The Portland daily press., 1873-02-26
"Cruel Smart"

The apologists whom the wealth and infu
ence of Cakes Ames are able to procure fol
him are doing more harm than he has ever
done himself. The debaucheries of Charles
III and his associates were sufficiently PERM
cious in themselves, but the worst of it was
that they made RIGHTEOUSNESS fashionable, so
that WI lie almost every man deported MN
self as nearly as might be like the KING al,
most every woman initiated the Duchess OF
Cleveland America is sufficiently dlssraceu
by the gross corruption for winch Aihes IS
chiefly responsible, but if that unprmclpied
man is to be held up as model for coming
statesmen the case is really serious. One of
the leading Journals of Massachusetts,, which
has the courage or impudence to oppose the
eynuls;on of Mr.. Ames, holds this language
in regard to his offenses: SIT is the offense
of a man, who, having an immense business
enterprise on his hands, and observing from
day to-day the manner in which great business
enterprises are pushed through Congress, acted
in some sort as great commander acts on a
doubtful field of battle; did as other people
did, no better and no worse, reasoning with
himself, as he now says 10 his fellow men,
bers, I am as honest as Congress is; as hon
est as trade is; as honest as public opinion in
regard to railroad enterprises isl In this
line of reasoning the journal from which we
take this extract seems to concur. Young
men are thereby notified that the wholesale
buying of Congressional votes for the purpose
of enriching ones self is in conformity with
the highest standard Of morals now observed
in any department of commercial or political
life, and that he who conforms most closely
to that standard ''acts in some sort like a
great commander! If Cakes Ames escapes
punishment we shall be forced to the sad con-
cfusion that the moral condition of the Amer
lean people is indeed as low as that of savag-
81, just as Ames and his apologists declare it
to be. His fate will be no bad index of the
attitude of the public toward fraud and We
nality. II H -. .f.lr4e5 f,.
But some of Mr.. Amcss organs go much
further than the paper we have just quoted.
They are not content with vindicating Ames.
They eulogize and glorify him. The Haver-
hill Gazette says that it is reported that Mr..
.Ame5 will be expelled, adding: "Possi-
bly-for such is often the fate of enterprising
men," 1t goes on to say that the Ameses
"will be remembered long after their accusers
are forgotten" that like other "men of enter
prise" they resorted to extraordinary means'
and made use of extraordinary energy to
accomplish their purposes. 1t declares that
men like them ''deserve much of their con-
temporaries." In conclusion we have this
burst of enthusiasm: ''In their zeal they
1.-THE Ameses) may have exceeded what some
men would regard as prudence, and resorted
to extraordinary measures, but for these they
should not be condemned" Verify there
never yet was man go vile but there was found
some one to uphold him. But Ames is pecu-
liarly fortunate; Nero had only one Seneca
to praise him, while Ames has dozen. But
the defenders of the Ames' have undertaken
harder task than Seneca's. A man deliber-
ately plans the robbery of the government as
wei as thatof the stockholders of a great
railroad, and to get at the plumber he corrupts
the peoples representatives; and for this
monstrous wickedness he is said "to deserve
much of his contemporaries while he is
"not to be condemned For this he is re-
peatedly and enthusiastically complimented
on his "enterprise" and on his resembling a
great commander"
Ifthe America of to-day accepts this fatal
doctrine-if it assents to this apotheosis of
shameless, defiant villainy, it is not the Amer
lea of which we boast, but is eractly the
America described by Martin Chuzzlewit who
found our "fellow citizens" congratulating
themselves on being ''cruel smart and fair
ly reveling in any opportunity to display their
superiority over all other races of men by the
GOODNESS and self-complacency with which
they could cheat, rob and over-reach. Mr..
Chollop's ealogy of Mr.. Scadder for outrage
ouslyl swindling Chuzzlewit is exactly in the
line ofthe Haverhill organs defense of Ames:
''Scadder is a smart man, sir! He is a rising
mani He is man as will come up'ards,
right side up, sir!' 15l l.4. Id
The natural result of this sort of moral in
sensibility will be that an unusual number of
bank officers will embezzle their funds in the
hope that they may be thought 'enterpris-
ing;" more clerks will rob their employers, AN
ticipating that they will at worst be thought
only to have overstepped the bounds of pru-
dence more railroad swindles will be under
taken in order that the projectors of the
fraud may get credit for displaying 'the quail
tiles of great commander"