New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-07-10
THE SCHOLARIN POLITICS.
CHANCES AT HIS DUTIES.

EXTRACTS FROM AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE
THE UNITED LITERARY SOCIETIES OF AMHERST
JULY g. BY wHITEIAw REID.
l wish, under favor Of your patience to depart
little from the accepted custom of the OCCASION
venture 80 ask you, on this high day of the Am
herst year, TO abandon scholastic themes for the
hour and pass TO the broader plane of public affairs
In some Colleges, such discussion might to many
seem out of place. 1t has certainly not been COM
mon to devote these hours Of literary festival TO
affairs seemingly most remote from literature-to
invite the Scholar into the ward meeting or the
caucus instead of Parnassus
hut this is Amherst-batte ground and bulWark
of Orthodoxy, yet leader of Progress amherst
that counts Noah Webster, prince of practical
scholars. among her founders; that claims and may
wen prize rs o i-centennial trophy the first trans
lation Of the Assyrian inscriptions and on the
other hama merits equal honor as pio-
necr in giving modern languages recognized
place and right in the College Curricu-
lum that maintlinod her prayer meetings as rigid
iy her Rotations, but the first TO make mus
oullt Christianity cornerstone OF her creed, and
practice in her gymnasium indispensable as Cesar
or Thucydiles ;Amherst. with her old veins 80 full
indeed of the new fever of times that she even
sent out her Aggies" to beat the world in boating
and then calmly and peacefully finished the Work IN
the most domestic fashion by sending out her family
crew to beat the Aggies
Let me recaI-ln no spirit with which every alum
nus and every officer of the institution viii not cor
daily sympathize-One other incident Oh Alnels1
history 1t was here that learned and patrouc
Faculty. nv formal resolution and unanimous Vote'
reouired and enforced the disarmament of an Anti
slavery s,cetv among the students. / venture now
touec mon Won The Duty Of the american Scholar to
n ,ft.;g, I'D his lufv n q Politician.
II is at once the weakness of our form of govern
u,ent and the shame of our intelligent classes that
the demag0gue, Of the outset. has the advantage,
and that the ofice-seekers mainly give the impulse
10 political movements.
LISA bad impulse. They are bad set who give
10: and not much better set who. IN Congress ana
especially in State Legislatures, and small elective
offices in great cities constitute the average out
come The fastidious Father, who wants his Col
lege-bred son TO keep of politics is altogether
right he by politics only this vulgar strug-
gle of vulgar men through vulgar means for petty
offices and plethorc but questionable gains Looking
only at such agencies and such results, may well
marvel AZ the national prosperity, and fall back, in
our bewldement, upon Heinrich Heine's witty
adaptation of Boccacio's wicked epigram. for
plauatiou: "The same fact may be offered in sup
port Of Republic as Of Religion sit exists, in spite
Of its Ministers
Yet. where is the government that does BETTER
Where Is the government that does so well And
no matter whether it does well or il-paint
onr politics as black as You will,-all the more
] say you make il the duty Of bettor men. in their
own interest, to enter in and take possession
What wish then, first Of ALL TO insist upon, is the
essential worth, nobility, prmacy indeed of the lib
era pursuit Of Politics. 1t is simply the highest,
the most diguied the most important of all earthly
objects of human study. Next to the relation
of man 10 his Maker, there is nothing
so deserving his best attention his rela-
ton to his fellow men. The welfare of the COmmu
nifty is always more important than the welfare Of
any individual, or number Of individuals; and the
welfare OF tho community is the highest object of
the science Of politics. The course and current of
men IN masses-that is the most exalted of human
studies and that is the study of the politician. To
help individuals is the business of the learned pro-
LESSONS To DO the same for communities is the
business of politics. To aid in developing a single
career may task the best efforts of a teacher TO
shape the policy of nation. to fix the fate of
generations. is this not much higher as the
heavens are high above the earth 7 Make the
actual politician rs desricable You may, but the
business Of politics remains the highest of human
concerns,
The NEW ERA N POLITICS.
There is q special reason why, in our country and
iime il should more than ever command the best
abilities of our hest men. That reason, in word, is
that the age of the Sentimental. in Politics. has
nassed We have ceased to conduct campaigns on
tine feelings Emotional politics went out with the
war Instead of questions about God-gven rights
and bursts Of pathos the claim of every being
God created TO the free air of heaven and thrills at
the uufurling Of the flag we have serious reasoning
rs 10 the effect on National prosperity of putting
duty of one per cent ad yalorem on imported Pig
Iron OF the power Of compelling railroads to carry
Messengers for three cents mile and freight In pro-
portion, without reference to the number OF
times you have TO break bulk All this
is but change that we see in all our institutions,
that is in the tunes is in the air. Even the under
graduates about us have felt it. Ten or fifteen years
ago the stape subject here in Amherst, for reading
and talk outside study hours was doubtless English
p,ety. and fiction. Now it is English science. Her
bert Spencer. John Stuart Mill Huxley, Darwin,
Tyndau have usurped the places Of Tennyson and
Browning aud Matthew Arnold and Dickens. The
age itself has changed and the politics change with
IT, We are no longer sentimental; we have mines
10 develop instead Of fugitive slaves to fight over
ConRressmen TO watch instead of United States Mar
sials: the percentage on our funded debt TO cacu-
late instead of q percentage for draft; Pacific
Railroads 20 inspect instead of army corps.
Naturally the Sentimentalists die hard. They
have had an easy and powerful sway over the
National feeling and they do not surrender it with
out struggle. 1t was a great principle on which
they rode into public esteem Ever since they have
been hunting for hobbies which they might try to
persuade the public were great principles too One
screams about the Chinese; another about the
slavery of our Mothers and Sisters; another about
the serfdom of labor In a country where every la
borer NAV become, in small way, capitalist, in
the second or third year of his continuous work.