Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-11-01
REFLECTIONS ON CAMPAIGN DKTRAc-
TON.

prised to observe how little wisdom goes to
the government of men, but none
of them, so far as we are aware.
have descanted upon the persistent stupid
ity manifested in the conduct of the aver.
age political campaign. The one resource
of politicians has long been abuse of one
another Every campaign shows that this
is the great staple tactic of partisans. As
the campaign draws to conclusion the
abuse becomes more fierce. Personal
charges of the most offensive character are
raked up. Each faction caricatures the
other. Neither will allow any good quail.
ties to its opponents. And what is the
almost invariable outcome Of all this Il
is that the candidates who have been most
numerically blackguarded run ahead of
their tickets. We have seen MANY men
elected by abuse, but we have seen none
defeated in that way. As rule the fiercer
the attack upon a candidate, the more
sympathy he gets. As rule people eyi.
IDENTIFY do not believe campaign abuse to be
deserved. 1t sometimes happens that it is
deserved. 1t sometimes happens that "a
really bad man has got himself nominated
for an important Office. But even in these
cases the exposure of his true character is
likely to do him more good than harm, for
the people are very apt to put down matters
OF fact in the same category with those
efforts of the partisan imagination which
have been classified as campaign lies.
Why politicians and political writers
should cling SO blindly to abuse as potent
instrumentality, it is difficult to under
stand. Certainly there is no body of en-
perience in social phenomena to warrant
such confidence. 1t is no. the case that
society deals with its members in a spirit
of lofty equity. It is not the good who
are always courted and favored, and the
wicked who ars always Stunned and de.
spised. a great many centuries ago very
wise author seems to have thought that the
wicked had things pretty much their own
way, and subsequent observation does not
entisle us to reverse that opinion. In the
world people are not ccolly and dispassion.
ately judged and criticised, yet politicians
will persist in thinking that this method
obtains in their peculiar domain. Every.
body knows that very improper persons are
often exceedingly good company that to.
tai depravity may coexist with disiin.
guished social attraction that proAigates
may be warm friends and kind husbands
and parents; that virtue may be linked
with repellent manners, and purity be SO
handicapped as to appear almost offensive.
And the world is not rigid censor. 1t is
undoubtedly much given to scandal. 1t
creates fictitious lives for everybody, and
they go down to the grave ignorant of the
impressions they have been making on the
mental retiDa of their neighbors. But it
Is not in its inmost heart so enamered of
ascetic virtue as sometimes it pretends to
be, and even IN its primmest moods it casts
furtive and not reproachful chances towards
the fair land of Bohemia.
The world il truth is not very virtuous,
and if it were placed in the Temple of
Truth it would have to acknowledge that
1t sometimes resents the lofty and unap.
proachable goodness of its best members,
more than the Laches of its black sheen.
When the test o. fitness for the office of
executioneri is made to be personal innocence
of the cuiprit's offepse, there are plenty of
modern crowds which will have to follow
the example OF that ancient one recorded
in the gospel, and one by one silently
steal away. And though social conven-
tiOnalities may impel men to assume q viz
tue which they do not possess, there are
occasions when this assumption can be dis.
pensed witt, and when the soul can con-
fess its predictions without constraint.
The BALLOT box asks noquestions, and guards
many secrets faithfully. And when, as
sometimes happens, a much.abused candi.
date finds himself elected despite all the
yituperation shcwered upon him, he has to
thank the elasticity of the world conscience
quite as much as any more tangible infu.
ence. Men, too, as rule prefer to support
those whom they feel to be thoroughly
human, like themselves. We look back
through the vista of years, and George
Washington rises before us, austere, APP
! right, cold blooded, severely solitary in his
virtues. But let US put ourselves among
mis- contemporaries. Let us turn over the
! journals of his time Let us follow the
local memoirs. And we find that he was
by no means popular man that his cold
ness and austerity repealed his companions
and that though they recognized his de.
serts they certainly were not fond OF him.
1t is indeed fortunate for democracy
when IL possesses the wisdom to appre-
ciate the good qualities of master mind
which towers above the common herd,
and which is by its very elevation not of
sympathy with the latter. But such cases
are the exception. For the most part the
world prefers men whom it can under
stand men who are mot too great and
good, for human natures daily food -
and it does not revolt from candidates
merely because those who are opposed to
them from selfish motives decry them. 1t
lets campaign SANDER and detraction 20 in
at one ear and out at the other. It chooses
its candidates in its own iway, and from
divers complicated motives, and when it
has chosen them it stands by them. Here
is State casting some 100, 900 votes At
intervals there occur fierce campaigns, but
when they are ended it turns gu. that the
people are pretty evenly divided that
few hundred, or a couple OF thousand, con.
stitute the decisive majority and that all
the abuse and misrepresentation has gone
for very little. Judging from the actual
! outcome, /. is really questionable whether
If the vote was taken o couple of weeks
after the nominations, instead of two or
three months, the vote would not be yery
much the same. We hear, during the
canvass, that "great changes" are occur.
ring here and there, but when the crucial
test is made these changes do not appear.
The people vote much about the same way