Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1871-02-24
THE DEMOCRATIC CHARACTER OF OUR IN
sTITUTIoNs

The lives of our great men tend to re-
mind us constantly of our democratic in
stitutions and that however high may be
the position they attain as public officers,
they are nevertheless servants of the pub
lie, and must, sooner or later, revert to
their first position as one of the people.
Before the war called for the development
of the great military characters of the age,
they were known only as private citizens,
by any marked characteristics. Thus,
years ago, we found the great soldier of the
age, the present incumbentof the highest
official position within the gift of the ma
ton, somewhat anxiously concerned about
the building of private walk from his
home, in Galena, Illinois, to the railroad
depot near by. In the midst of these per-
plexities the nation was plunged into war
and the private citizen of Galena called to
command immense armies, and to expend
for his Government money enough to build
a silver walk from his home, near the
lakes, to the shores of the gulf. To-day,
as the Chief Executive of the nation, he is
responsible for the collection and disburs-
ing of revenues so large that the magni-
tude of the sum taxes the comprehension
of minds unaccustomed to dealing with
figures that high in enumeration. In him
we see the progression from the private
citizen to the high public functionary.
Near our own homes, in the quiet seclu-
sion of a neighboring county town, dwells
private citizen who, but few short
months ago, was in the position the re-
sponsibilities and powers Of which we
have just referred to. From a friend,
who is one of his neighbors, we
learn that the ex-President is just now
spending his time and means in little i'm
provements about his native village. Like
his distinguished successor he seems to
have some anxieties about the village
walks. AS this anxiety has developed
itself after the honors and remuneration of
public position have been showered upon
him, he is more able to crafty his desires
than was the private citizen of Galena be-
fore the war, and we therefore find him
now seeking relaxation from his past cares
in the simple habits of his rural associates.
We are told, too, that he watches the lay
ing of the village sidewalk bricks with the
same elaboration, care and fidelity, with
which he supposed himself charged in
guarding the Constitutions Of his distracted
country. He pounces down upon the care
less masons who fail to lay each brick
right side up with care or compactly side
by side, with the same ponderous vetoes
that he was wont to thunder into the ears
of the defiant Congressman who, in the
face of his protests, would persist in so
reconstrncting the country as to carry out
his own earlier and wiser motto, that
treason must be made odious and traitors
take back seats" or sentiments to that eff
feet. f1a tst
So il is, that whether we look at the lives
of our great men and contemplate them
seriously as we have with our President in
his progression from private life to high
official trusts, or in another mood as we
have at the career of our ex-President in
his descending scale, we yet find their ex-
periences teaching us the great lesson of
our institutions, that the people are the
sovereigns, and though some may rise
above them by temporary official honors,
they must in the course of events come
back to their original relation and become
only one of the national sovereigns.