St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1884-10-09
President Seelye on the Moral
Issue.

President Seelye of Amherst college
has an article in the North American
Review, on ''MOral Character in Poll
ties" After showing the central idea
OF the democratic party to be regard
for liberty, and that of the republican
to be regard for law, he claims that
neither now presents any paramount
issue other than the securing of the
spoils, and that IL party is now needed
with moral convictions and the cour-
age to maintain them:
Economic questions are wisely de
termined only by ethical eonsidera-
tons. Questions of the tariff, taxa
ton, trade, currency, immigration, the
rights of labor and of capital, all root
themselves in the deeper question OF
mans organic relationship with his
fellOw-man and can only be wisely
settled-settled peacefully and perma-
nently-on the great principle that
men and nations are all linked to-
Sether, that we are all fellow-me
bers, one of another, so that if one
member suffer, all the members suffer
with 1T, aud if one member be hOnored,
all the members rejoice together. The
state, If not II moral person, represents
the highest moral will, and any policy
of the state is advantageous in the
line of what may be called material
profit and loss, only as it expresses
this moral will in other words, only
as it is determined on the broadest
principles of rectitude.
Hence, the first quality of states
manship is moral. The statesman
needs first of all that he himself be up
right. A good will, clear and firm, is
his best endowment.
A man, therefore, who is only pol-
itic cannot be trusted in an emergency.
Hence, it is never safe to commit a
great interest of state or, indeed, any
other great inter- st-tO such a man.
The great opportunity is Il great temp
tation which is sure to blind him, and
then to lead him astray. He may be
brilliant, versatile, widely acquainted
with state procedure, but unless he is
capable of surrendering his own ad-
vantage to the public goOd-capable
of yielding himself entirely to his du-
ty-he will be a wiser counselor in
private life than in official station.
Neither is it safe to confer a great
do not belong to an unclean heart. A
man cannot he unqualifiedly trusted
with anything if his virtue cannot be
trusted. The whole moral life is so in
terlocked, all its manifestations are
to discerning eye so expressive, each
of all and all of each, that the Scrip
ture statement, he that offendeth in
one point is guilty of all, finds its echo
in the proverb which expresses the
undOubted human consciousness, fdl-
Sus in omnibus. The quality of the
source will appear in all its streams.
1t can never he necessary to vote
for IN unworthy man there can al
ways be found candidates who do moi
solicit the votes of any one, but who
are worthy the votes of all. The
American people do not lack here
they have never been wanting in men
fit to lead them they have found theil
leaders, sometimes after delays, but in
the end with unerring instinct.
1t is not wise to take counsel of tim
id expediency here; votes are not
thrown away which are cast for right
measures and right men. If they are
scattered, lacking organization, as is
sometimes likely, and therefore seem,
ing to fail of any immediate result
they have not failed. A ballot whicl
is only protest may have an all-con-
trolling potency over the future, anC
this may be far more important thar
any present end.