Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1873-02-06
The Professional Politician.


of public men has been shut up in a
dark and close party closet for several
years, it grow impatient of longer re-
straint and makes a determined dash
for freedom. 1t will steal out through
the key-hole if it can escape by no bet
ter way, but it much prefers to come
out by the door. Col. McComb has
applied the key to the door Of this
closet, and the smothered and impris-
oned facts have all bundled forth in a
noisy body. Against none of the
character-fgures ofthe dominant party
are they more relentless than Mr.. Vice
President Colfax. They have plucked
his fine feathers, striped him ofhis COM
placency, robbed him Of his stimulated
smile, and left him to ''drown the stage
with tears The disillusion is COM
plete. There are plenty Of people
whose intelligence never was overcast
by the slightest suspicious of his pre-
tended greatness yet there were many
more, trusting to the guidance of 4
recognized party leadership, who were
quite composed in their faith in the
man who was sucessively made Speak
cr and Nice-President. Never has Il
public reputation dissipated itsef more
suddenly and completely into thin mist.
1t is a fair illustration of what the mod
ern politician by profession amounts TO
when the bubble Of his short-lived
fame IS burst by contact with the sharp
corners Of ordinary facts. Here is Il
regular department Vice-Presidcnt,
whose happy privilege it was to step
across from the luxurious Speakers
desk to the cushioned Vice-P Presidents
chair He basked in the unclouded
smiles Of political good fortune. 1t
was his pride to proclaim his humility,
and he declared himself abundantly
rich in the contentment Of a moderate
poverty, lie had made his own way
in life, and that he loved to adduce as
another recommendation Of his sound
and broad craftsmanship. lie wore
the smile of peace and thrift, and evil
IDENTIFY believed in its potency to melt
all the trosts Of envy and entity away.
lie was forever taking lower seats that
he might be sent up to higher ones.
The seal Of calculation was set upon
his face. and he wore a perpetual eX-
preston OF satisfaction with the pro
grcss he was making ON Che road TO
honors and pletcrnents.
1t is not that Mr. Collay has fallen,
but that the system which produces
Colfay's has collapsed. that the people
are alternately surprised and rcjoiced
at. The country has had enough Of
these political shams, parading in care
iul dress for its appreciation. but when
closely examined found hollow and Of
no practical value. South Bend con-
tributes Il Nicc.PreSident Pennsylva-
MIA sends Il Senator; Massachusetts
lends a Secretary, who would now be
a Senator: Kansas, the Younger sister,
offers a purely commercial conscript,
father South Carolua has been inocu-
lated by the party doctors with the
same virus; the Cabinet is collection
of nobodies and from end to end the
party cdtice is constructed of unseas-
oncd spruce which it is sought to pass
off as honest and lasting live-oak.
Time invariably tells the whole story,
and makes all things even. NarniSh
and veneer will wear and crack off
after a certain term of service. The
true grain does moi fail to expose itself
before all is over. Had ii 40: been
the ugly Credit Mobilier it would cer-
tainly have been something else, Mr..
Coltax and the rest cannot lay the
blame to a mere circumstance which
belongs to their own character. The
fault is to be sought for in the fiction
which has been So long made popular.
that men without special capacity can
occupy posts Of dignity and RESPONSE
bility as we'll as men of large gifts,
trained faculties, liberal requirements
and ripe experience. The impossible
ty Of receiving something for little or
nothing has again been demonstrated
for the popular benefit. With posi-
lively inferior class of men occupying
the higher public places, an inferior
character will invitably be impaired to
the public service. Professional pol
iticians never make statesmen. The
smiling. and hand shaking. and postur.
ING, and tailoring may suit the self
complacency of those whose minds are
limited by such range of public eX-
actions, but the great men of other
days managed TO dispense with all
these petty floats of popularity and to
be great still The fate of Mr. Coltay
is but the moral for the whole of this
political fiction. When thc rough
winds of truth are let loose and allow
ed to blow, they leave nothing of such
card-paper regulations standing. This
building on the sand is no surer i'll
politics than in morals. The victims
own professions turn State s-evidence
against him when he most relies on
them.--BoStou Post.
There were forty contested election