Litchfield enquirer., 1881-01-27
Integrity.

Truth telling is the surest mark of high civilization; without it no nation can be free. n n,nation can be pre- eminent in commerce, n mannfactures, or finance Yet few nations have learned this axiom of social and politi- cal science; and there is no-nation without ifs large minority of liars Of all the peoples of tle earth, the English-speaking nations are l repu:ed highest in integrity. Their history shows how entirely ''honesty is the best pol icy" Two centuries since. Great Britain had [ Just begun to lay the foundation of her pres snt colonial empire. The Anglo-Saxon race had then less than one tenth of it's present numbers. During that two hundred years the dominion of the Anglo-Saxon has been ex tended over more than two hundred, millions of people of other races. it has colonized two continents, and It has monopolized most of the commerce of the world. No other people can show any such wonderful increase either in power, wealth or numbers The Anglo Saxons owe all their advantages over other nations in the main to their political freedom |; and they owe theirpolitical freedom as nations to. their integrity as individuals. Spain and Portugal had the start of England in coloniza, ton and in naval power. Yet Spain and For. tugal united, fell decidedly behind her in the first century of their rivalry. The earnest, honest Teutonic people which wrested the United Provinces from Spain in the latter half of the Sixteenth century was the most dangerous commercial rival England has ever had. 4 ss
 We need go no farther than our own con- tinent to prove that civil and political prog ress is not matter of luck or of latitude, but of desert. Spain discovered the New World, and conquered and held all of it she thought worth holding, for century before Anglo Saxon colonization began. For century and half after Anglo-Saxon colonization the Spanish colonies were considered the more valuable. If the first conquerers aud col- onists misjudged matters of climate and soil in neglectIng our own territory for that fur ther South, there was still the whole Tem- perate zone of South America in which to remedy their mistake. Yet, every other form of American cononization has proved 8 fail ure compared with Anglo-Saxon colonization. California would have renamed for centuries unsettled under Spanish or Mexican dominion. Primarily this remarkable difference is to be found in the freer institutions of our own land for m the matter of enterprise on which we 80 much pride ourselves, DO race has shown
 
 it in higher degree thau the Spaniards of the 6rst century after the discovery by Colum- bus.
 But few consider how entirely political freedom is dependent upon popular honesty. Some fifty years since the Spanish colonies of America, hoping to rival AngIo-Saxon preg- ress by copying their institutions, severed their connection with their own ':mother country" They had DO such power as that of Great Britain to contend with, and won their independence at comparatively little cost. They then adopted free constitutions like our own; but there was lacking the in- dividual intelligence and integrity to make the common independence of much value. Elections by ballot signify nothing unless those ballots are freely and inteiigently cast and fairly counted. In Spanish speak ing America the free ballot and the fair count are as little possible as in South Carolina to day. Hence there were frequent popular rev. olutions among them but no popular govern ment. When government became SO odious that people were willing to risk their lives and their property in armed rebellion for it's over- throw, it was overthrown. Worse still, there grew up class of military adventurers whose business was that of organizing revolutions just as in our own country there has grown up class of political adventurers whose bus- mess it is to organize political machines i" ,a In short there needs to be a soul of integrity in the body of the republic before it can ac complish any oflthe results that proceed from an honest popular government. Nor must we forget that there are American States and American cities to-day, in which universal suffrage is as complete failure as it ever has been in Mexico It is also noticeable that these plague spots on American citizenship oc- cur in localities where the voter is generally unable to read and write; where there is too little intelligence for people to have learnt that honesty is the best policy. .fs
 We believe that another generation will greatly improve these localities, and will wipe out some, at least, of the ignorance that makes portions of the United States unfit for self gov ernment. But worse than the ignorance that is our misfortune as a nation are the rascali- ties that profit by that ignorance, and try to make it permanent Men who are thenselves too honorable to buy votes, will yet counten- ence the nomination of candidates who are known to practice u at crime. Men who know that dishonesty is bad business policy ; that it is moral death yet practice it, or suf- l fer it to be Dracticed in politics Can we-the freest, most honest. most intelligent, most prosperous of Anglo Saxon nations -boastiny as we do that our prosperity is due to our ] free institutions and to our superior ,intelli. gence and integrity, suffer these institutions to become rotten, and then imagine that as nation we can continue to prosper? IL is a disgrace to'our inte elligence as well as 10 our integrity that such an evil imagination should ever delude us into the notion that honesty in politics is not the best policy. l s"CoN NECT-I-cooT" AGAIN!-At the Litch
 field Centennial celebration, in 1876 Hon. Geo. c. Woodruff told hestory of De Toeque
 vile, and the little state of ''Connecticoot' in illustration of fthelargenumber of distinguish. ed men of Connecticut birth Or ancestry. Al been accustomed to speak of Gen. Grant, Pres. Hayes and Hon. John Sherman. Very few persons probably know that Gen. Nathan Golf. our new Secretary of the Navy. is also of this number. ..o#i sd faats
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