Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-01-21
THE CHOOSING OF A SENATOR

The selection of Ex-Governor Leland
Stanford by the Republican party of Cal
ifornia as its candidate for the high office
of Senator Of the United States is signif-
cant of the inherent vitality of that party,
and of its capacity to rise superior to ma
tional defeat and level with all great
emergencies. The practical manimity
with which the people of California ire
spective of partisan utilization, approve the
selection, is affirmative of the broad wis
dom of the choice
- No greater mistake can be made than
to treat this selection as phenomenal,
since SO far from being abnormal, it testi-
fies to return by the people to the ele-
mental methods of choosing their legisla-
tive representatives. Candidacy for the
United States Senate has, in the vast ma
.jority of cases, been projected to success
upon the plane of the control of govern
mental patronage That this has grown
into custom having all the force Of law
and reversing the order that Office is for
the Government, Is as undeniable as the
other truiSm that it is Numerically OPP
posed to the whole theory of a republican
form of government Here, however, we
have \ signal instance of the total ADAM
donment of political traditions, and the
selection of an eminently distinguished
citizen Of the State for position of grave
trusts and high Importance, without the
question Of the distribution of Federal
patronage having been for a moment con-
templated by any human being. If Gov
ernor Stanford is seated in the United
States Senate, ii will be because the Office
comes to him without the premise being
laid for a solitary promise of reward, or
the hope of favor being entertained by any
citizen of the commonwealth.
So, we repeat, it will he grave error to
view the selection as phenomenal, for it is
4 return rather to the primary principles
and methods contemplated by the fathers.
Here we have an example which has been
paralieled infrequentiy in the history Of
the republic, of 4 candidate selected who,
in no sense, was a candidate, and who him
self made no effort to secure the position.
nor resorted to the methods that the de
generacy Of modern times and low polit-
zeal methods have given the Semblance of
legitimacy 4 citizen OF the republic of
high social position, of broad intellectual
culture, of unsurpassed business capacity,
and of statesmanlike qualities, while labor
ing in the privacy of his study upon meas
nres for the endowment of great uniYer-
sity that shall bestow Unreasonable bene-
fits upon his fellow-men, is called from his
task of broad philanthropy to receive, as a
free gift from the people of his State a
new trust, upon which are imposed the
weightiest obligations known to our civil
system.
Excess Of culture tends to withdraw men
of learning from the world of business
activity and unfit them for those admins
trative duties and business tasks insepara-
bic from the position to which Governor
Stanford has been chosen as a candidate.
The world does homage to intel
lectural culture, and men find qualification
III exalting to distinguished places the
erudite scholars and thinkers of their era