The Portland daily press., 1873-03-07
"PurihcAtiOn.n

Qualification"
The idea of purifying both branches of Con-
gress and the judiciary also is an admirable
one 1t would be a fine thing if it could be
done much more thoroughly than it is likely
to be. But if that work were done ever so
well, the disease of which Congressional We
nality is but single one OF the symptoms
might remain as bad as ever. The fact is that
constituencies in which delicate sense OF
personal honor and horror of dishonesty IN
pecuniary matters are predominant sehli-
ments could not have sent so many dishohesI
men to Congress. For every magnificent
swindler like Cakes Ames, with his broad
acrcs numberless railroad bonds, wide infu-
ence and troops of friends there must be
scores and hundreds of humble John Smiths
who also think that they have a right "to call
attention" to their private interests by some
form of adroit, disguised bribery. For every
canting Pomeroy, defiant Brooks and erudite
Patterson, there must be scores of unknown
Browns and jenkins who are not averse to
turning an honest penny in as disreputable
ways as those which have brought to grief
many of the leading men of the nation. 1t
Is absurd to suppose that SO strange an acct
dent could occur as the contemporaneous Sc
lection by a large number of highly moral
communities of the basest of men for their
representatives. Suppose that in 1874 Con-
gressmen should be selected by lot instead of
by ballot in those districts now represented
by men more or less implicated in selling
their votes or buying their seats-does any,
one imagine that a higher average of probity
would be found to exist in the new statesmen
than in the old? 1t is a common thing to
execrate Ames. Brooks, Pomeroy, Patterson,
Colfax and the rest of the fallen and disgraced
politicians, as if they were monsters of de-
pravity, whose moral deformity had separated
them from the rest of their kind. Now we
by no means intend to aver that the majority
OF their constituents have committed offenses
like theirs. or comparable with them in point
of enormity. But would not the majority of
them, exposed to like temptations, yield with
the same or greater facility? This is the
most discouraging aspect of the whole bad
business. The Pattersons and Rrookses and
the members who voted the other day to rob
the people by wicked increase of their own
salaries are, we fear, a fair index of the moral
condition of large part of the people. To
punish them will be most salutary, but to in
sure the country against another and larger
crop of the same kind of politicians a far
more general and radical qualification" will
be necessary. The ethics of attorneys and
mere mercantile honesty must cease to be the
lessons of the street and forum. There is a
necessity Of teaching in the public schools or
somewhere eedctly aohat lying and stealing
are. Nor is there any room for the sugges-
ton that such instruction would be too e,e-
mentary. There is evidence far too ample
that great confusion exists in regard to those
matters. When, an old, rich, prominent and
respectable member of Congress, like Mr..
Hooper of Massachusetts,, has to be recalled
to sense of bare decency in these particu-
lars by formal proceedings of the House. no
more need be said as to the laxity of popular
opinion touching the fundamental principles
of morals.
The desire to be rich in a day is the canker
that is eating out the manhood and vigor of
the American republic Theft and falsehood
are its natural fruit. Instead of being itself
regulated and restrained by those principles
of right from which there can be no safe de-
parture it attempts to modify those princi-
pies to meet its own exigencies. Thus it
happens that fraud and robbery, bribery and
venality, often boldly assert their respecta-
blity, and find their votaries in the leading
men of the country. A man who has deter
mined to secure at all hazards an income of
ten thousand year, soon brings himself to
believe that any means he may adopt for the
accomplishment of that purpose are right |;
and he will convince many of his neighbors of
1t besides. Unless some means can be found
to raise the tone ofpublic morals, and to pur-
lily the masses of the people from the evil
mental bias that takes its rise in the gain get
ting spirit SO universally prevalent no one
can tell how soon the Ameses and Pom
eroys will be sufficiently numerous to make
their worst corruptions respectable.
And how shall the wsrk of national regen-
Grafton be done? By the pulpit? The lead
ing American preacher receives $4,000 a
year for dispensing the bread of life, and the
largest salary received in Maine is paid to
clergyman for the same purpose. 1t is
greatly to be feared that the money-making
spirit is not stranger to all men who teach
In churches. But in the secular schools of
Auine, at any rate, there is nothing of this
kind to interfere with the effective teaching of
morals disconnected from dogmatic theology.
The country "school mistress who is glad to
obtain employment at So week, or even the
young master who thrives on $33 month,
is not likely to have the moral nature clouded
by the mists and fogs to which mammon-wor-
ship always gives rise. They will not be like
ly to give us another generation of Tweeds,
Caldwells, Yorks, Delahays and Ameses, if
they will henceforth take especial care to do
that which they are passionately exhorted to
do in the only eloquent aud highly rhetorical
section of the statutes of Maine, viz, ssUse
their best endeavors to impress on the minds
Of the children and youth committed TO their
care the principles of morality and justice,
and sacred regard for truth; love of coun-
try, humanity, and universal benevolence
sobriety. industry and frugality; chastity
moderation and temperance; and all other
virtues that are the ornaments of human
society; and to lead those under their care
into a particular understanding of the ten.
denotes of such virtues to preserve and per.
feet a republican constitution, and secure IT,.
blessings of liberty and promote their future
happiness; and the tendency of the opposit.
vices to slavery, degradation and ruin"
IT is with sincere pleasure that we learr
that the name of Hon. John A. Peter
which has been given in the list Of those vot
ing for an increase of Congressional pay, il
entirely mistake, as he did not so vote
Mr. Peters is one of the last men that We
should charge with any part of scheme
mat appears to be wholly mercenary. He