The Weekly Kansas chief. [volume] (Troy, Kan.) 1872-1918, 1878-01-17
rev Rngiana and Public opinion.

New England and Public Opinion.
Il has long been the fashion to refer to New
Engiand as the leader of public opinion, and the
fouutain-h head of intelligence. Yankee intelli-
gepce, shrewdness and enterprise cannot be de-
MED; but that New England leads public opinion,
or can be.depended upon in emergencies of GER
tain nature, is a great mistake. The great mass
in New England are all right at heart; but there
is no section of the country. not even the South,
in which the old leaders have greater controll-
ing influence over the people-and these old lead
ers are generally cold boo.led, selfish, mercenary,
o. filed with the spirit of 81 am better and holier
than thou." Bnt New England men who have
emigrated, and got rid of their narrow preju-
dices, and imbbcd the free spirit of the great
West, become leaders of the right kind, and
their opinions take scope rs wide the ma
fion.
Just how, New England is the hot-bed of the
gold mania, aud the people of the West, in her
eyes, are worse than barbarians. To her narrow
mind, no other part of the country has a right
to entertain financial views of their own. New
England has always given an overwhelming Re-
publican majority, because the masses voted
their sentiments, and the interest of the leaders
ran in the same direction. Yet New England is
the only section in which State Conventions can
be made to endorse Hayes and his policy, not
withstanding be has betrayed the Republican
party and its principles. This is because the
interests of the leading politicians and CONNER
ciai men Of New England run in the same direc
tion with Hayes policy. We should except
Maine from the endorsement clause; but the
great leader in that State was born and raised
west Of the Allegheny Mountains.
New England to-day is like New England of
the past. In the early days of the Republic, she
was strongly Federalist in politics; yet the Fed
eraliste could never count upon her with any
certainty, because her leaders were on the dick
er for their own interests. She was as bitterly
opposed 50 the war of 1872 and to the Govern
ment as South Carolina was in the Rebellion,
but stopped short of treason only because her
leading politicians found their profit in the 9TH
or direction. New England was always reckon
ed at the head of the of the opposition to the
slave power, yet no section has been controlled
with more subserviency to that power, at the
very times when it ought not to have been. In
no section were found more willing tools to ex-
scute the Fugitive Slave law aud now, in no
other section can Hayes Southern policy receive
endorsement by Republican Convention. The
interests of New England trade smother the sen
timent of the great New England heart.
People have marveled at the instability and
selfshness of Charles Francis Adams. He inher-
tied it from his father and his grandfather.
John Quincy Adams is always spoken of with
veneration, and any reflection upon him would
be regarded as blasphemy. Read his history.
With pre-eminent ability, his life was a career
Of cold-blooded selfshness, political vacillation,
and intrigue for selfaggrandizement. No party
could depend upon him; and perhaps at the
very moment that he was elected to some high
position, he was engaged in a scheme to be-
tray the party that elected him, in order to cir.
cumvent some rival whom he hated with ma
Lightly that did not die out with the occasion
that produced it. He but followed the teachings
of his father. Daniel Webster was man whose
statesmanship embraced the whole country, and
in whose nature there was such thing as
Misunderstanding; yet Webster never received one
tenth part the honor from New England that
the Adams family did. He was not represent
taive of the narrow selishness of New England.
If New England ideas had governed in this
country, its limits would to-day have been very
circumscribed. Vaccine virus in the udder of
COW contains powerful virtues, but it is of no
earthly use SO long as it remains there; spread
it abroad in the human system, and it accom-
plishss wonders. So with New England intelli-
gence and energy. Confine it to New England,
and it is nuisance; bnt spread it out where
there is elbow-room and idea room, and it exerts
an influence for the good of the whole country.