The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1873-03-14

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hour when, nowadays, we begin to
think it is almost time to start for
our entertainers house-the stately
General, with his black velvet suit,
and steel-hilted sword, and his ruff
fed hands so disposed that they
were warning he did not expect
his arm to be used as a pump-han-
die by the milhon-all this is not
suited to our temper and our social
habits. We cannot return to that
if we would; and it would not be
well for US to do so if we could.
But without the formality of the
ruffles and the sword, and with some
what more of creature comfort than
two kinds of cake, might We not well
have something of the dignity, all of
the decorum, and even a little of the
eXclusivenessp Has the "Hail, fel-
low, well met" style of our public
men, and even of our women who
have affected public life, proved SO
very lovely and so ennobling that we
must persist in it without mItiga-
ton or remorse? Can we not find
in it a sad illustration of that wall of
the great dramatist who complained,
although in another sense, that he
was obliged to live by "public means
which public manners breeds2"
1t is not a cheering reflection, not
one that tends to give us high idea
Of ourselves, that, according to all
experience, the influence of public
life of any kind that depends upon
popularity does not tend to the elc-
vstion of manners or the purifica-
tion Of morals. And from this point
of view is there not in the reserve
and the reticence of the simple man
nered and unpretending soldier who
to-day assumes for the second time
the duties of our highest office some
thing admirable in itself, and hope
full in its effect upon our public life?
We think there is. Our public men
need greatly more personal indie
pendence, more indifference to the
momentary approval and disapprov-
al, the passing like and dislike, of
the crowd around them. And, to
to return to our text, from which we
have not wanderer SO far in fact as
in seeming, one way to beget that in
dependence in them is TO give them
that pecuniary ease which this mod
crate increase of their salaries will
do so much to secure. 1t is hard
for an empty bag to stand upright;
and we may be sure that, character
and ability being equal, we shall be
better served by officers well paid
than by those whose necessary ex-
penses cat up all, or more than all,
of their salaries. And if We enable
them, also, to live a little more hand
somely and generously, so much the
better for us as we'll as for them. 1t
is not becoming that the representa-
tives of great and wealthy nation
should be pinched and driven to
shifts to appear decently before the
world. The American people are
not mean. In all the complaints Of
public expenditure, national or State,
who ever heard one directed against
the mere salaries of the important
officers? What we cry out agains
is jobbery and thieving, and against
those, ample salaries are rather a
protection.
In the proposed increase, one item
is too small and one indeed too
large. The salaries Of the justices
ofthe Supreme Court, including the
Chief Justice, should be larger by
five thousand year each. The dig
nifty of the office and the Importance
of the trust which it involves de-
mands this. The salary of the
Chief Justice should be inferior on
ly to that of the President. As to
the Congressman, they are to be
er-paid considering the quality of
the article furnished. AS Congress
men 60, they are dear at seven
thousand five hundred a year; al
though that pay may raise
their price SO high that they will be
beyond the reach of the Oakes
Ames of the future. WATRIGHT.
New YORK, March 4.