The Progress., 1896-05-16


IS Er2,I lslSA government, ana
VIZ IN S among other grel'
NkftH%g0 things which le
q W. did. atc1ri.n5 o
III 4 my text vas to
'NS teach his senator's
~ wisdom, anc Il any
men on earth ought to be endowed with
wisdom. it is senators, whether they
stand in congresses. Darlidmant5, or
reichstags, or assemblies, or .e5i9La-
lures BY their decisions nations go
IN or down. Lawmakers are some
times so tempted By prejUdioes. by sec
ti0udI preferences, by opportunity OF
personal advancement. and sometimes
what is hes. 10 do is so doubtful that
they ought to be prayed for and en-
cOuraged in every possible way, instead
OF sayprnly criticised and blamed and
excOriated. as is much of the time the
case Our public men are 50 often the
target to be shot at, merely because
they obtain eminence which other men
wanted but couId not reach that more
iniustices are hurled at cur national
legislature than the people OF the
United States can possibly imagine
The wholesale belying of our public
men is simplv damnable. By resi-
dence in Washington ! have come to
fi1d out that many of our public men
are Dersisteptlv misrpDreseuted, and
some of the best of them, The Duyest
{, their lives and most faithful IN the
discharge Of their duties. are the worst
DETAINED Some day want to preach
4 sermon from the text in II. Peter:
"They are not afraid to speak evil Of
dignittes. Whereas angels. which are
greater in power and might. bring not
railing accusation against them before
the Lord Rut these as natural brute
beasts made 10 be taken and DESTROYED.
sneak evil OF the things that they I'M
derstand not" So constant and malig-
nant is this depreciation and scanializa-
ton in regard TO our public men that all
over the land there are those who sup
nose that the city of Washington is the
center OF all corruption. while, what
with its marks ard its equestrian Statu-
ary and it's wide streets, and its arChi
tpcturaI svmmetries and its lovely
homes if is not only the most beautiful
CITY under the sun, but has the highest
stvIe Of citizenship. I have seen but
one intoxicated man in the more than
ak months of my residence, and 10
not think any man can give similar
testimony of any other city on the
American continent.
The gayeIs Of our two houses u ma
tioual legislature will soon fall. and ad-
tournament of two bodies Of men as tai
.ented, as upright and as patriotic as
ever graced the capitol will take place
The two or three unfortunate out
breaks which you have noticed only
make more conspicuous the dignity, the
fraternity. the eloquence, the fidelity
which have characterized those two
bodies during all the long months of
important and anxious deltberation.
We put a halo around great men of the
past because they we're so rare in their
time. Our senate and house OF repre-
sentatives have five such men where
once they had one. But it will not be
until after they are dead that they will
get appreciated. The world finds it
safer to praise the dead than the living,
because the departed, having heavy
pile Of marble above them. may not rise
to become rivals. But, betora the
gavels of adjournment drop and the
doors of Capitol Hill shut, there are
one or two things that ought to be
done, and let US pray God that they may
be accomplished. More fOrcibly than
ever before, congress has been i'm
plored to acknowledge God in our con-
stitution. The Methodist church. a
church that is always doing glorious
things, has in It's recent Wilmington
conference requested our congress to
amend the immortal document. which
has been the foundation and wall and
dome of our United States government,