Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-11-23
1HuRLow WEED.

NSo9O VI <AinCiiNeh PurAAS Aii~AA- -
his own age-eighty-fve-cannot be re.
garded as very great, he had long survived
nearly if not quite every one of his con-
temporaries, and stood alone, the last re-
naming representative of an almost fer.
gotten generation. Yet he had not lived
long enough to witness the abolition of
those political methods of which he was SO
complete q master, or to recognize the evils
which result from them; and it is
curious and significant fact that one OF his
last recorded utterances was an expression
of almost enthusiastic belief in that spoils
system which the American people are now
beginning to see the necessity of putting
an end to. Thurlow Weed has often been
styled the Nestor Of the American Press.
He was fairly able journalist, but he Ger.
tainly was not q great one. His forte, and
that which in reality procured him the
great influence and reputation he so long
enjoyed, was political management. He
was born political manager, and this is
an occupation which demands talents and
faculties not at all necessarily connected
with journalistic ability. He used his
journalistic faculty as an auxiliary agency.
His important work was done by other
methods. There was a period when he
was SO potential in politics that he could
make Senators and Congressman, andalmost
Presidents. After having served a couple
OF terms in the Legislature of New York,
he steadily refused to accept any office.
He had the ambition to be King. maker,
but he had no ambition to hold Office per-
sonally.
The political management to which his
best years were devoted was work de-
handing rare capacities. The grtat party
manager in those days was necessarily
much more of a diplomatist than at pres.
emit, when the machine takes SO much
work off the hands of the leaders, and
when the latter depend mainly upon an
intimate familiarity with its operations.
In Thurlow Weeds maturity party leader.
ship demanded much more skill of intel
lectural fence. He was man of naturally
clear and well balanced judgment He
held firmly to few broad patriotic prin-
ciples. His mental affinities were liberal.
He was in short natural Republican. His
political training however made it i'm
| possible that he should be a reformer in
his latter years. He had gone through the
great storm of the rebellion, and had stoutly
upheld the Union colors to the end. But
in 80 doing he had become more than ever
convinced of the omnipotence of party
discipline and machinery, and he had also
come to regard the Republican party as
somehow entitled by unwritten prescrip-
ton to all the political rewards and all the
political power. A man who owed his
education almost entirely to his unaided
efforts, and who was trained in a political
school of rough and ready character, he
was prepared to make the machine do
everything that machinery could do, and
was perhaps too much accustomed to hold
that the end justified the means.
Personally, however, he was not corrupt.
His career was in the main unselfsh.
and from his standpoint it was public
spirited. His political vision was clear
during the active portion of his life, and
he was safe and sound adviser. He had
mixed so constantly with men of all grades
OF ability that he became an alphabetically
good judge of character and capacity.
With mind peculiarly fitted by nature
for the performance of the work he most
delighted in, he was able to suggest and
to carry cut combinations which would
have been altogether beyond the work of
ordinary politicians. His special function
was that OF "power behind the throne"
He preferred to stand in the background,
being perfectly satisfied with the con-
seriousness of his power. And the facial.
ties which he exhibited are by no means
common, though party managers may be
supposed to be as thick as blackberries.
The good political manager must be man
OF tact, above all else. He must have alb. |
solute command of himself. He must be |
not only keen-witted, but he must be
able 20 read the thoughts of ether men, to
penetrate their motives, to conciliate
prejudices, to harmonic conflicting ele.
ments, and to guide his party through
swarming obstacles, steadily in one direc-
tion. The man who can do these things
has abilities which would fit him for great
military achievements if he were soldier,
and which would make him great diplo.
matist If he followed that career. All
these things Thurlow Weed could do, and
because he could do them he obtained al
most unprecedented influence in the poll.
tics OF his period.
But the misfortune of the political man.
ayers occupation is that it leads men to
repose too much confidence in machinery,
and eventually causes them to neglect
principles, and to make partisan success
the "be-all and the end.all" of their en-. |
deavors. And Thurlow Weed did not es-
cape this tendency. In his old age, when
he had withdrawn from politics, he still
adhered to his early admiration for the |
machine, and it is only few weeks
since he wrote letter declaring that Civil |
Service reform was in his opinion perfect
nonsense, and that the spoils system was
the most admirable and precious thing in |
American politics. This was said in all |
sincerity. We are not at all disposed to
criticise such utterances harshly, but they
must be cited because they show that
Thurlow Weed after all belonged to po-
litical stage which in the opinion OF all
educated, patriotic and intelligent Ameri. |
cans, must be promptly extinguished, if |
the country is to prosper. For all his be.
lief IN the machine" however, he was
man OF perfectly pure purposes, and patri,
otto dispositions. He did his duty well |
according to his lights, and he exercised
his great Influence always for the advance.