The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-02-16
POPULAR IDOLS IN POLITICS.


John Sherman is an able, q useful and
an upright citizen. In private life he is
| guilty of no vulgar extravaganza of Iiv-
ing; be does not ''open wine for the boys
he does no; give great dinner parties; his
hands zre not habitually full Of cards nor
his head fall % alcohol; he IS not spend
thrift; neither IS ne miser; he has been
all his life in the service of his party; he is
credited By both parties with courage, in
tegrity and honor in his private lite and
political career; he has made himself not
only feared. but respected by his political
foes.
And yet, as the world understands it
John Sherman is not popular man. Nc
enemy ever said he was corrupt; that ht
was untruthful; that he was dIssolute OF
extravagant: that he was inhuman or i'm
pure. or that, with all his public ambition
he ever loved power well enough to pur
chase it by peddling patronage or taking
indirect brides, or kissing the ground at
the rabble's feet. He is called cold. dis.
tant, but never corrupt; and he seems to
fall short Of popularity with the manag.
| ing machine" men of his party chiefly
because he is incapable temperamentally
OF being what is termed ''clever fellow"
or because from principle he has always
refused to play an ignoble political part
that he despised.
And yet John Sherman, who is still in
prime intellectual and bodily vigor, who
has recently rendered most important and
invaluable service to his party and his
country in breasting the rising tide of free
silver coinage, and who nevertheless is
not today named as a probable candidate
for the presidency, illustrates in his life
and so-called lack of general political
popularity, the career of the very best and
most valuable men in every state in this
Union: the torceful, strong willed, self
respecting, clean men, who, proud of their
cleanliness, conscious of the purity of their
motives, conscious, too. of their capacity for
sound and stalwart citizenship, can not or
will not stoop TO play the part of Joseph
Surface, or Sir Forcible Flattery in order
to be popular. They are always open to
reason, but never to "gush;" they are the
soldiers, not the spouters and shouters of
civic life.
Read the history of the men who have
done something worth doing in the world
| and for the world, in business, law. poli
tics; something that stands tor permanent
achievement; for the improvement and
valuable advancement of the prosperitv.
happiness, liberty and comfort of their
community, large or small, and Won will
find that many men of the greatest power
for good as proved by their actual intiu-
ence and accomplishment, have been men
OF very moderate personal popularity.
| The man who corrects popular errors. or
conquers public wrongs and obliterates
| public abuses, or ably tries to oppose and
| upset them, is always sure of the nm.
quenchaoie enmity of the bad; the hos
tility and jealousy of minds that
are mean when they are not
absolutely corrupt; the dislike and
distrust of the silly, the weak, the
umid, the time-serving, the ignorant and
the selfish. The people are always willing
to profit by the great powers of such men,
but they are prompt to prosecute them for
the most trivial. superficial intirmity OF
temper, speech or manner The people in
their hearts know that THE clever fellow
IN business or politics is in the long run
most expensive luxury. If he is able. hC
iuils them into state of false security and
then roos them right and left; if he is ligh
and superficial. he begins by being a popu
lar servant and ends by becoming ;
professional parasite lie fails in bus
mess; he borrows OF Peter to pax
Tor 4 big feast 10 dissolgte Paul. lie
slides along on smiles and bow
and aner-dlnner speeches, and excite
the admiration OF both sexes by tn,
extraordinary beauty OF his soap-bubbles
and finally the people wake up SUDDEN,
to the understanding that II doesn't pay t,
furnish soap forever TO 4 fellow. who. NJ
matter how often he changes his voice an,
style, is always in the bubble business, an,
whose invisible assets are always broker
bubbles, which do not contain even rain
bow. Finally when the public decline Z
any longer barter soap for bubbles the pop
ular bubbie-blower loses his grip. goes I,
the wall and then TO the grave. and We
even then he Will be buried amid 4 genera
acknowledgment that he was a very senia
and popular person, who could always sc
elected when he ran for office
by and by man Of utterly djfieren
type, cold, honest, energetic able. III
right. loyal and true to himself, TO hi
public business and his private duty, VIII
has never la;hered the public cheek an
then cut its throat; who has never tattere,
the public. fooled il or plundeted it. VIII
has had both the fate and the courage {
be misunderstood, dies and lac is borne {
the tomb amid frank admissions Of hi
usefulness, hrs ability, his integrity an
his worth, coupled with the inane quail
6casion that with all his ability he WASH
popular"
John sherman. Ike Grant, We suppose
will have 10 wait Tor death FOR Justification
and appreciation. Not until Grant Ia
cold in death did the American peopl
End eloquent tongue TO name and psals
the silent endurance, the grim dete.inins