The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1907-07-25
Crooked politics.

low can the stream carry clean water?
I sovereignty is lodged In the people
md the voter will sell his vote to the
highest bidder, how can he feel any in
crest in an honest and good govern
aentP If the lawmader obtains place
and power by corrupt practices, will
40 honestly represent his constituentsH
Rather will he not represent the
corrupt element that placed him in
power? In other words, can the stream
rise higher than the fountain? If
some lucky turn Of the wheel Of fort.
une or complicated intrigue through
the "Plunderbund" places q man in
such position he can sell an elective
office and cheat the people out of their
choice by raising to power man they
did not elect, how much better is he
than the thief who SELLS gold brick?
But what Of the party and the people
who condone his crime and continue to
nominate and vote for him after his
crime is discovered2 Are they not all
on the same crooked moral plane?
We occasionally meet with an igno-
rant and superstitious man whose edu-
cation was laid on the mud-sills of
Pharisaism who quotes that idiotic old
proverb ''never say anything but the
good the dead have dsne" in speaking
of their past lives. To honestly inter.
pref this "proverb" you mnst practice
hypocrisy as fine art and always
strive TO mislead, deceive and delude
your fellow men. This is so manifest
ly opposed to all my ideas of moral
honesty do not accept it as rule OF
action. On the contrary, wise and
honest retrospectien is the only key
that will unlock the great store house
of human philosophy. The man who
does not make daily and nightly jour
neys over the road that led up from
childhood aud youth can never correct
his own errors. Nay, more: he cannot
even repair the breaches in his own
moral character when his passions and
lusts drew MIN aside to battle in the
polluted waters of sensual pleasure.
How can he be clean moral man or Q
good citizen? In tne very nature of the
case he will impress his crookednesi
upon society. Now, as nations are
comosed Of an aggregation of human
units, by what strange mental alchemy
can we hope to build up clean mora
nation out of crooked and ungainly
units? AS the wise man asked, "wht
can bring q clean thing olt of an an
clean? not one."
Let as take an illustration in ou
early history: In the very infancy o
the Republic, in less than twelve year
after the election of the first congress
under the constitution whose duty i
was to organize the federal govern
ment the political crooks got in thei
first job bya bold assault upon tn
right of the people to elect the Presi
dent of the United States. 1t came u
In this way; The electoral college il
: 1901, cast the same number of votes TO
/ Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia, an
Aaron Burr, of New York. A littl
, gang of autocrats in congress to sho'
their hostility to popular government
; seized upon the fimsy false pretens
that they didn't know which of the tw
: men the people intended to be the pres
9 ident. You say there is always tw
. sides to all questions, and we mas
look at both sides TO find the truth i
any case. Can the truth be ON bot
sides of any question? Is truth divit
ed in the mouth Of any one but o d.
r ceiver? Have not most of the calam
/ ties OF mankind resulted from falls,
hood cuuningly devised by crafty hyl
ocrites to deceive, delude and mislea
u their fellows? The love OF truth fl
r its own sake never deceives any on
It But let US 60 to the record and see no
!. these men convicted themselves of b
ing engaged in Q game of "crookt
politics" in the purer and better day
of the Republic. Immediately aft
. the death Of Washington in 1899, Il
patriots of Virginia saw that John A
ANS was striving to run the governm
into the nasty rut Of English heredi
=, ry aristocrisy. Naturally they BEGAN
alarmed at this fragrant abandonme
of the fundamental principles of o.
duplex system of government for viii,
they had struggled so long and
1T faithfully to establish over the state
t. Hence j efferson and Madison drew I
Of the Virginia and Kentucky resolution
a. defining the powers and limitations
Is the federal government and clear
10 marking the rights and powers Of &
I. states in our dual system. If the nc
as them states had honestly lived up
Is the spirit Of these immortal resolutio
re our sectional war in the sixties won
le have been impossible, and our Ii
70 coins and Davises and Grants al
of Lees would not have gone up befo
0. the GREAT WHITE THRONE
Id murderers of their fellow men.
r. To head off the anti-republican to
id dency of the Adams administration th
ne squinted so plainly at a fixed puIpo
IN TO return to a monarchy to rule ov
i. llo manila Of Aha lInikad GAnAoa 4