The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-04-29
Public Decentralization and Official
COrruDtiOn.


Corruption.
In discussing the great evil of legislative cor
ruption. we must not forget to enumeratC
among its less obvious but more powerful
causes the widespread materialism of the day
The worship of wealth was never so prevalent
as now; and there seemingly never was a
time when it made so little difference in the
popular estimation how wealth was obtained.
Honest poverty, or even competency, is jostled
aside on the street by ill-gotten afluence.
Men whose hands are polluted with
bribes, and every dollar of whose wealth rep
resents an act of dishonor and moral degrada-
ton, hold their heads as high, and, appa-
rently, are treated with as much respect, as
though their honesty and honor were above
question The moral tone of the whole COM
munity upon the subject of the dis
honest acquisition of wealth seems
fatally weakened and lowered The haste
to be rich, the dissatisfaction with
the old and tedious paths to affluence, the
constant examples Of sudden and inordinate
acquisition, the immunity from punishment
enjoyed by those notoriously guilty of cor
rupt practices, the general Difference paid to
wealth, the extravaganza and luxury of living
on the part of the rich-all these things are
evidences of state of society which ought to
make us wonder, perhaps, not that our legis-
latures are as corrupt as they are, but that
they are as pure as they are.
There is, however, on the part of the cor
rupt legislator a baseness which is peculiar.
The position he occupies is a fduciary one.
He has solicited and accepted a public trust.
He is bound to conduct himself in it, not for
his own private ends, but for the public good.
When, therefore, he turns aside from the
legitimate path of popular representative,
and is controlled in his actions by motives of
personal gain-when he pollutes his hands
with bribe, he descends to very ignomi-
NOUS depth of crime. He has outraged the
rights of society far more grossly than does
the ordinary thief, the burglar, or the coun-
terfeiter, tor he has violated a most sacred
trust and has prostituted an honorable public
position to the most dishonorable ends.
And just here is the inconsistency of society,
that while the thief, the burglar, and the
counterfeiter are kicked out of all decent
companionship, and made to feel that they
have lost all standing among the virtuous and
the respectable, the corrupt legislator, noto-
rious as such apparently loses nothing
socially by his dishOnorable and debasing
career. We say apparently, for there must be
in every honest mans bosom a feeling of in
finite contempt for the wretch but to all ex-
ternal appearance he comes and goes among
his fellOw-men as much respected and honored
as ever.
This thing ought to be changed. Society
ought to put the seal of its public disapproba-
tion upon such villany, and make it socially
as disreputable as are the more ordinary and
less guilty class of crimes. But to do this
society itself must be more pure, and must |
cease its idolatry at the shrine of Mammon.
AS long as wealth atones for everything in the |
public eye, the root of the difficulty will re-
main to throw up new shoots as fast as we
cut down the old ones.