Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1864-11-22
INSUFFICIENT QUALIFICATION.

INSUFFICIENT QUALIFICATION.
Considerable interest is becoming mani
tested, and properly too, among our citi-
zens, with regard to the approaching Sem
atorial contest. The importance to be
attached to the selection that shall be
made by our Legislature cannot be over
estimated. The whole future of our new
State will be shaped for good or evil, Tor
prosperity or ruin, for rapid develop
ment or eternal stagnation. upon the
early legislation with reference to the one
great resource of the State. Coupled WIN
the sciR to- advance the interests OF the
State and the Nation, it requires a kno"l-
EDGE of what ought to be done to secure
thai advancement, and practical under
standing of the n'odHs opera'd' OF leslsia-
,;,,, N carry sound views into effect. 1t
ia insufficient to constitute a valuable
United States Senator, that he should
simply be "a good man. an earnest pat
riot. and one who has the interest of the
State and Nation at heart" There are at
least ten thousand men in this new State
who.would fill that bill, and whose pos
session Of all those qualifications would
be admitted by all. But there are not ten
thousand men in this State who would do
credit to themselves or justice to their con-
stituents upon the floor of the United
States Senate Chamber. To make cred
table United States Senator requires
very considerable knowledge of law and
the fundamental principles Of statesman
ship, and a thorough comprehension of the
resources and Necessities of the State rep
resented, as well as those Of the Nation at
large, which the Senate as asbody repre-
sents and legislates for. These are points
of knowledge which no man possesses by
mere intuition. They have to be learned
in the school of deep study and actual
personal investigation. A man may pos
sess natural intellectual faculties of high
order, and still be totally incompetent to
the efficient discharge Of the duties of
legislator. One may be profoundly learned
in the arts and sciences, and eminently
qualified to be teacher of men in every
branch of scholastic lore, and yet be
totally ignorant in that kind of knowledge
indispensable in an United States Senator.
Another may from his hard services rem
dered and honorable wounds received in
the cause of his country, demand the
gratitude and profoundest regard of his
countrymen, and may justly claim from
grateful country the reward of yalor and
patriotism; but if he be wanting in the
essential elements of craftsmanship, his
countrymen do both him and the State
wrong when they place in his hands
powers which he is not by nature or edu-
cation qualified to WELD to the advantage
of the people and the nation. We have
all of US seen the mistake of rewarding
honorable services with offices of grave
requiring totally different
qualifications from those possessed by the
persons upon whom the offices have been
conferred. The history of our Nation is
full of such instances, and they need not
be quoted. A Nation should be grateful,
and generously reward its faithful servants
and estimable citizens, in whatever field or
that service may have been
rendered. But in choosing men to rule,
to make laws or administer them, the
selection should be made with an eye
single to fitness. The Bench, the Battle
field, the Senate Chamber and the Execu-
tive Chair, each demands in its incumbent
the possession of peculiar qualities, and
one calculated to shine in the one, may
miserably and disastrously fill in the
other. Our history is full of such ex-
amples, and as in the formation of our
State Constitution We pro6ted by the ex-
ample of older States, adopting that which
had proven good and rejecting that which
was evil. let US also avoid other errors
which their hi story records.