The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1900-06-07
The Acrobat in Politics.
Saturday Evening Post.

Evening Post.
We must admire good humor,
blithe temper and resilient lmaglna
ton, even when they show forth in IN
farior men. What we call iaithfLlness
does not always go beyond mere per
sistency of first IMPRESSION iii simple
and not very adaptable nature.
This seems to be more generally true
of politicians than of any other class OF
men, especially politicians who pride
themselves upon being always true to
their party. The man typical OF this
class has an lnfalIible digestion, thick
blood, mind which manifests itself
by jocund light in the face and fam
boyant style of conversation. He is
a Republican, Democrat, Wing, 3
Tory, no matter what extreme changes
OF principle he is required to make year
by year in order to tit himself to his
place. He keeps his willing and alert
eyes upon the signal station at party
headquarters. Whatever the message
is, he takes off his hat and cheers.
Last year he was for tariff, this year
he is for free trade: next year he will
be for anything and everything that
his party may put into its platform.
It is wonderful to see this politician g
unbesitat!ng enthusiasm in behalf OF
what he lately condemned as "unpat-
riotic and In violation of time-honored
principles" He is nimble at all times
but his agility IS amazing when com
plete turning insiGe-out of all his polit-
lcal ralment must be accomplished up
on the shortest possible notice. Yet,
when you hint to him that some Or all
of his party's early leaders were but
men like ouselves, and might have err
ed here and there in dogmatically lay
ing down political rules and regula-
lions for all times and all generations
he brides sturdily and laughs IN your
tace.
! Emerson shrewdly said: "Meek
young men grow up in libraries, believ-
ing it their duty to accept the views
which Cicero, which Locke, which
Bacon have given, forgetful that Cicero
Locke and Bacon we're only young men
In libraries when they wrote these
BOOKS" Yet, if you say to the politi-
clan, Hamilton, Jefferson, franklin
and Madison we're but men, century
or 50 gone, and spoke for their own
time and generation, not necessarily
for ours" 10! what recoil of horror
You may even quote to him Jefferson.
own words, "Can one generation bind
another, all others, in succession Tor
ever? 1 think not. The Creator has
! made the earth for the living, no,
the dead ;" but he onlv smiles and
says, "Why, yes, that's so /; I believe
| that" and the next day he is making
| stump speech to prove that the
| present generation is firmly and un-
alterably bound by all that Thomas
Jefferson ever said Still week, a
| month or year later he will be quot
| ing Hamilton, or Clay or Webster to
upset the whole theory. Meantime,
his face has grown ruddier, his diges-
ton better aud his cheerfulness more
Theoretically apparent.
| A war comes he Is in favor of whip
| ping the whole world before breakfast
peace comes, and he condemns every
man who went to the front. He clear.
ly shows that the war was Ubiquitous
and its results destructive of "those
,ime-honored principles set FORTH" and
80 on. Or, if war has been avoided by
successful diplomacy, he puts his ea1
| to the ground tor a hint of what his
party Is going to promuigate, and then
up he leaps to denounce the cowardice
Of those in power who shrank from
the glorious shock of patriotic
battle, and sneaked away from the
high responsibility of ordering the
drums to beat, the trunrets to blare
the flag to wave, the feet to sail and
the army to march. All, but he is q
fine fellow, this cheerful politician, and
when he takes you by the hand and
smiles into your eye, ten to one you
feel his goodness and his greatness sc
plainly and SO deeply that your yote
goes into his vest pocket, and you are
proud of yourself.
MAURICE THOMPSON.