UNITED STATES POLITICS. (Guardian)

Waikato Times, Volume III, Issue 129, 4 March 1873, Page 2

UNITED STATES POLITICS. (Guardian )

An article on American poll! km in the Daily Xeivs contains two sentences which break like a faint gleam of light from amidst tho opitrcssne coivuptioii of public life with which Vmencans charge thomselves, and which is too characteristic of democracies "In ludian-i, where the personal popularity of the Democratic nominee for the Governorship secured Ins election, the Republicans carried the rest of their Stnto t cliet" — mid the unwonted independence of party mtcrcsts which both Republicans and Democrats h^vc evinced m the elections of the last few months icerag to show," &c. Tho^tato of. thing 3 which appears to have arisen in the United States, and with which in tho course of democratic progress may also arise here, is pretty generally dosenbed as of this kind. Tho calals of amto^racy r.re replaced by tho moro active and pervading caucuses of democracy. The manipulation ,of parties falls into the hands of certain cliques, composed, of course, of adroit, bold, coniident persons, who look on the puHic esrvjee and all that attaches to it as forming a great party prize capable of redistribution ouce in eyory fjur years, and who make it their business by the agency cf subordinate cliques, and by the application of tho most stringent discipline, to keep their whole party m such order, and ao to conduct tho Government cr Opposition as to give them the OfMt practicable chanco of profiting Ij that occa.ion of pri. e-Jrawiug when it arises. Through tho hierarchy of cliques, persons desiring to take a part in politics arp made to understand that they must choose their side, ans may, if they like, change it ; but thai; no half-heartcdnesf, no picking and choosing, no consideration of general patriotism or particular justice can be allowed to interfere with the well-understood condition under which they aro permitted to obtain a footing in politics— the condition, namely, that in ijjl political matters they niusj suy, do, an/1 profess to think what, in the opinion of party leaders, is required to be said, done, or professed, for party interests. Qf course, all this eng aiders a certain sense of party duty, amounting, as in England, to a kind of bastard duty, — which like other, senses of duty, has ahoutj it a certain qualified elevation, which enables persons of the coarser-kind to devole themselves to it, without incurring common contempt, or entire corruption of the moral nature. They adopt the Roman. Catholic theory that man is b.onv.not to choose hi 3 principles but to choose his guide? : and having made choice of Sew.nrd, Fis'i, Sumn«r, or the " wire-pullers " who may stand behind- those gentlemen respectively, they adhere to their leaders with a certain respected, if not always respectable, fidelity. Persons who aro not despised by others dp not despise thamselves ; and contract a species of self-saiis-faction which, if it prevents any upward movement* towards rcpentcnee, somewhat arrests their downward progress towards the abyss. These are they which in civilised countries appropriate tho designations of inon of their age — practical men, and so oa. But there arc others whose iufluenco on society and Government is extremely important, n ho find within them an obstinate scheme of belief framed on the platform (as it is called) of Christianity, or philosophy, or generous impulse, which, unfortunately foe thei* political prospects in tho United States, may not be in' anything like consistent harmony with either of the dominant Creeds. These men wou',d not have much chance of political employment in England if saets in tho House of Commons were apportioned out by the Carlton and Reform Clubs. In the United States they have none. They are of necessity odious to the wire-pullers, — the wire-pullers are of equal necessity odtou3 to them. Public life becomes at once iiitofrrable and inaccessible to thgm. The means, of entering into it, the persons whom they have to obey in it, the course they liave to pursue in it, are all repellent — and the enforced absence from it, for which we think they are sometimes toq^nuoh blamed, delivers it over to the unchecked operation of downward influences. Gigantic abuses in tho ilegislative, executive, and judicial administi ation of tho oiintrv are such natural qualities of this acknowledged slato of things, that we may be allowed to believe in substance the 4oud allegations that they are its actual consequences.

And now, wjmt is at the root of all this? The opinion powerful in England and all-powerful in America — that OO all ordinary occasions — (for capital emergencies and great conflicts of principle have a law of their own) — the accomplishment of a party triumph is a greater object than the constitution of a wise and honest legislature. If const itupneips for party purposes rchnm to Congress or Parliament men, who bv their words and deeds or by their very presence will lower the moral standard of these bou«»3 — if it i« a, condition of public service thnt men shonld pay implicit odedience to miosc in whom they do not feel implicit, confidenco—if the worst are thus admitted and the best excluded, degradation is inevitable. And tho only cure of that degradation lies in a step backwards. Men must be content <o vole for a wtee or honest man with tho hope of« creating a wise or honest Legislature, rather than for a party man in the hope of eventing a party Lecislaturo. Men must look to the penonal- character which a candidate bears among those who know him, rather than tho promises which he makes to the central party committee. Occasions, of 1 course, there nre w hen it is of paramount necessity that a particular course should bo token or a particular man placed at tho head ofaffairi. sfor is it gaiserallv necessary to elect a man who is incompetent, because you refine to elect a man who is discreditable. Bnt people should not allow themselves to be mMcd by tho attempt made in Kngla.nd on the occasion of every gon^ril election, but hardly necessary to the United States, to elevate a party measure into a national- necessity ; or by tho shallow erv tlmf private character has nothing $0. do with publ q .employment. t Tho sentences \\a have quoted from the Daily Neiot pom to a reaction m this sense in America. TJje result would bo —first, to jiivo a certain advantage to that party who can bring into the field most candidates of-high character; next, to compel both parties to put forward their most respected representatives instead of their most useful adherents. And (hose who nrc suspicious of such results may take comfort from considering that an honest body of men is mora likely to work, into wisdom, than an unscrupulous body of men into honesty.