Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-02-23

to save the government from being
cheated at every turn. In such matters
even necessary changes are a palpable
loss and embarrassment to the employer.
To make change for the sake of change
and merely TO favor people supposed 10
belong to particular political faith is as
unbusinesslike and absurd as it would be
TO make the test one of religious faith 4.
In the better days of American republic
canism it was held 10 be tyrranical and
wrong for any employer 10 discharge his
employees on political grounds. To-day
political methods have spread so that
the vice has become familiar and endur-
able, if it has not, according to the fam
liar coupIet, been lovingly embraced.
The principle that sound business meth
dds are to be applied to the public bust
ness as well as 10 private, would seem so
self-evident as to need no advocacy.
There is, however, deeper principle
still The political method assumes that
a political party is the employer of all
the people in public employ from highest
to lowest. 1t is both false and mischiev-
Gus. Looking back TO the period from
1854 to 1860, we can remember the char
acteT of party based upon a great po-
litico-mOral question IN which the exist
ence of the nation was involved. A
wholesome zeal for a great public good
seemed to make of every man patriot.
The use of money in the elections is both
directly and Indirectly dem oralizing.
The great majority Of the people are as
pure and rightminded as ever they were,
but very small percentage of cOrrupti
BILE element is enough to ruin all.
The only salvation from this is in the
revival of real faith in the Washingtonian
doctrine that public Office is public
trust, and that instruction and rebellion
are not so dangerous to a free state as it
is tosmake of your administrative offices
the small change with which you pay
your party workers for hypocritical zeal.
When the conviction of this danger has
sunk into our hearts, we shall have no
patience with any solution that does not
cut to the root of the difficulty and take
the subordinate ministerial offices out of
politics Meanwhile we win hold fast all
that has been gained and improve the
laws in those provisions which tend to
thwart the grosser forms of fraud upon
the ballot. 1 sincerely believe the ques-
ton is that of the permanence of repub-
lican institutions which are threatened
with death by corruption.
If every intelligent American would,
according to his opportunity, study the
object-lesson in the current methods of
getting Office which the crowds besieging
the departments at Washington will offer
us during the next few months, it is safe
to say the growth of public opinion VIII
hasten the happy day.
WASHINGTON As \ RETIRED SOLDIER.
There is another feature in Washing
ton s career to which I must ask your
attention. AS n soldier in chief command
Of the American army he had been the
great instrument OF achieving our
national Independence. All united in
attributing TO his wise conduct of mill
tary affairs the glorious success which
had crowned the bravery of our armies.
He silenced the complaints of his fellow
soldiers and showed them that the con-
sciousness of patriotic service was bet
ter recompense than pensions or offices.
He went back to his farm at Mount Yer
non to become q modest and obedienS pri-
vate citizen, asking for nothing but to
share in the liberty he had won for all :,
Nor was this all. His official station had
called for much expenditure to represent
and maintain the dignity OF the country
and TO perform decently the duties it i'm
posed. He accepted q reimbursement of
the cost, rigidly accounting for it, and
refused for himself any payment for his
own great services. For his comrades
who had been wounded in battle or
broken down by the sickness of camps he
urged such modest pensions as would
save them from becoming public bur
den. To those who came out
with no scar or disability,
made only more rugged by the
soldier g life and more self reliant by the
perils of the field, he pointed the way to
the Scioto valley and the Kanawha,
where Virginia offered them farms III
the rich wilderness, or to the banks of
the Ohio and the MuskIngum at Marietta,
where his friends, the Putnams. were
leading New England soldiers to lay the
foundations Of freedom in the great
BY word and by example he
taught them that such hardy veterans as
they, were better fitted than any other
class of citizens TO hew their own way in
the world proud TO Offset the honor of
their glorious deeds against any wealth
that their neighbOrs at home might have
during the long years OF the
struggle for independence.
believe that the soldiers of our second
struggle for national existence are men
Of like metal and temper with the first.
The country has been generous, and
political rivalry III parties has made con-
gress even lavish IN providing for those
who come within the class which Wash
inGtonian principles makes proper pen
sioners, and for the widows and orphans
Of the slain.
In every human society there will be
those who fail, but it Is unrepubHcan to
ask that any class of citizens, as class,
and simply because they are class, shall
be saved from the ordinary casualties
and chances of life. That is the essence
aud sonI OF aristocraaE
There would be little danger that the
men who volunteered TO fight for the
Union would have asked or wished for
more than provision for the actually dis