nature Of their call
ing and intellectual training, are much more
in the way Of being engaged in political Pur-
suits and exercising personal influence among
politicians than the men Of any'other calling;
It comes naturally in the way Of their busl-
ness TO get and to keep office, and so we ind
as matter of fact that a very undue proper:
ton of Members Of Congress, as well as OF
the State Legislatures, consist Of this class.
Merchants, on the other hand, especially
merchants of high standing, are so much en-
FACED in the weiShty responsibilities of their
own business that they have neither time nor
disposition 10 attend to that long and wear
isome political training which is supposed to
be necessary preliminary to Congressional
honors, and thus large share Of the labsr OF
politics is left to the lawyers. II must be ad-
mitted, too, that it is not the most honorable
or the most able members Of the profession
that addict themselves to the business Of
politics; honorable exceptions indeed there
are, but it is humiliating fact that cannot
be denied that the majority of the men who
habitually attend to politics, and really make
it the business of their lives, are intellectually
and morally the lowest of their class. As a
consequence, expedients are resorted to, and
thought to be unavoidable, for the accom-
plishment Of political objects which no hon
orable men could sanction or adopt, and thus
the legislative interests of the country are
permitted to remain in the hands of the most
unworthy, and oftentimes the most incompe-
tent men in the community.
Now is II not time that an effort were made
to redeem the country from the incubus Of
this growing and destructive evil The way
is easv. Let respectable and thoughtful men,
instead of shrinking as they now do from con-
tact with the corrupt and base party man
ayers, confront and control them. Let the
citizens of New York set the example to other
cities and the country at large, and determine
to confer the honor Of her Representatives IN
Congress upon the most distinguished Of her
sons. Let the electors next fall seek their
own servants, and intimate to the leading
men in the community that they are expected
to sacrifice their own interest and serve the
country in Congress. In making such Sc
lection, we should like to see number of the
foremost men of the New York bar (of the
politics of their constituents who would give
dignity to the deliberations Of the House and
confer honor on the country. We should
like to see representation Of the most emf
nent of our mercantile men bringing their
practical good sense and knowledge Of the
commercial requirements Of the country TO
bear upon the National Legislature.
We were painfully struck in Washington,
during the debate on the Tariff and Tax bills,
at the utter incapacity Of the great majority
both of Senators and Representatives in at
tempting to deal with those commercial SUBJ
iects which are Of such immense public i'm
portance, especially to the city Of New York,
and we determined to take the first suitable
opportunity to bring the subject before the
mercantile community. Never before was
the necessity so great Of having wise and
honest legislators. Never before did the i'm
perilled country need such able hands to pilot
her through the quicksands and rocks BY
which she is surrounded.
Let then the corrupt and degrading class,
who make politics trade, be set aside this
fall, aud let such men among our merchants
as Moses Taylor and A. A. Low, and Peter
Cooper and George Law, and A. 7. Stewart
and William E. Dodge be the candidates for
the peoples suffrages at the next election
U. S. Economist.