The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-07-08
Uhs New Type of Statesman.

Wade, at his home at Ashtabula, Ohio, ap-
peared the other day in the Cincinnati Com
nerciGt, and has been widely copied, describing
that gentleman's personal habits, mode Of life,
tastes, peculiarities, opinions, and expecta-
tions, and winding up with cordial recon-
mendation of him for the Presidency. Mr..
Wade has now been for some time talked OF
for this Office and the letter in the Commercial,
besides being an entertaining piece of personal
gossip, is undoubtedly also contribution to
the usual work of preparing the public for his
nominations kind of work which is done lor
candidate after candidate with the most SIN
gular simplicity and earnestness, Slthougn
hardly ever produces any result we notloe
the letter therefore, not because we DeneVe
IL. or ANYTHING like it, can seriously Affect Mr..
Wade,s political fortunes one way or the other,
INT because II contains an excellent sketch OF
tvTa of statesman which, though it would per-
hans be inaccurate to call it new, is every year
becoming more and more pronounced. The
production Of this type is partly due to reac-
tion against the European ideal OF the public
man which prevailed during the earlier stage
of the Government, and which held sway till
within a few years-the polished, regularly
educated, cautious, somewhat timid, formal,
punctilious, rather unsympathetic parsonage,
precise In his language, careful in his dress,
distrustful of popular enthusiasm, and strongly
Influenced by the traditions and tone of
thought of old societies. With one or two
exceptions, the Presidential chair and the pro-
minent Offices of Government were filled by
such men down to 1860. They were all Eastern
men, or Western men of the Eastern type, bred
in Eastern habits of thought and moulded by
Eastern standards of propriety, however plain
or simple their lives or humble their origin.
II.
rapid growth of the West during the last
twenty years-a growth which has ended, as
everybody now sees and acknowledges, in the
departure of political power from the Eastern
States, and which has for some years back
been communicating to the language, man
ners, and thought of the political world in
Washington what, from the "genteep' point
of view, might be called worse tone, but
which we shall content ourselves with calling
a rougher, freer tone-a tone marked by all
but complete disregard of the Old World mea-
sures of excellence or desrableness. 1t is due
also in some degree to the long absorption of
the public in the anti-slavery struggle-a
struggle so entirely moral in its nature that
moral excellence-in other words, fidelity to
principle-was, during its existence almost
the only excellence exacted of politicians in
the Republican party. Training or knowledge
of political science was of little very inferior
importance.
The new type first made its appearance dis
tinctly and unmistakably in Mr.. Lincoln. The
Eastern public has undergone so many greater
shocks since then, and he himself proved such
transcendant moral and mental success, that
people have forgotten the disagreeableness of
the impression made by his manners and looks
when he first presented himself to the world
as the President elect. They have forgotten,
too, the painful surprise occasioned by the
revelations which were made during the first
year of his term of office, OF his total igno-
rance of conventional rules, and, in fact, OF
all knowledge of ''the world' beyond what
he acquired in an Illinois village. He greoO so
rapidly, however, his grasp of great principles
was so firm, the issues he had to meet were
so simple, direct and clear cut, his tone of
mind was so elevated, and his written and
spoken style had so much of that greatest of all
marks of high cultivation, directness and sim
plicity, that long before he died his mental de-
fects were more than forgiven and overlooked.
In fact, by process of reasoning which was
very old, and in politics very common, his
good qualities came to be regarded not as the
results of natural force, but as the conse-
quences of the peculiarities OF his early train
ing. A vague impression was dittused before
he died that youth passed in rail-splitting
or working fiat boats was not simply valua-
BILE experience, but very good, If not the
best, preparation for the Presidency. Regular
training in schools or in cultivated society
began to fall into disrepute, and, in spite of
the testimony to the value of education
offered by the war, there can hardly be doubt
that we came out of it with somewhat dimi-
nished reverence for schools and books on the
part of a large number of persons.
During the year 1865 we began to hear, for
the first time in American history, expressions
of contempt for education as qualification
for political duties from Northern orators, lee
turers, and clergymen, and Qualifications of
common sense and the natural man. in
terms very like those used by Southern re-
vilers of 'free society," in old times. When
Mr. Johnson was elected to the Vice-Presi-
.dency he was himself so impressed with the
political value of his early ignorance and
obscurity that he publicly Dragged of it at the
inauguration, and we all remember how dur
ing the following year, he dosed us with ac-
counts of it. His career has, however done
Ynuch TO cause q reaction. He has succeeded
in making people doubt whether it is a good
thing for a possible President to reach years
of discretion without knowing how to read,
and whether the company within thereach Of
an ignorant working tailor is, after all, the
kind of social influence which is best fitted tC
sbape the character of a man who has
10 manage, even for four years, the affairs
of a great people. In fact, we are getting
hack to our earlier and better faith
that nobody who is to fill high official posi-
tion can have too much at the outset OF hi
career of every kind of influence that softens
oivilizes, enlightens, and retnes. Many OF tn
inAuences of Western and Southwestern lif
are hardening and strengthening; but 1t is SAT
to saw that there is nothing the typical Anne
sao,,' oh oracter needs less than hardening o