Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-08-18
NASHVILLE UNION AND AMERICAN sUNDAY AUGUST u.s. 1879

o the Impressions which produced it, / mus
e decline as inapplicable 70 myself, any share
e in the personal endowments which may be
: indispensably included In a permanent pro-
a vision for the Executive department, and
{ must accordingly pray that the peeuniary
4 estimates for the station in which am
n placed may, during my continuance in it,
4 be limited to such actual expenditures as
a the public good may be thought to require"
, Tn, above quotations are sufficient
: to show with what awful solem-
: nisy Gen. Washington entered up
! on the discharge of his duties. To
. this address of our first President, the Sem
! ate on the 7th of May, 1850, voted a res
!, ponse which was signed by the Vice Presi-
! | dent, and communicated to him by a COM
mittee appointed for that purpose. One
brief extract from that response is sufi-
, Gent to show the morality of the times,
Z and with what reverence the recommenda-
tions were received. Let me read con-
Guiding sentence:
awe fe !, sir, the force, and acknowledge
the iustness of the. observation, that the
foundation of our national policy should be
laid in priUdte morality; if individuals be
not influenced by moral principles, 1t is In
vain to look for public uirtue.o
THE HIGH STANDARD OF PRIVATE AND
PUBLIC MORALS. !
1t will be very readily perceived from the
extracts he had read, from the inaugural
address of Gen. Washington and the reply
made to that address, by the committee on
behalf of the Senate, the high standard of
private and public morals established when
the Government was organized under the
Constitution. The probity and high standing
that seemed to be required by the standard
then established was one that should be
maintained now. 1t viii be seen by refer
ence to the Constitution of the United
States, that public functionaries should not
be led into temptation, but placed far be-
yond its reach. We find this emphatic Ian
guage In the Constitution, the forma-
ton of which was the result of Washing
ton and his compeers of the revolution,
that "no title of nobility shall be granted
by the United States: and no person hold
ing any Office of profit or trust under them
shall, without the consent Of Congress, &C
cept of any present, emolument, Office
or title of any kind whatever from any
King, Prince or foreign power.n -
You will see that this great principle of
private and public morality is made part
of the constitution of the country, and in
principle is as much of prohibition on re-
ceiving gifts or presents from
! citizen or citizens Of the United
States, as it is from any king or
princs of any foreign State, and ought
to be made legal and constitutional pro-
hibition as well in the one case as in the
other. The principle and the moral is the
same, and should be prohibited absolutely
by adding few words to the constitution,
such words for instance as citizens aud mil
li0naires.
THE DISPOSITION OF BRIBERY IN ENG.
LAND.
Mr.. johnson, in continuation of this
thought, called attention to the celebr ated
case Of Sir John Trevor, Speaker Of the |
British House of Commons, and read rs
follows:
In some thirty years he mounted from |
the lawyers stool to such dignity, that in q |
national and royal procession for him was |
reserved very distinguished place; and |
how high this distinction was you viii I'M |
derstand when yo,- knew what this pro-
cession was in which he thus appeared. 1t
was the funeral of Queen Mary, the wife of
King William the III. Her burial took
place on the 5th of March, 1895, day long
memorable in London. The Queen had
died young; she died beloved. Her death
II,
down by the malignant smallpox. Public
sorrow for Queen Mary was great-never
was so universal mourning, constrained
by true sympathy. Parliament resolved to
follow her body TO the graves. Never before
had parliament followed a royal female.
They did so, however; robed IN long cloaks
of scarlet and black attended by the maces,
the emblems Of their dignity, both of the
House of Lords and the
House of Commons, came aftsr the
hearse, On which was laid the purple vel
vet-shrouded coffin. The streets were
hung with black. 1t was, in truth, a pa
geant of unusual solemnity. The whole
English nation waJ represented there, the
nobility, the judges, the Lord Mayor, all the
authorities, both civil and religious and
walking in this grand procession between
the Peers and the House of Commons, in
a space set apart to do him honor, with the
mace borne before him and his train carried |
up, there walked that kna7ish, squirting lad,
now grown into kna7ish-sQuinting man.
His name was Sir John Trevor. As speak
err of the House of Commons he took this
place, nor had any Of their speakers before
him been thus distinguished as the first
Commoner of the realm; no former speaker
had been honored by heading in q royal
|
Thus was Sir John Trevor, as the first
Commoner of the realm, publicly ennobled
on the 9Th of March, 1895. Within a week,
in the eyes Of all England, he was a man
the lowest and most degraded among
Englishmen. This was how it happened.
We saw Trevor, on that 9Th of March, as :
Speaker of the House of Commons, leading I
the House after Queen Mary's coffin.
What is it that only seven days later,
Trevor had to do as Speaker? Standing in
his high place; standing there before all the
representatives of England, he had to read
aloud words to this effect:
"Resolved, That Sir John Trevor, Speak
er of the House, for receiving q gratitude
of 1000 guineas from the city Of London, 4
is guilty of a high crime"
Thus ended The 18th of March, 1895. {
And what a day it must have been to
Trevor. During all that day he sat in the
Speakers chair conspicuous, exalted, while i
his guilt was exhibited in full. There he
had to stay, in his post of Office, raised aloft &
that it might be proved that he, as Speaker |
of the House of Commons, had taken mon ]
ey to help bill through Parliament. he
was forced to see the papers specifying the !
day, the cause, the names Of the persons
who had bribed him, held up before his
very idCS, uo utu w uOdI LLdb al T0aU |
aloud from beginning to end. Then
came the fulfllment of that end.
Trevor was obliged to stand !
up, to read aloud, and to put to the vote !,
that resolution descriptive Of bis guilt. His
words we're quickly answered by shouts of !,
''Aye, aye" and then, as Speakers do,
Trevor had to ask the House stif any were ,
of contrary opinion" but to that question :
there came no ans wer; it was impossible for :
any one to say "No." So, as Speaker, he :
had himself to declare that he himself had
been so base as to take bride. 1t seems :
strange that any man could endure the J
gnominy of such a moment 1t was as
much as this man could bear. Slippery
IS was Trevor's nature, be could
not escape the grip of that
great shame. Had he taken the chair next
day, he must have put to the house vote !
FOR his own expulsion. This he avoided; .
ne pleaded illness; another Speaker was {
chosen. Soon afterward Trevor was ex- )
PEELED. Never again-never beforehand
he Speakers chair been disgraced as it was
iisoracad bV Trevor And tho abou,a ma | Y