The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1875-11-06
The Era Of Honesty.


The Era of Honesty.
There is no danger in predicting that for
the next ten years at least it will be much
more difficult for rogue to prosper in this
country than it has ever been before. Theo-
retically good men have always been in de-
mand; now they are actually hunted up and
have authority thrust upon them. Thieves
and liars have always been the object of spec
ulatlve censure; now they are made to suffer
moral and even physical penalties.
1t IS going to be a good era for good men.
OF course it has always been bad policy on
the whole to be false and dishonest, but many
a simpleton has been deluded by the transient
glitter, the momentary glory Of unprincipled
men whose lives for a time seemed to teach
the lesson that recklessness and crime lead to
wealth and power. But it will not be easy
now for actual criminals to attain even that
unreal greatness which has proved such a
snare to thousands of feeble-minded but as
piring men. Of late there has been more
than one natural and perfectly logical down
fall of sham greatness and baseless glory,
which has been so widely conspicuous, so dra-
matte and startling in its details, so terrible
in its destructiveness, that in other times it
would have been commended to the attention
of The world as supernatural providence" or
Judgment" One after another of the great
bad men, who for years have seemed to defy
heaven, and who have been everywhere quot
ed as proofs of the possible co-existence OF
great and permanent success with the most
abandoned principles, have fallen, first into
ruin and finally, the most of them, into obliv-
ion.
And this is spectacle that discourages
nascent wickedness. 1t is wonderfully cool
ing to young men who start in life with such
maxims as these in their mouths: "The world
owes me living'; 81 amt going to starve"; !;
81 am going to get money-honestly if I
ca,,"; ga man is fool who doesn't look out
for number one." With success in the fore
ground and the Jail in the perspective, these
widely current maxlms seemed to many to be
true wisdom. But the present disposition OF
society to bring the Jail and prison into the
foreground, foreclosing all possibility of sue
cess, present or future, must have whole
some effect.
As an occasional severe drouth is good for
wornout land, so perhaps is period of busi-
ness prostration and financial distress good
for the distracted souls of men. If no other
blessing has been concealed in the dstresses
and hardships of the last two years, they
have brought with them large compensation
by teaching the solid commercial worth of
honesty. The undeniable fact that one of
the principal causes of the existing stagna-
ton was the too prevalent laxity of princi-
pie, too general disregard of strict business
morality, is concealed from no one. Loose
notions of business honor, and an attempted
disregard Of political integrity have worked,
like nsison in the blood at last bringing So
ciety a whole to state OF feverishness
and nervous debility. The thing has not
paid. In the end it involved the innocent
and the guilty, if indeed the silent liberation
of iniquty did not involve us all in common
guilt.
The characteristic of the period of conval-
escence is a loud demand for honest clerks
and honest servants, honest merchants, hon.
est brokers, honest bankers, cashiers, clergy.
men, lawyers, and, above all, honest rulers,
1t is probable that more nominations have
been made the present year on the express
ground of integrity, than ever before in the
history of the country. "Is he smart?" has
not, as before, been the main question. "Will
he run well ?" even, has not been heard 9TH
erwise than as it is embraced in the now all
important, ''Is he honest?" In the main the
candidates of both parties this fall have been
men who in some way, great or small, have
gained record for uprightness and purity
The exception to this rule has been in those
districts where the rag money heresy has
gained foothold and has naturally un
dermined the moral sense of its victims.
Democrats and Republicans alike, in other
parts of the country, have sought out their
best men, trusting even more to the personal
worth of their candidates than to enthusiasm
for their principles, for electing their ticket.
The era that keeps such men as Butler in
permanent retirement, and sends Tweed to
jail, is indeed full of encouragement to honest
men.
THE Cincinnati Commercial is not jour.
nal of the bloody shirt order. 1t supported
Mr.. Greeley in 1872 and has generally been
hostile to the policy of the Administration in
the South. Its correspondents would not be
likely to represent the ultra Republican ele-
ment SO that what they say respecting politi-
cal affairs in that section, will be free from any
favoritism for the radicals. A few days since
a correspondent of the Commercialin Missis-
sippi says: sit seems to me that affairs here
are a little worse than have ever Known in
Southern state, excepting the Brooks-Bax-
ter row in Arka' sas. do not say that there
is reign of terror in all that the term i'm
plies, but the true condition of things ap
proaches nearer to it than is healthy in free
country" He adds: "1n Yazoo county
alone since the opening of the campaign there
have been eight cold blooded MURDERS" He
explains matter that has troubled some
people, as follows: t-
81 have repeatedly stated that, no matter
how large the majority of colored people might
be in given county, the whites could easily
overcome and control them. Washingto
county has white population of 2164 and a col
ored population of II, ,405, or very nearly six to
one. yet Senator Gray, colored, who lives in
that county. has been notified to lay low and
keep quiet. At first it was determined to drive
him out of the country, but he was told that be
might stay if he did not meddle with politics.
Gray is preacher, and a very sharp negro
The organ of the whites in that section says
that 'our people have resolved that Grays
high jinks' will be tolerated no more He has
received his orders. and, however hard they
may be, he should congratulate himself that
they were not accom- panied by a bullet Look
out for Democratic gains in Washington coun
ty."
For the life of us we can see no good
reason why Luther Curtis, of New Sharon,
now in Jail serving out sentence for the
crime of defrauding life insurance company