The Portland daily press., 1870-05-17
The PcssSup ISIS.

The Pcssimi ISIS.
In 1861 the hopeful ex-Secretaly Seward
gave opportunity for many sneers at his ex-
pense by his repeated predictions of peace
abe and speedy solution of our difficulties !;
but the same happy disposition which led him
to indulge these cheering hopes enabled him
to laugh at the "There, told YOU So" o!
more gloomy minds. There are very many OF
these ill.boding prophets who can see nothing
good IN their own times or country, bat are
always looking dismally back into the past OF
across the waters Cor the purpose of making
disparaging comparisons. The statesmen OF
the earlier days of the republic loom large TO
them through the mists of time and dis
lance, and they say of them that there were
giants in those days." whereas an approach to
these iIlustr;ous persons through the col
umns of contemporary newspapers or the
pages of accurate biography viii reduce them
to about tbe size Of our fellow citizens who
now fill the halls of Congress and other high
stations that were formerly occupied by the
patriarchs OF our revolutionary era. We have
no doubt that Charles Francis Adams, our
late minister TO England, is the moral and in
tel.ectual peer of his ilustrious father aud
grandfather who formerly represented us
abroad; and our present ambassador at the
Court of st. James is the equal in these re-
spects of most of his predecessors. Few men
familiar with the lives of both would venture
to assert that Charles Sumner is inferior
either in patriotism, capacity, Or integrity, to
John Hancock. And the same is true of
most of our political leaders as compared
with those of the last century.
Nor do we believe that our people, in a
mass are more corrupt than their progentors.
Certain evils, resulting from accumulated
wealth, are more frequently developed than in
more frugal days; and those consequent upon
adepreciated currency, fuctuatins in value,
as it inevitably must, afTlict and affect us now
just as they did in the time of Shay's REBEL
ion; but individual honor, virtue, chastity,
national and personal faith were never better
kept than now.
That much corruption has followed rom
the necessity of collecting and discussing
millions, where thousands have hitherto suf-
feed for our governmental expenditures, we
do not doubt; nor, human nature being what
it is, do we feel that it can be entirely pre-.
vented The NJ that can be done is to be
gigilaa. o dete-, and swift to punish it O.
eougss Is nus always show itself in the party
N go7 5r. siace (upder our present system of
= sfiLYunng official positions) only members
OF that party can approach the treasury; those
belonging to "the outs" lack opportunity
rather than disposition to commit the same
offences. The idea then that by dsser.ing
the ranks of those with whom these
GROWERS have hitherto acted any good
can be accomplished, is absurd. It
may be thought that the natural tendency
of the mind, that the conduct of few cadet
sellers in Congress is accepted as measuring
the moral standard Of tue whole body; and
that more attention is devoted to the appoint
ment of few unsuitable persons like Ashley
rather than to the wisdom with which most OF
the presidential appointments have been
made; as the same moroseness would lead ia
the gloomest relations of treachery and de-
sertion during the war, rather than to any
promise of victory and success; but even those
whom nature has so constituted that they can
take no other than these gloomy view, if she
have also endowed them with fair share OF
reasoning powers, must see that it would be
absurd to fly for relief to the Democratic par
ty which has only lived and thrived upon cor
ruption; and they must also see that to desert
the republicans is equivalent to aiding the en-
envy since one or the other of these two organ
izations, for years to come, must dominate
over the fortunes of the country. Certainly
none can fail to see that the moral and intel
lectual strength of the republic is found, SUBJ
stantially, in the ranks of the republican par.
ty; and that to have this element accorded its
proper and controlling influence over leeisia-
ton and the government, that party must be
sustained and retained in power. To purify
its ranks and compel it to select and elect suit
able men, those who act with it must attend
its primary caucuses and conventions where
the selection is made. Mere grumbling at wha
others have done can accomplish no good pur
pose.