The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1884-09-11

may be robbed of votes
in the interest of another. This filthy
canvass had the alleged,
moral turpitude of candidates first in
jected into it from republican quar-
ter. Cleveland was charged with hav-
ing degraded woman, and it was
alleged the walls of an insane asylum
were finally used to hide from the
world this object of shame. Then,
as a sort of. retaliatory meas
ure, the Blaine scandal
was presented to the country, and dur
ing the canvass the bench is to be
used to show whether Mrs. Blaine's
first-born child was the fruit OF legal
Wedlock. Here is the acme of poll
tical contest in free America
too free for an exalted morality,
too free for the protection
and preservation of principles ly-
ing at the base of clean government
Has the scale of morality decreased so
low in the United States, that for the
most exalted place in the gift of a
people no man may be found free of
base moral qualities? Can public af-
fairs be administered by impure men
without affecting the healthy body
polite? Here are two questions, the
first of which may be answered in
the negative, while the second con-
tains in it a self-evident conclusion
which cannot be denied. Are parties
too debased to name the best, as well
as the purest men for Office; and when
they do name the impure instead of
the pure, do they not propose to give
prominence to impurity instead of
purity in government? Are not
our politics all wrong? Is not
this incessant, this everIast-
ing appeal to the baser passions
of men, undermining the very found
ations of government? Instead of
naming the most exalted men for the
most exalted places, instead of making
principle the basis of selection, is not
trade and barter, and is not policy, a
word that should be expunged from
the political vocabulary, debasing the
alleged intents of parties? The demo-
cratic creed of the fathers was a
noble one, and were it now adhered to
in reality instead Of as mere political
declaration, to be abrogated at will by
leaders for policy sake, purity of gov
eminent might once more be realized.
Republicanism is but an empty de-
claration of principles, approximating
in effect the purposes of democracy: it
is a brazen faced imposition upon
truth, a snare to catch votes that
public outrages may be committed.
Mr.. BIaine's public record is vulner-
able enough to disqualify him for the
place to which he aspires, but after
all he may attain it. His official acts
have already shown him to be cor
rupt; his official stations have been
used, as is well known, to amass
great wealth; he is covered
all over with black spots indicating
malfeasance in office, and on these
grounds he ought to be defeated.
But, the depraved public tastes of the
day, which make it possible for a man
with his record to be made president
of the United States, is humiliating
in the extreme. They are tastes which
tolerate these private scandals, which
permit the honoring of men to which
they attach; it is the same de-
graded sentiment which would for
ever exclude from preference such
men as Bayard and Edmunds- the de-
generation OF the wickedest age of
the nineteenth century. Rome was
undermined by immoral tastes; its
government grew tyrannical and
weak because of an immoral condition
of society; it declined and was in con-
sequence of depravity epitaphed as
one of the nations of the past. We are
drifting into an open hostility to NOR
al and divine law; we are sowing an
immoral tempest that will soon re-
turn as a Whirlwind of destruction.
Nothing demonstrates this more than
these base attacks not only upon men
but upon upright women and the in
nocent dead. 1t makes the thoughtful
sick to reflect upon social condition
that gives cause or origin to such base
conditions. Governmental theories
and doctrines are at a discount when
politicians resort to such methods for
winning votes. Even preachers
ministers of the holy word-take up
these base questions and lead religious
fiocks in one or another direction
upon their alleged merits. Instead
of opening batteries from Gods pull
pits upon the immoralities of the age,
that tolerates such traatnonpt of public
ends, they join III 4ao, ~ i,ical meas
ures and forget that the Christian
is one of peace and good will
to men. The moral darkness of pol
itics thickens with each succeeding
canvass; it grows blacker and blacker
as the years roll by, and, with accu-
age, the American mind
grows more depraved, and less and
less suited to the preservation of eD-
Iiohtened povernments