The daily gazette., 1876-04-13
Political Virtue, Past and Present.

That if we are no better than our
ancestors we are certainly no worse, is
what the Philadelphia Press under
takes to demonstrate from the lately
published memoirs of John Quincy
Adams, edited by his son, Charles
Francis Adams. The work shows in
a strong light the envies and hatreds
between the public men at the begin
ming of our government. John QHiucy
Adams himself was as bitter as any of
them. The personalities common du-
ring t he first election Of Thomas JEFF
ferson, third President of the United
States, were of the grossest character.
Charges OF immorality were made
, against Alexander Hrmilton while he
was member of Washington's cabi-
net, and were confirmed by his own
confessions. Andrew Jacskon was
traduccd in his family and at his fire.
side with extraordinary malevolence
would begin his administration BY
turning every federalist out of office
down to the remotest postmaster; that
he would tumble the financial system
of the country into ruin at one stroke,
and bring on universal bankruptcy and
beggary; that he would dismantle the
navy and give free course to privateer.
ing; that his government would not
be able to pay the pensions of the
SCARED veterans of the first revolution
who would starve in the streets or live
on the cold aud precarious supplies of
charity. Another correspondent de-
clared that he had gained his estate by
/ rebbery-by robbing a widow and
fatherless children of ten thousand
pounds intrusted to him by the dead
fathers will. "All this can be proved"
said the Rev. Cotton Marther Smith,
of Connecticut. And Philadelphia
paragraphist asserted that Jefferson de.
spised mechanics and owned two hun
dred and fifty Of them; with still
coarser assertions. The great preach
er in 1907 was DR.. John Mason, of
! New York, VINO in order to make a
poiut against Jefferson. few weeks
before the election preached rouising
fast day sermon in the midst OF which
he burst into this impassioned suppl
catien: "Send US, il Tuou wilt, muir.
rain upon our cattle, the famine upon
our land, cleauless of teeth in our
borders; scad us pestilence to waste
our cities; send US, if you please, the
sword to bathe itself in the blood of
cur sons; but spare us, Lord, most
mercifully spare US that curse most
dreadful ofall curses, an alliance with
Napoleon Bonaoarte." Strange to say
the only realization of this anathema
was Jefferson's subsequent purchase
from Napoleon the First of The mag
nificent territory OF Louisiana, which
gave us command of the Mississippi,
and ultimately of the Gulf of Mexico,
and rounded the southwestern borders
of the republic.
| 1t may be all well enough for the
Press tp revive proofs that party spirit
was as violent and unscrupulous il the
early days of the republic as now. 1t
might have shown that Washington
himself was the subject of the vileJt
calumnies. All this is nothing new
The founders of the government were
but men, and did not pretend to be
more than mortal. The great, practi.
cal and pertinent question at this time
however, is. did they steal anything
from the government or the people
If they did moi, and no one ever charged
them with that crime, the present gem
Grafton of public officials is certainly
worse than they are, for while their po-
litical rancor is as great as that of their
| forefathcrs, they have not inherited
| the public virtue and honesty which,
! in the case of the men of the revslu.
! ton, covered a multitude OF SINS
Balt. Sun.