The Dallas weekly herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1885, 1882-04-20
YOUNG MEN TO THE FRONT.

no less parsonage than CHARLES FRANCIS
ADAMS gives rise to reflections which
ought to prove more useful than as a mere
mental exercise. For years Mr.. ADAMS has
been one of the foremost men in America,
statesman and ripe scholar, and often re-
garded and mentioned as probable candi-
date for the presidency. 1t is only in the
last year or so, indeed, that his name has
not been prominently before the public
and yet the young swindler's action has
been the means of disclosing to
the world the fact that CHARLES
FRANCIS ADAMS is a mental wreck.
His memory and judgment are so seriously
i'm paired as to make him the common prey
of common bunlio men. His family have
no doubt long noted his failing powers, but,
with that family pride so hard to overcome,
have kept the fact concealed The question,
now doubly pertinent, is, how many more
of our old men in politics and business are
nearly in Mr.. ADAMS condition? Men
may retain till CT or 70 years of age their in
telectual faculties unimpaired, but such
men are the exceptions and not the rule. 1t
has long been u conceded prerogative of age
to assume superior wisdom over the more
youthful and, perhaps, so far as lifes expe-
riences go, the assumption is generally,
proper, but it is not ordinarily correct
| to imagine that the animal which has been
| the hardest and the longest worked is a
| better Que for all practical purposes than
one lust recently broken in. tits notorious
that the impressions of early manhood re-
| main through life and tinge and shape all
our thoughts and conduct. The individual
rarely improves, so far as practical ability
goes, after having reached thirty-tive or
forty years of age, but society, as whole,
advances constantly with the generations,
This is altogether another age in manners,
thought government, literature and phil
osophy from that of CLAY or WEBSTER. or
JACKSON. or JEFFERSON. That was the
school-life of our western civilization, while
this is active manhood. Before the war
was one era while this is emphatically an.
other And yet by the old-time mistTust
of youth, the men vino administer sllairs,
who control politics and business and re-
ligion and society in seven cases out of
ten are men left over as i were from an
other day-men who have spent the
best years of their lives in controver-
sizes over slavery. and know-nothingism IN,
whose conduct and views are all tinged
with the prejudices of the long ago. How
many ofthem are worse of intellectually,
indeed, than simply preiudiced it is hard
TO say, but TILDEN, TEUMBULL, THURMAN,
EDMUNDs, ANTHONY, most of the senate, in
fact and in short two-thirds of our public
men ale over sixty years of age-on the
soft and shady side-and while active and
intellectual in manner to-day, may be-
come childish and helpless tomorrow.
The republican party has chiefly at
tanned and retained its power by us
ing freely in its service the new and
younger men brought to the front by the
war; while the south and democratic party
have been clingiug to the memory of dead
men and marching under the guidance of
ante-bellum productions. In Pennsylva-
MIA, in Tennessee, in Georgia and other
states an exceedingly hopeful movement is
on foot which promises to adjust politics
and party leaders TO the demands and
changes of the time. In other words, in
those states the young men are COM
ing to the front and are throwing
Off the bosses and the old po-
litical barnacles and are asserting
the rights to which their votes, intellects
and freedom from old prejudices, entitle
them. We are fond of speaking Of the
"new south" and the new race for power
and great development, but until from
Maryland to the Rio Grande, the business,
politics, legislation, are all in the hands of
the new generation, the young men of the
present, who can and do readily and with
pleasure adapt themselves TO the changes
Of years, there will be no new south
and no possession Of power. The infirm-
tiles Of age and the dead weights OF
prejudice will have TO be eliminated
from active politics and business, or, as
controlling factors socially, before the real
possibilities of the times will be appre-
ciated or realized. In making up the states
in the coming campaigns in the south and
west, it will be advisable, and, indeed, the
only wise course, 20 keep reflections such
as these always in view. II new life is TO
be infused into affairs, IL can only be done
with new and warm blood, and we trust
that a commendable reverence for age viii
not blind the people to ages weaknesses.
We call attention to the advertisement Of
Mitchell A Scruggs in this issue of our