Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-08-05


bis elbow, and certain professional,
commonly called a lawyer, performs
With his left eye IN the direction OF one
of his brothers the operation in anatomy
known as winkIng.
Here Is the beginning of the trouble.
From the first day the alumnus finds
himself wholly out of tune with the large
and semi-respectable body known as
society. He produces everywhere dis
cord. One thing is certain, either his
instrument is enormously pitched and
tuned, or else the instruments of the
other performers are the residue of q
musical evolution which began with the
Kickapoos. His note, however, clear
and correct, is soon swallowed up in the
chatterlng, the baying and the brayinS
of the full chorus.
II will readily be seen that one Of
several courses is now open to the young
man who was going to take the world by
merit and be leader by the superiority
of reason and right. These courses L
have not the time to indicate. 1 only
pause to point out the fact that the
alumnus the more he aspires the more he
insists that talent and honest endeaYor
are the only prerequisites Of success, is
more and more involved in discord and
hampered with bad breaks between him.
self and his neighbors. In short, he is
presently voted down, and before the
end of his first decade he sees, travelling
rapidly across the fields, the ominOus
shadow of disastrous eclipse.
We all feel, however, that the analysis
of the situation is partial and inadequate.
We at once begin TO ask ourselves why it
is that society at large is so unfruitful
soil for college products to grow in.
Perhaps 1t is this external condition of
things that is at fault. Possibly state
of affairs has supervened in our clviliZa-
ton which is SO essentially bad in essence
and administration as to choke the intel
leotual life into sickness and a barren
delivery. 1t is as clear Us the light of
day that something is wrong, seriously
wrong, in that land where the intellect
ual life is discouraged and disgraced
and remanded to contempt by vulgar
crowd. swirling and tossing in the storm
of its own irrational impulses and pas
sions.
Whence, then, has this condition of
affairs arisen?
The answer involves reference to the
history of the public life proper of the
United States since that public life was
organized IN 1916 down to the present
time. You will observe that begin the
sketch with 1776, and not with 1889. l
do so for the reason that in American
history the declaration of independence,
and not the constitution of the United
States, is the Fundamental fact. The
declaration was the great thing and the
constitution the smaller thing that came
afterward.
Mt in ha
fore us may we look upon the constitu-
ton of the United States with some dis
trust because it was reaction, or rather
the expression of a reaction, against the
declaration of independence. That re-
action was fostered and encouraged for
the most part by the small men who
always bob up and flourish in the epoch
Immediately succeeding that in which
the great men of history have done their
marvellous work. The declaration OF in
dependence was q Republican revolu-
ton: and the constitution of the United
Suites was half arstocratic recon-
struction. l doubt not that these state
ments will appear shocking to some
minds, but l trust that the shock will be
like that of q shower bath, to be fol-
lowed Immediately by a pleasing reac-
ton, during which the bathers may
concede, as our great charter declares,
that all men are created equal. 1t eau
not be doubted that at the epoch of the
constitution there was an effort to restore
as much as it was safe to restore of that
British and European system of political
society which had been SO gloriously
wrecked in the revolution.
More particularly, however, 1 call
your attention to the condition of our
American politics at the period just sub
sequent to the institution of the new
government, say precisely a hundred
years ago. This government was organ
lied for the whole people, and not for
political party. Washington was put at
the helm. In so far as there was any
division of political sentiment, he incor-
porated both opinions ana both extremes
of opinion in his administration. He set
at one end of his cabinet table Thomas
jefferson, the father of American DEM
ocracy. and at the other end Alexander
Hamilton, the father of American Fed
eralsm. Think of James G. Blaine in
the cabinet of Cleveland, or Thomas F.
Bayard in the cabinet of Harrisoni
Washington sought In every possible
manner and on all occasions to prevent
his administration from falling into the
hands OF q faction. For eight long years
he held the rudder, hoping and striving
and iusis ting that the government of the
new United States should be for all the
people alike, with special favors for
none. On coming to the end of his term
he sat down deliberately and wrote that
immortal farewell address, in which he
adjured his fellow-countrymen not to
yield themselves to the passion and folly
of party. His voice and admonition,
however, died with him. The echo of it
was heard for brief season, and then
persisted in oblivion. True enough,
Washington IS birthday Is a national hol-
iday. True enough, his farewell address
is paraded forth and read annually be-
fore the people; but so far as the accept
ance of Its fundamental principle is con-
cerned, namely, that the spirit of party
is the chief foe of political happiness
and social unity in the United States, its
reading is piece of mockery and hypo-
crIsy.
The college stripping who reads that
address on the memorable day does not
believe it, His auditors do not believe it.
The newspaper that republishes it does
not believe it. Each and several OF
them all know well that to accept such
a doctrine is to f1irt himself forever out
of the swim and to perish on the bank.
They all SIT down together and declare
that the spirit of party is. as Washing
ton said it was, the very bane and