The evening light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1881-1883, 1882-05-03
yENALITY IN OFFICE.

Public Office was in early times sacred
trust 1t was not profaned to personal uses.
The publ morals were at high level. Now
it is not SO, and venaity in office prevails be-
cause it is not SO. Then the office sought the
incumbent and it was disreputabe to seek an
office. Now we are nation of Office seekers.
Patriotism has become 4 term OF delslon
and voting is only done from motives OF per-
sonal advantage. The voter gives his vote as
disposing of right, not as discharglng trust.
Suftragans strive to get candidates into place.
Is it a wonder that public men are debauched!
1t would be strange if public liberty COULD
stand on such base, and if it can not, what
security have we of public liberty for single
year?
There are two cures for all this. One is to
provide the country again with such men as
laid the foundations OF our freedom; the other
is to abolish the public offices. 1t might be
difficult to recover the men. The tide OF de-
moralization sat in long ago and has been
steadily increasing in velocity and volume.
In the beginning of the era of public debauch-
cry, almost half century ago, one OF our
finest poets struck a chord that sounded The
depth of the national grievance. Let us read
the late |. G. Hollands poem here. 1t be-
gins as an invocation and appropriately ends
a dirge.
"God give us men! time like this demands
Strong minds, great hearts. true faith and ready
hands;
Men whom the lust of office does not kill:
Men whom the spoils Of office can not buy;
Men who possess opinions and will;
Men who have honor; men who will not lie;
Men who can stand before a demagogue
And damn his treaCherous fatterers without whkhg;
Fail men, sun-crowned, who live above the log
In public duty, and in private thinking;
For while the rabble in their thumb-worn creedS.
their large professions and their little deeds,
Ninge in selfish strife, To- Freedom weeps,
Wrong rules the land, and waiting Justice sleeps
In the absence of such men the next best
thing is to abolish the Offices. But what IS
first required is a people that want the best
thing that want country, that do not i've
for vicious and selfish ends. Then if patriot
ism can be rivived in the land, the work Tor II
to do is to blow life into the true principles OF
government. Whenever an Office can be dis
pensed with. dispense with it. Reduce the
U. S. House of Representatives to 100 mem
bers. Enlarge the basis of representation, as
population increases, SO as not to let that num-
Der increase 1t will then cease to be vital for
every young man TO 60 TO Congress. Next,
take government out of mems private affairs
and leave them to be managed by themselves
Furnish no courts nor Sheritts to collect their
debts. Think of the hundreds of thousands
Of idle young men, now waiting to be turned
into these offices that would then unwind into
industry and responsibility. We design only to
indicate the method of the cure; that it shall
be the universal rule to have no office but Tor
uses that attach legtimately and exclusively
to government, and are Indispensable to gov
eminent, pure, simple, direct, shorn of abuses
If, as people, we can recover sense OF
patriotism and discern what it imposes; and
arm it with the inhexibe purpose of abolish,
ing office whenever possible, the good days Of
the Republic will return the people will moi
individually look to government to supper
them, to cure all their ills, to supply all thel
wants. when we shall have SO little govern
ment Voting will again become public
trust. Then we shall acquire happiness a
home and respect abroad. When men shall
live for virtuous end unselfsh ends they viii
be happy; when government shall becom
pure it will be respected. nation acquire
rank and influence abroad as it achieves sue
cess in the lofter and purer pursuits of life a
home. But the children of American mother
must imbibe at the hearth this moral OF Cit
zenship. Then they will through their live
uphold it, and our public men will never be
come debauChed.