Morning journal and courier., 1881-07-07
The Scholar i'm Politics.

From the Waterbury American-] We have just been hearing good deal of
 and from this gentleman within the last few 1 days We always do during the commence
 ment season. at which time he disports him self upon the platform and occupies some
 space in the columns of the newspaper. His l mission is favorite theme for the eloquence of the young graduate about to receive his sheepskin, as with the beautiful complacency and enthusiasm of youth he bravely dissects
 the body polite and offers the panacea that can alone cure the ills from which it is suffer- ing. The text, too, is one upon which the
 older graduate sometimes condescends to dilate before the commencement audience, but he, and especially if he have acquired practical knowledge of the game of politics l by having taken personal share in it, is apt to be less sanguine than his younger brother i in scholarship. It is as an expert in politics l that Speaker Case approaches the subject in his graceful address before the alumni of the | Sufield Institute, and being an expert, and l not mere theorist, what he says on the sub | ject is eminently worthy of attention. MT. | Case has played prominent and successful | part in the politics of Connecticut, has sat in l the caucus and convention, helped to nomin- | ate candidates and done his share in electing l CQ6u, udS D0Gu u 1uSu1D0E Ol Lu0 I0u0Td1 A6- | sembly and as Speaker of the House won l universal acceptance. He knows the machine | thoroughly, it's force and it's weakness, and l he invites the scholar in politics to come for l ward and take his part in running it.
 Mir. Case very frankly warns the scholar in l politics that his work, to be effective, must be done in and through that machine which it is so much the fashion of the theorist to 1 denounce. This is practical view of the subject and one that cannot besneered down, though it is not improbable that the scholar in politics might find something to urge on behalf of working outside the regular ma chine, even if in order to do so he should be
 compelled to construct machineof his own.
 So far as regards the futility of isolated effort in country where every man has vote and one mans vote is as good as any other mans
 Speaker Case is obviously right. Such ef- fort, when it is confined to the work of criti- cism, is fruitless. In politics, as in any other
 business that men engage in, organiz ltion is necessary to success In an eloquent passage
 MT. Case illustrates his subject by citing the
 example of John Wesley, who, scholar as he
 was, went down, as other scholars are doing
 to-day, to the outcasts of England and won
 them to the cause of Christ Couture thrust
 him from the Church, "and yet he conquered
 True, but may we venture to remind MT
 Case how the Victory of Methodism was won? We do not forget the lofty enthusiasm for
 humanity that inspired and sustained the holy
 mission of John Wesley but the human
 means by which it was made so successful
 was the creation of marvelously perfect sys-
 tenn of organization, in which even the min
 utest and apparently most trivial details were
 framed by the master hand We. mean no
 disrsspect when we carry out Mir. Cases illus
 tration-thongh for our own part we should
 prefer not to compare political party to a
 great religious organization-when we say
 that John Wesley, finding he could not carry
 | zez. kI.A- ~1o,
 machinery of the Anglican church, church
 he never ceased to love and honor, set up
 rival, irregular machine, through which his work could be made effective. The name
 of Methodist" applied to him in scorn by
 the s'regulars" has become title of hon.
 or, and is worn with pride by a body of
 Christians which rivals in power and num-
 bers the church that thrust him out And
 the work of John Wesley has reacted for
 good upon the religious organization from
 which he and his followers separated them
 selves, for the Church of England is purer,
 better, more active in the work of elevating humanity than 1t was when the separation took place. The rivalry of the Methodist body has compelled the established church to reform itself If the work of John Wesley is to be cited for an example to the scholar
 in politics is MT. Case who has made the conn parison-the moral would seem to be not that the political reformer should submit himself to the majority and work with the
 regular machine, but that failing to control
 the regular machine he should summon his
 fellows to his aid and set up 3 rival one.
 Mr. Case warns the scholar in politics that as our government is founded upon the equal ity of manhood, and the State built upon ssthe absolute equality of all men, " the Gear dinal rule of American politics" is that ma iorities shall always controLn' This cardinal rule-shan we call 1t one of counting noses MI. Case thinks is habitually violated by the scholar in politics, and hence his weak
 ness, But what if the scholar honestly be-
 heves that the majority is in the wrong
 Maiorities sometimes are, and their voice is
 not always the voice of God History not
 infrequently reverses the verdict the voice of
 the popular majority has proclaimed. By an
 overwhelming majority France over and over
 Third Napoleon, but on the nor
 people justified the apparently hope
 less and feeble protest of the few who had
 steadfastly held themselves aloof from the
 imperial sham. Gambetta was for long
 years regarded as an impracticable idealist
 to-day he is the Tribune of the French peo- pie But we need not cross the Atlantic for
 an example. Here in our own Connecticut,
 as Mir Case must remember, there were few men who refused to recognize his Cardinal ruler of American politics, ''that najorities shall always control" They refused to give way to the majority of @ Whig caucus or 8 Democratic caucus, and in their obstinacy set up a party that embodied their views. That party from a feeble minority quickly grew to be 8 majority, and Speaker Case had the pleasure last winter of voting to make 1 General Hawley one of the Senators from Connecticut. Joseph R. Hawley was one of the foremost among the few who in the days
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