The Portland daily press., 1883-10-27
A Peril of the State

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In lecture in New York in 1854 Mr..
Ralph Waldo Emerson said: ssThere are all
ways those who are base enough and mean
enough to calculate upon the immense ig
norance OF the masses. That is their quarry
and their farm" That is to say, there are
always demagogues. men who ''control the
people by specious and deceitfu) arts, pam
derers to popular prejudice" who care moth
Ing for truth, nothing for virtue; but only
to get power. To gain this and to advance
themselves they care not what means they
use, provided the means serve the purpose.
In nation where one mans vote weighs as
much as another's in determining the issue
Of elections, this class of men make politics
trade and depend for success, not upon
doing right or advocating with ability and
courage the cause of patriotism, but upon
persuad ing the ignorant part of the popula-
ton that they can do,and are disposed to do,
something to relieve them from hard cordi-
tons Of which they know neither the cause
nor the remedy.
IL is this crcums ance in connection with
another weakness of human nature, which
led the observant author of "Hudihras' to
say:
Doubtless the pleasure is as great
In being cheated, as to Cheat
which constitutes tue peril of our form of
government. 1t was consideration of these
things which influenced Macauley to predict
that 10 some crisis of our history, when the
people were called upon to make great sac
riGces, the full reason and necessity of which
they would not understand, the demagogue,
appealing to selfish interests and unin-
fo med prejudices, would wreck our Repub-
lican form of government. The nation has
thus far escaped that calamity. but we have
more Than once been dangerously near ma
tional disgrace, the loss of honor If not of
free institutions. It was such crisis when
the slave power came near establishing an
oligarchy hostile to human rights in full
control of the country. 1t was such crisis
when repudiators attempted to force the ma
ton to compound its debts with a deprecated
paper currency. And unless wisdom comes
in time we shall yet suffer terrible finan-
DIAL catastrophe on account of the dema-
gogism which has forced the coinage of a
vast amount of deprecated silver currency.
What is the safeguard against the happen
ing Of such calamity9 There is none but
virtue in the leaders of public opinion, and
increasing intelligence in the masses who
confer power by votes. The people must
learn, in some way, to distinguish the pre-
tender and the charlatan from the honest
man and The statesman. It is an unfortu-
nate condition of affairs that one of the
great political parties in the country is COM
posed of a few directing leaders and of the
great mass of unintelligent and prejudiced
citizens. 1t is discouraging phenomenon
when man of General Buffers notorious
character and record in politics can gather
mobs of listeners to his illogical, inconsst-
ent aud ribald harangues. The Butler par
ty IN Massachusetts is made up of the men
who are willing to cheat and the men who
are willing to be cheated. They take no ac-
count of the fact that he has been
f falsses 20 every party that has hon.
ored him, to every interest he has
fattered for votes, to every cause
he has professed devotion to. They take no
account of the fact that he makes and re-
peats, night after night, statements that
defy the facts of record as well as the prin-
ciples of reason. They applaud his Boosting
and his brawling, and are moved by his
impossible promises to make the poor as
we'll off as the rich, the lazy as prosperous
- ~, 10
able as the prudent.
Such men will appear from time to time
and have their day, but as sure as the people
are In the main honest they will be found
out and discarded in good time, They toll
to build up an ignominious fame. When
General Butler said to General Badly Smith,
"You had better go down to posterity as
Nero than nobody" he disclosed the
meanness of his motive. When he ex-
claimed that 81 never knew what true hap
piness was until lost my character he
proclaimed his unfitness for public trusts.
despatch from Cleveland few days ago
recorded wonderful feat of pedestrianism
said to have been performed by woman
giving her name.as Mrs. Elizabeth Pierce,
who claimed 10 have walked from Houlton,
In this State, to Erie, Pa, distance of
1,100 miles, In ffty-six days. That wom-
an seventy-sevenS years of age, as Mrs.
Pierce claimed to be, could have walked
twenty miles day for ffty-six days in sue
cession seemed incredible. 1t now appears
that she is the same woman who arrived at
Augusta in this State on the 22nd of last
August and claimed she had walked half of
the distance from Illinois. She was then in
pursuit Of her son, just as she was when
found in Cleveland. One of the yarns she
told In Augusta was that she had done the
spinning, weaving ana knitting in Abraham
Lincoln's family years before he became
President. Who she really is or what she is
wandering about the country for, unless
TO obscure the fame of Daniel Pratt, is not
known. Her marvellous stories about her
long walks are pure inventions. gotten up
for the purpose of exciting the sympathy of
railroad conductors, and thereby getting
free rides
There can be no valid objection to the
colored men meeting together and demand