The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-03-06

POLITICIANS AND THE PEOPLE.


(lsvupra M.rch fccoc;ol u Rathnr a
slim audience greeted Senator Parkinson
ct the OLYMPIA theater tonight when he
delivered his lecture -, s(,ivil Liberty and
Its Preservation; or the Politicians and
the People," He reviewed rather point
edIv fl,c cn.~,,,,.;,,, =, ,>,l,.;c.i l;fo ard in
closing presented his position in voting at
the late senatorial contest basing his
action IN III. corst;fnt;onai r;obf and
IT,. ,s'. ~ naS oo"s.is"sao"a 'en "n1
nDerty, as one of the lnalienable rights OF
citizenship. He paid glowing tribute to
Actinc Reverence far.hton,s y,er.onal and
..s uoserHor LaISn.un Pcisoilal anu
c1ccuMve aDlIty. roiioWinS - summary
OF the address:
Many years ago . noted French philosopher
growing up In the forests Of America. One hun
dred years ago that people took upon them
selves the form OF government and the thirteen
Union OF totay. That was an important epoch
In the history Of nations, possibly the most i'm
portant that had ever occurred, and 1t
may be that ever will; for in that
national birth was the first tangible
realization Of national civil liberty ever
experinced by any people, becoming as it did
the essence OF our constitution, the guardian OF
this inheritance for all time to come. 1t came
TO US as the elimination of the struggles of col
onies In the fat that ..my people co. uttered
by the Jewish law-giver many years before the
Christian era was the germ of this fruit and when
astr0ng man dealt the blow that was TO divide
raging sea to make highway for = bonded peo-
pie to rise to freedom, he marched across the
gulf of ages and tipped the shores OF the new
world. rom Plymouth Rock to Yorktown was
long and thorny highway, and oft has the
and yet Americans are too ignorant of
the trials encountered and sacrifices made by
those worthy heralds of a coming civil milon-
imbued with the spirit of independence would
have fallen by the way; but these men had left
their homes, their fortunes and their all upon
n NJ tta~ fS,u A~xA
erty Of conscience was to them boon for which
life itself seemed cheap.
And the experiment was success; the 100000
have become 60 0O0. co., and the thirteen colonies
forty-three great states, each nm empire
in itself. With this experience, this glorious
history, and these mighty facts, Washington 10
born, and what shall say of our magnificent
commonwealth? Yesterday bowling wilder
ness the home Of the untutored savage and the
lair Of the wild beast, the music OF It's rushing
answered back only By the whistlinr winds
sweeping through the tree tops of its mighty
forests; today the axe of man hewing way for
coming civilization, the iron horse making his
slow passage over her towering hills; the pio-
neer filling her valleys with waving grain, the
merchants founding cities upon her shores, the
rugged boom, and the miner peering for the
first out OF the depths of her untold wealth;
% sou only in R all her broad domain
ions OF people, her iuland sea covered with her
merchantmen bearing her products to the four
quarters OF the globe, her broad acres covered
with network Of railroads, her cities become
the commercial centers of the nation, and she
herself the empire state of the American Union.
And this is Washington, whose soil we tread as
the first sons OF the state which is giving to us
to mould in her Institutions. her morals and her
liberties. Grave is the work given thus into
our hands: but brayely should we undertake the
task and fearlessly in the light of consciemce
and fear of God should we perform the work
During all time three agencies have contended
for supremacy among US. the politician. the
statesman and the people, and these now are in
our midst In one sense all are politicians: that
is, every man should put the weight al his in
fiuence in the scale Of good goyernment: hut
the politician in the sense we here use the term
is not that kind of a person. He ia selfish.
works for his own ends, and uses whntever
means are ar his Command for this burmese foni
or fair He does not INQUIRE what is for the
best interest Of the state at large or for
the people; but how can he gain his
own selfish ends his motto usually being. in
the language attributed to Mr.. Vanderbilt ssfhe
people be damned" William Tweed. of New
York was Al iilustrfous examn ri This ksnT
He made aldermen. semblymen and sfSte and
United States senator's: and in il ali millions Tor
40