Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1884-03-07
Sensible Talk ON IdeaIism in PoIitics.


Sensible Talk on Idealisni in POIitics.
leading feature in the March Century is
an article by x-Attorney General Wayne Mac
Veagh in which, under the heading, 1.-The
Next Presidency" he draws glowing pic
ture of the ideal President Some extracts
from this article are made elsewhere in this
issue. With the thought which underlies it
we are in full sympathy. The animating
purpose OF the Chief Executive ought to be
as high, and the divorce between his high
Office and all self-seeking political manipuls-
ton ought to be as complete as Mr. Mac
Neagh here pictures them. But when he de-
clares that four years administration by one
such man would transform public life in
America" he greatly exaggerates the inhu-
ence of President upon the political morals
Of the country. Such a declaration places
the main emphasis in the wrong place, and
ignores the fact that we shall only have ideal
public officials when we have an ideal peo-
pie to put them in office and then sustain
them. On this subject the Philadelphia Rec
ord has an article which goes so effectually
to the root of the matter that we are glad to
hhOpb 40 btAtAlntAk anu hAhIA4 bubJtNt llAtkGl
as our own.
To declare, says the Record, that, under
the influence of an ideal President, Washing
ton would "soon cease to be the paradise of
lobbyists, great and small, and ''of seekers
after contracts and subsidies, who seem to
think even more meanly of the men they
purchase than of themselves" is to attribute
to an elective Chief Magistrate of four years
more reformatory power than the good En-
peror Marcus Aurelius or Antonnus Plus pos
sessed in a long lifetime with absolute
sway over the Roman world. In Washing
ton there is no lobby around the the White
House, or about the treasury or any other ex-
ecutive department of government. If there
be seekers after contracts in the departments
the busy tongue of scandal does not assert
that the lettings are not made in accordance
and the seekers after subsidies are at the 9th
err end of the capitol, where sit the represen-
tatives of the nation. A President, though
/ possessed of all the great qualities of Mr..
cVeaghs ideal could not arrest lobby
job or a subsidy in al appropriation bill un-
/ til the power is conferred upon him by the
/ constitution TO veto its separate sections.
When President Arthur put his veto upon the
| River and Harbor bill ii was passed over his
head, and good many representatives who
assisted in this treasury raid were sent back
to the present Congress to repeat it. So Mr..
MacVeagh must observe that there is a pow
er for corruption and iniquity in the country &
capital that is beyond the arm of the strong.
est President whom the Independent Repub.
Iicans could place in the White House.
Whether the board of lobbyists and subsidy
seekers shall disappear from the corridors OF
the capitol must depend not upon an ideal
/ President but upon the representatives of the
| people, The plain truth is that the power
which President can exercise for good OF
evil is extremely small compared with that OF
/ Congress- and the greatest care Of the peo.
pie should be in the choice of their represen.
tatives, instead of being lured with the false
hope that some hero in the White House can
purge the state of all its ills.
Mr., MacYeRgh expresses the hope that
'the good fortune awaits US of Witnessing a
contest for the presidency in which both can.
didates will be strong, pure, brave men, will.
ing and able to do the good work which il
waiting to be done, and which only such O
President can do" In such case there would
be much less room for the display of the
spirit of party. If the people could be sat
ished by such nominations that the govern.
ment would be faithfully administered in the
choice of either candidate, they would be
able TO bestow more attention upon what
concerns them most nearly-the choice OF
their representatives in Congress and state
legislatures. An ideal President with an
ideal cabinet, such as Mr.. MaeVeagh dc,
scribes, could not accomplish one 1.-THE of the
political reforms that are within the power OF
Congress. Unfortunately, the people nave
persuaded themselves that their greatest DO
litical interests depend on the quadrenniAl
election of the chief official who executes the
laws. Even an ideal President must have a
cabinet aud foreign ministers, with many
other ideal officials, and over his choice the
conflict of party would rage for months as
violently as If he were one of the kind whose
election MIR. MacYeagh most breads. With
the reciprocal application Of the party brush
his two 'strong, pure brave men" could
scarcely be identified two weeks after nomin.
alton by their dearest friends or foes While
the Infatuated conflict is going on concerning
the man who is to administer the official
spois for four years, the choice of that rep.
resentative department which makes the
laws, sppropriates the public money and
controls government policy in finance and
revenue and oil else, is carelessly neglected.
The politicians have a limited interest in this
department, and for this reason the govern
ment is turned by them upon its apex
AS long as the perverted notion OF govern