The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-05-07
VALUE OF POPULAR VIGILANCE.

If public servants are not watched the
will naturally and by degrees become un
faithful The self-same Offices which IN tn
days of their innocence they sought VIII
pure intent or wholesome ambition, the.
will in time learn to pervert from their lawfu
purposes and to use for their own benefit
The tenure Of Office is seductive. The mai
who has been one Of the successful for SOM
years, getting pay beyond his talents for cas-!
labor, with advantages and distinctions be
comes unfit for the hard work and meage'
pay of the life of q citizen. The farmeri
boy who serves years clerkship in village
store measuring calico, counting eggs writing
in account books, weighing Goldfish, busting
counters, drawing molasses, kicking his heels
on packing box and eating candy, will moi
gladly go back to his paternal acres to wrestle
with stumps, stones and weeds. A year Of
office-holding in the shade in summer, or by
the stove in winter, will effectually spoil the
average American youth for manual labor
of all descriptions. Few boys or men will
consent to earn subsistence by the work Of
their hands and the strain of their sinews, il
they can get it by the work of their heads
and fewer still will consent to work hard, il
they can get as much, or more, by easy
work. The store-boy and ofice-holder show
the same disposition. Both know their ad-
vantages, and both resolve to retain them as
long as they can.
Once in Office the average incumbent, at
first jealous for the public good, begins to
care less for the people than for himself
Everything he does begins to take an entirely
selfish turn in his hands, and in a few months
it becomes his chief aim to retain his position
as long as possible, and to make out Of it
while in possession as much money as he can.
He soon learns to feel that the Office belongs
| to him, and that all he can make out Of it is
his lawful perquisite and property. He
will enter into any alliance with
others in Office for these ends. II he
has succeeded in winning money from
his place he will not hesitate to employ that
money in securing his retention. He ceases
to care at last for even his political consist
ency, and will turn his coat as often as he
can gain by it. He forgets his constituents
and their interests, and, instead of being their
servant, he assumes to be one of their masters.
After one party has held ascendency for
long period the majority Of its legislators and
executive officers become corrupt or careless,
or both.
We are told that the reason why, in our
representative government, our public SER
wants are bad, is that the people are them
selves bad; but we are not willing to believe
that the existing corruption in Office, for
which Republican incumbents are at this
time remarkable, is proof that the people,
or even the masses of the Republican party,
are wicked, loose and mercenary. We i'm
pute official corruption and the loss
of wholesome sense of responsibility, to the
little attention that the people give to the
actions of their public servants. In all other
occupations men are observed and all their
movements are noted by their employers.
They are watched, not in the sense that i'm
plies distrust but watched with eyes of in
terest, watched respectfully but freely watched
with the feeling that all may properly have
who pay for service and who have right to
an equivalent But in the case of public
servants who are intrusted with very impor-
tant functions, they are not watched by those
who are most interested in their actions, the
most to gain by their wisdom and fidelity and
the most to lose by their negligence, their
folly, or their malfeasance. A few here and
there do observe the actions of their public |
servants with due care, but these observers |
are scarcely one in fifty of those |
who vote. More than two-thirds Of the grown |
men of the United States are stupidity uncon-
scious Of what is going on at the Federal and |
State capitals. The party press, which would |
have widely different character # due inter-
est in public affairs was taken by the masses,
plays upon the ignorance of the people.
Party leaders appeal to party prejudice while
the canvass is going on, but they are forgot
ten by the people almost as soon as the echoes
Of their electioneering harangues have died
away. The people talk of their candidates
few days before an election, and then dismiss
them from their care and thoughts.
This should not be. We, who are the
electors, should not consent to let our SER
wants become our masters by our sheer neg
lect We ought to show to them by our never
ceasing vigilance that we know the impor-
ance of the tasks which they have under
aiken to do in return for the honors we con-
er and the salaries which they receive. If
We do not want public servants to abuse their
rusts we. must watch them and convince
hem that they are closely observed by those
o whom they are accountable. We ought to
ct the true, able and honorable public func-
ionary know that his fidelity and efficiency
re appreciated by an interested constituency,
nd the dishonest self-seeking, corrupt and
ricky men who disgrace the positions they
old and defraud the people, ought to be
,ads to feel that they have been duly
'atched, and are to be set down in the black