Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-07-17

at him il he breaks his pledges, but there
is an old saying that hard words break
no bones" and in fact there is no way OF
bringing the recreant office holder to an |
accounting. Thus all the trust must be on
the side OF the voter, and he has absolutely |
nothing to depend upon, as rule, but the |
glib assurances OF men who may perhaps |
have spent their lives in making promises
and then breaking them.
When the things to which candidates
| are required to subscribe are such as hon
est men could not undertake because OF
their inequity, their extravaganza, or their
Implications it is not mere probability,
but certainty, that the actual takers of
such pledges are not honest. In all these
cases the willing candidates are men who
have no real convictions who regard plat
forms as " molasses to catch flies ~ who
do not hesitate to promise all that is re-
| quired of them, because they have not the
remotest intention of performing anything.
The uniform failure Of all radical move
ments may be traced directly to this
method of selecting candidates. When
ever the people ignore human nature, and
pin their faith to mere words, they are
predestined to disappointment. No doubt
much of the prevalent reliance upon Shams I
in politics has sprung from growing dis
position to force the solution of all difficult
problems. Now when such disposition
appears it manifests itself in desire to
gauge the candidates by cast-iron set OF
principles or propositions. The people do
not themselves know how the problems
which vex them ought to be adjusted, but |
| they are determined to get them adjusted ;
so they set up their cast-iron standard, and
they announce that they will support no.
body who will not abide by it. The first
consequence of this is to exclude the best
men from competition, because they will
not promise to do anything the feasibility
of which they are not cure of. The second
consequence is to attract the most unscru-
pulous men, because they do not care what
they promise, SO long as they get office.
The ultimate consequence is the failure OF
the popular movement, because the bad |
men who are elected upon impracticable
platforms are certain to find means of
avoiding the fulfillment of their compacts.
1t ought to be very trite observation |
that the way to secure good government is
Il l,E
ence shows that though this may be tru.
, ism, it is practically ignored at the present
time. 1t is true that pretenses are un.
doubtedly made that such and such men |
are the best; but when we inquire into
their credentials we always find that they
have been taken altogether on trust; that
in fact the people have credulously accept
ed their own estimates of themselves. The
best men cannot be distinguished in that
way When man who has acquired no other
reputation than that of selfish and ua-
scrupulous schemer, suddenly comes for
ward as patriot when such an one as
sumes mission to remove abuses and re-
dress Injuries it is manifestly very foolish
to take him at his word. Yet that is what
is done nine times out OF ten. The mans
past life, all of which proclaims him
charlatan and crafty, dishonest adventurer,
is ignored and on the strength of some
sounding rhetorical phrases he is hailed
as a new Moses, and is for time the hero
OF the hour OF course he is soon found out,
and then the public drop him, but what,
unfortunately, they do not abandon, is the
perverse and fallacious method of choosing
their champions and representatives, which
gave him the opportunity to deceive them.
Next year another blatant fellow proclaims
himself the political Messiah, and directly
the late unpleasant establishment is for
gotten, and the new demagogue is chaired
and cheered and voted for and put in
office.
In this way politics continues TO be a
succession of Shams, resulting in a sue
cession of disappointment. Yet if the
people would consent to change their
methods they could do so easily enough,
and there can be no doubt that they would
find the change advantageous. There is
no lack of good men in the community. |
They are more plentiful than the knaves,
as a matter of fact. But they cannot be
had by setting up standards expressly de-
signed to attract knaves alone. If honest |
men are asked to take Office, they must be
trusted, 1t is because honest men are |
best fitted to make laws and to hold re-
sponsible offices that it will not do to treat |
them as though they were dishonest. Men |
whose regulations rest upon lives of pro-
bity and truth and honor, need no verbal |
guarantees or undertakings. They can be |
relied upon to act always for the best, and |
since circumstances must affect the course |
of the wisest, they cannot be bound before |
hand by cast-iron pledges. California has |
now for many years tried the pledge |
method. 1t has resulted in strewing |
the shores with the wrecks of |
ruined characters, and in infiic.ing many
disappointments upon the people. Is it
not time that this hopeless and irrational |
confidence in Shams-this bondage to ap-
pearances and forms-should be abandoned |
and abolished? Is it not time that re-
turn should be made to the sound methods
which every thinking man knows to be the
only ones which are trustworthy? Plat
forms are necessary in their way, but they
cannot guarantee the course of those who
occupy them. Pledges are delusive, for
they give no assurance of the character OF
those who make them. Upright men. whose
lives are their credentials, are, on the other
hand, sufficient guarantees that the public
interests will be faithfully guarded. We
should like to see such men alone put IN
nomination by the Republican party this
year, for we should like to have the survi-
val of political Shams made an issue in the
coming campaign.
THE RESIGNATION OF JOHN BRIGHT.
The resignation of John Bright from
Gladstone's Cabinet is unfortunate, for
Bright undoubtedly commands great In.
huence. We do not, however, think that
public opinion in England will go with
him at the nresent moment for IL ia certain