New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-01-26
GAIL HAMILTON AGAIN.
DIR GREAT-GRAND FATHERS AND THEIR
CIVIL SERvlCE-A REVIEW IN fOUR
PARTS. O

FATHERS STRUGGLE ALONG, VIA DoLoROSo, TO
THE CONCLUSION OF THE WHOLE MATTER.
Some corner of the curtain - says Colonel Picker
ing which concealed the insincerity the dupilc-
itv the falsehood of the Executive has been lifted
m II will be raised still higher, and all their de-
formity be exposed" II an Disguised with the
man who now r,le. At some manifestations Of
their mslignancy, l am shocked. The cowardly
wretch at their head this cowardly wretch was
Thomas Jefferson) while, like q Partisan revolution
ary monster praing about humanity, would feel an
Internal pleasure in the utter destruction OF his op-
ponents We have too long witnessed his general tur
pitude his cruel removals of faithful officers, ana
the substitution of corruption and looseness Tor IN
territy and worth We have now before the Senate
a nomination Of Merriweather Jones, of Richmond
editor of The Examiner, paper devoted 10 JEFFERSON
md Jacobinisn; and he is now to be rewarded. Mr.
Honkins Commissioner of Loans, man OF
property and integrity, is to give room
for this Jones. The commissioner may have at once
$4,000 in his hands to pay the public creditors IN
Virginia. He is required by law to give bonds only
in sum from So, 900 to $4,000; and Jones's char
acter is so notoriously bad that we have satsfac-
tory evidence he could not get credit at any store IN
Richmond for a suit of clothesw In short says
Colonel Pickering corruption is the object and in
strument of the Chief and the tendency of his adj
nnstration, for the purpose of maintaining hlmse1
An power Corruption is the recommendation to
office Virtue and worth arc his enemies, and there
fore he would overwhelm them. Depravlty Is inc
surest road to preferment." And Mr. Cabot RESPONDS
to these dolefu sentiments with still more doleIui
annrebensions 81 perceive with you that bad as
the times are. they are to become worse. MY miho
has for many years been completely settled tnat the
fate of our country il inevitable and all that good
men can possibly do is only to mitigate in some de-
gree or defer calamities which no human virtue ana
skill can avert" Aud he falls back on the despair
ing general reflection ut is and must be the fate of
every man of scnsibihy to suffer in the public ser
vice in proportion to his usefulness"
II Is undoubtedly true that much of this despair
and detraction, this hate and rancor arose from
conscientious belief not only in MIR. Adams ana
Colonel Pickering, to whom Mr.. Lodge attributes IT,
but in many others, that one who differed from
them in opinion could be governed in any action OF
life by aught except the vilest and basest of mo-
tives But the same consideration should be used
to tone down the violence and viruence of our pap
tisan warfare. The knowledge of yesterday should
Se the guidance of to-day. This consideration we
do not expect in the multitude They are straining
every nerve to support their families and are dong
patriotic service in developing and distributing the
wealth of our country They read the newspa-
pers but they not expected or required
to read history. They take sides and draw
sharp outlines and are not reprehensible
for supposng that the world was created this morn
ing But the class whose reatgrandfathers patriot
cally prlvateered them into wealth, ought to stand
as the opponents of culture, an impregnable break
water against the everlasting tides of ignorance
and narrowness and partisan bitterness. They
ought to know and teach that the thing which has
been is that which shall be. They ought to cheer
nd
ness by the lessons of the silent and significant Past
Mr. Cabot is not the kind of person to be con-
temptuously or lightly spoken Of He appears to
have been a man of moderate abilities of limited
culture of quiet tastes, entire integrity and excel
lent Judgment. He never rises, ever stimulates
his great grandson to RISE above the level OF
respectable and dignifed commonplace His
letters are long and somewhat labored DIS
sertations on things i'll general, uneniyened
by a CLEAN of humor except In single
instance and that is of SO ponderous nature that 1t
is not so much CLEAN a beam-hewed into shape
and lifted into place. and mortised into pernanency
with an effort that to have been exhaustive
and final His great-grandson follows his example
with al fidelity, and everywhere contemplates his
material with painful solemnity which even its
scantiness would hardly justify. His nearest ap-
proach to levity is in declaring Mr.. Cabots two
years Of college life well sacrificed for the stamp Of
the quarterback, and the dash of the salt water
which his voyage left OH his character. am not III
danger of setting higher value on college culture
than Mr. Lodge, but even l should hardly reduce it
to so fine q point. Dash-whether OF salt
water OF fresh-was conspicuously absent
from Mr.. Cabofs character. Caution was
there and prudence and strong common-scnse, or
what was then common sense; but there was no
more of the breezy and bounding sea i'll his charac-
ter than the cup OF warm water where
with he whipped his shaving-soap to lather.
certain slowness and lack of rerue commend them
selves to his own admiration and that Of his
great-grands0n as a dilettante incidence. and led
him into the childish act of going home to Boston in
the middle of the session, and resgning his seat III
the Senate Yet in his honesty. his sincere love OF
country his unfailing interest in politics. and his
intelligent comprehension of methods he represents
the class which constitutes the bone and sinew Of
the Republic. But trust we have within our realm
500 and 100000 as good he. Nothing, in fact Is
more noticeable IN the book before than the
spicuous and influential part which Massachusetts
then took in the National councils. Even Boston
was full of men. The only resemblance between
that day and this seems be the perennial truth
so pithIly expressed by Nathan Dane, quoted by
Samuel Putnam and served up by Mr.. Lodge, d" 1t
will not do to trust the Boston lead" But cratic
and unsafe for leader as Boston undoubtedly WAS,
she had an intellectual virility which struggled long
against senescence Indeed, persons who do not yet
account themselves old, recall with interest and
with pride the lions of Boston, TO whom every dis
tinguished stranger was introduced, and whom
every intelligent traveller eager to There
was Daniel Webster-primus inte pares. There was
jeremiah Mason, whom Mr.. Webster ranked superior
even to Chic-Justice Marshall i'll the law and there
was Edward Everett, and Rufus ChOate, and Charles
Sumner, and Prescott, the historian, and George
icsnOr and the venerable Josiah Quincy, and Alb
boti Lawrence and Franklin Dexter, and John A.
Andrew, aud Theodore Parker and a little while