The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-06-14
HONESTY IN PUBLIC SERVICE.

HONESTY IN PUBLIC SERVICE.
The leading journals of the opposition
party, whether of pure Democratic or Mug
wump antecedents, all bear testimony to
the ability and honesty of President Har-
rison The New York Sun. the Philadel-
phia Times. the Boston Herald, the Spring
field Republican, the New York Times, the
New York Ereniag Post, the Louisville
Courier-Journat, are all warm in their praise
of the official honesty, frankness and
directness of General Harrison. The hon.
esty of President Harrison in his political
career has been of that rugged sort that
marked the conduct of Roscoe Conkllng,
which, If it does not always make troops
of friends and atfectionate admirers, al
ways wins lasting respect for its possessor.
Everyday commercial honesty. in
obedience to self-interest, is respected by
the mass of men who have anything at
stake in public life, but if We mean by
honesty something more than pecuniary
integrity; if we mean intellectual and
moral honesty of conviction and courage
in action, joined to high sense of personal
honor, which is not satisfied with legal
vindication before the courts, but always
demands trial by conscience, then Gen.
eral Harrison, like Roscoe Conkling, has
always been a man of exceptional. ugly
honesty in public Office. At the end of
Conking's senatorial career he had
nothing but his reputation to show for
his services, while other senatorial
lawyers, not ADLER, but less scrupulous,
had become rich men. The difference be-
tween results was a difference between
men. Mr.. Edmunds and Mr.. Conkiing
were equally incorruptible men in the
sense of commercial integrity and pecunl-
airy honor. You could not bribe either of
them. If either of them owed q dollar he
would pay ION the NAIL" but with this
differences: Mr.. Edmunds would first ask
himself whether any legal objections ex-
listed, while Conkling would go beyond
this and inquire whether he had clear
moral as well as legal defense for his deed.
Mr.. Edmunds would not do anything as a
senator which he had not plausible
right to do in law. but Mr.. CoEkling would
with his implied moral obligation as a
senator, no matter if he could plead a good
defense under the letter of the law. That
is, he was more concerned in the spirit of
his life as a senator than in the mere
formal letter of it. The result was that
while in the beginning of their careers in
the Senate both had a great many cases
offered them, Conkling turned away a
great many clients that Edmunds kept.
because Conkling was more fastidious i'll
his construction of his official disabilities
as a senator TO act as attorney than Ed
munds. So ConklIng declined to be
attorney to the great corporations,
like the Pacific railroads. etc, and
remained poor until he left the
Senate. while Edmunds increased
his clientage among corporations In litiga-
ton with the government so rapidly that
he was one of the rich men Of the Senate
when he left it in November last. Mr..
Conkling may seem to have been morbidly
sensitive TO the expressed and implied
obligation of his position as United States
senator, but in this kind of morbid hon.
esty Mr.. Conkling had his double in Gen.
ersl Harrison who, when in the United
States Senate. was an honest man in the
sense that Conkling was honest; clear up
to the glitt ering peak of moral honor.
This stern intellectual and moral integrity
Of thought and action, this absolute, I'M
stained honesty is the rare and shining
both in the United States Senate and in
the executive chair. The average lawyer
is too ambitious; the average politician is
too selfish to be "Conkling honest" The
lawyer learns from his books and his
practice to be satisfied with getting YER
dict in the court of law without trying
his case in the court of his conscience
That was Tilden, who had no more in
grained reverence for honesty than Tweed,
but he kept within the law as rail-
way wrecker and political actuary,
while Tweed robbed right and left i'll day.
light, and in defiance Of law, as careless
and Indifferent 10 consequences as a
Bedouin Arab or an Apache. General Har-
rison was one of the few lawyers of repute
in the United States Senate no stood with
Roscoe Conkling on the highest plane of
public and private honesty and moral
honor.
Secretary Chase once said that ''in order
10 he able 10 render the most efficient ser
vice 10 our country it is essential for ME
10 he right as we'll as 10 seem right, aud 20
seem right as well As 10 he ri,-he - ronk
ling and General Harrison both erected
the same high standard OF official trust set
up by Secretary Chase when he resolved
ito lie right as well rs TO seem right, 10
seem right a. well as 10 be right" Gem
eral Harrison has always had = clear
moral vision where public trust was con-
ceEned; he has been troubled with no
moral rnycpia or moral strabismus.
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