The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-02-23
OUR MODERN POLITICS.

sermon of Sunday last, did not exceed the
truth in his estimate of Washington as an
honorable man in politics, but the scenes
in our city politics would hardly surprise
"the Father of His Country if he could
revisit us today. Our politics are not pure
nor peaceable, but they are relatively
quite as pure and peaceable and as little
disigured by gross, vulgar partisanship as
they were in Washington's day.
Washington himself was an active pol
itician and warm partisan. Indeed his
partisanship was so warm that at an cleo
ton in Alexandria he unjustly gave the
lie to nelghbor who opposed Washing
tons friend for election, was knocked
down, and apologized the next morning.
| If any man of our Revolutionary states
men knew Washington intimately it was
Gouverneur Morris. Morris was a great
social fayorite with Washington, who hon
| ored him with his personal friendship and
| political confidence. The literary remains
| of Gouverneur Morris, including his diary
and correspondence, have been traversed
| by his grandson, and their substance given
the politics of Washington's day had far
! less of the spirit of Washington in them
than those of our own day. Long after the
| Revolution John Jay and Gouverneur
Morris happened to meet at dinner, and
Jay said: morris, do you know of such
a collective set of rascals as the Reyolu-
tionary congress?" To which Morris, W no
had been sent by Washington as minister
to France, responded: "Bar the French
Directory, / do not"
During the whole revolution jobbery and
robbery of all kinds rode rampant. The
| masses were so unpatriotic that up to 17S1
a popular vote would have given King
George two-thirds majority; the war
was unpopular from the start. Many of
Is supporters welcomed it as a chance to
avoid paying their debts. and patriotism
was largely understood as an excuse to rob
! ones Tory neighbors. When the conven-
| ton to frame the federal constitution was
held Rhode Island wanted the slave trade
sustained, while Virginia, as breeding
state, wanted it abolished. The custom
houses and fiscal agencies of Washington's
day were rife with frauds and stealings of
all sorts, and nepotism in the matter of
appointments was almost universal.
Gambling was universal in those days,
and public opinion was so low on the sub
jeot that Washington himself bought lot
terry tickets, while the Puritan corporation
and faculty of Harvard college, composed
exclusively of strict churchmen, used a
lottery grant to raise money for the col-
| lege. Drinking and public intemperance
was far more universal than at present
The unpublished correspondence of
| Chancellor Kent, beginning in 1870, re-
veals rascality, duplicity and villainy in
| politics and greed for Office on the part of
| men of the highest historical reputation.
| The ballot boxes were stolen in Ulster
county, n. Y, in the days of George Clin-
ton, and Aaron Burr practiced as leader
| of the Jefferson party in New
| York the same kind of corrupt poll
ties that was employed by Governor
| Hill to steal the New York legislature
Hamilton, the great pupil of Washington,
was a most INSCRIPTIONS politician, rs
also was Jefferson and Monroe. Washing
| ton, Franklin and John JAY were the only
men of their day that would not suiier by
| comparison with the leading politicians OF
| the great parties today. The correspond
! ence of Chancellor Kent from 1879 to 1913
makes ii clear that the older the nation
! grows the fewer political scandals there
| are, and the same is true in regard to the
Al
humanity. Washington appointed the
n.sn to Office whom choice or events
made him appoint; he put in
! office Il good selection of his personal
! friends and few of his relatives. The
times OF Washington, both before and
after the Revolution, were not comparable
| TO our own in the general prevalence of
! patriotism, religion, political purity and
| social morality. Politics were disfiEured
| by daels, by the most barbarous partisan
| hates and arrangements between families
! and members of tie same family. by
! bribery, gross dru .kenness, by obscene
! carlcatureS OF the BEST and purest men; by
public press of .he most filthy, venal and
| brutal description, q press that did not
| spare Washington the vilest imputations
| on his final departure from the presidency.
Washingt would see much in our Sc
! attic politics TO condemn, but he would
| nevertheless find vast improvement in
every res rect over the politics of his own
! day. OF such bitterness and brutality of
/ partisa ship az disgraced politics in Wash
! ington day our press and our politics re-
/ hcct nothing today. The language used
/ by Hamilton in public and private con-
/ cern'lg his political opponents is scorned
by zen Of eminence today, and the con.
! due Of Jefferson remaining in Washing
to- 5 cabinet and secretly using his pen in
/ tie press to undermine his administration
. without parallel in our day. Washing
on would ind ourpolitics. local, state and
national, far better than the politics of his
day.
Seattle voters will have little Of which 10
complain if the Democrats present as
clean 3 city t.cke: As the Republicans have