Middletown transcript., 1875-04-03

painful self-denial; the young and buoy
ant bridegroom may feel every fibre and
tissue of his being tingling with the
delicious emotions Of mingled affection
and hope as he looks down in manly
pride upon the gentle and beauteous
form whose trembling hand nestles in
his own beside the marriage altar; the
young mother may feel the warm, rich
food of maternal love yelling up from
the deep fountains of her soul as she
folds for the first time the fern of her
eldest born to her gentle bosom; but
all such sentiments pale into utter in-
significance when compared with the
unutterable affection of your model
statesman for the great body of the peo-
Pile. Under the overpowering inau-
ence of this master passion his soul is
seized with an Unsuitable yearning to
become the exponent of their wisdom,
as we'll as the champion of their rights
and the vidicator of their virtue.
BASIS OF MODEL PATRIOTISM.
Notwithstanding all have said with
regard to his ardent affection for the
people, and his overweaning anxiety to
become their public drudge, l would
not have it inferred that the patriotism
of the model statesman consists in that
single element alone nor would ! in
sinuate that bis manly bosom is ever
animated by proud, imaginative at
taehment to the splendid land which
gave him birth, where his young eyes
first opened on the loveliness of the
bright blue sky above him, and the
manifold beauties of the earth around
him, or that he is ever thrilled with
emotions of pride and reverence and
emulation by the examples of its mighty
living, or that he delights to linger
with a mournful pleasure upon the
memory Of the illustrieus dead who
sleep their last long sleep beneath its
soil or that his heart swells with the
conscious integrity of an honest, in
flexible, Independent mind thrown by
unavoidable circumstances in conflict
with whatever of vice, extravaganza,
and corruption may tarnish the admin
istration of his government for time.
Oh. no! The patriotism Of the medel
statesman is founded upon no such idle,
effeminate sentiments as these. 1t rests
upon far more solid and substantial
basis. He loves his country with q
passionate devotion, it is true, but he
loves it on account Of its boundless re-
sources he loves it because of its ad-
mirable and unfailing system of gather
ing its revenues into the public Trea-
sury; be loves it because Of the regu-
larity and certainty with which its
munifcent appropriation bills are pass
ed, and the promptness with which
they receive the Presidential signature;
he loves it because of the liberal salaries
with which it rewards its devoted, self
sacrificing servants, and the promptness
with which it pays them; he loves it
because Of the facility with which those
salaries may be increased, and the i'm
possibility Of their ever being dimin-
ished; he loves it for its subsidies, its
jobs, its rings, and its lobby privileges;
he loves it for the cbeapness and dura-
bility of its whitewash," and for the
even and liberal hand with which it is
applied to prosecuted patriot by its
ingenious and justice. loving committees
of investigation, for, with him the first
great commandment is to "get into
office" and the second is like unto it,
"put money IN thy purse" and upon
these two commandments Gin his esti-
mation) hang all the law and the pro-
fits. 1t is in the rigid observance Of
this last great commandment that the
model statesman exhibits the strong
point in his character in this he dis
closes his almost preternatural capacity |
as financier. Financiering, in fact,
is his forte; as poor Artemus Ward
would have said, it is bis ''streng
holt" I do not mean to assert that he
ever troubles himself about the fiscal
affairs Of his country farther than is
necessary to satisfy him that there is
money enough in the public Treasury
to meet the most extravagant demands
which may be made upon it. and that
the means have been abundantly pro-
vidad for procuring more when that
may be exhausted I; nor would insin-
uate that he has the ability or the dis
position to restore to his country the
only true medium of circulation and ex-
change, which may have been almost
totally exiled from its borders by cur
rency calculated to derange values, de-
fraud labor of large proportion of its
wages, and to delude capital, by Turing
multitudes upon the quicksands Of spec
ulation by its undue expansion to-day.
to be left in confusion, dismay, and ab-
solute ruin by its sudden contraction
to- morrow. Such paltry subjects as
these are scarcely up to the dignity of