EDITOR'S TABLE. 



559 



bursts of passion and prejudice, and 

 are accompanied by such torrents of 

 vulgar calumny, falsehood, and abuse, 

 that they are anything but creditable 

 to our self-respect and tastes. They 

 not only let loose every viler form of 

 uncharitableness and evil-speaking, but 

 they are permitted to absorb the ener- 

 gies of society to such an extent that 

 even commercial activity is arrested, 

 and the best moral and social develop- 

 ments are paralyzed for the time. In 

 these quadrennial saturnalia the partici- 

 pants, for the most part, take leave of 

 their senses, and comport themselves 

 like bedlamites or Masnads.' 1 In the 

 national campaign preceding the last, 

 one of the candidates, as we all remem- 

 ber, was constrained to say, " I hardly 

 know whether I am running for the 

 Presidency or the penitentiary." In 

 the last campaign a Presidential can- 

 didate received the suffrages of a ma- 

 jority of the people of the United States, 

 but he failed to get the office, and has 

 ever since been hunted with libels and 

 blackened with calumny, until multi- 

 tudes regard him as a consummate 

 knave, fit only for the State-prison. 



In these vile practices of falsehood 

 and detraction the whole country is im- 

 plicated, for we are a nation of politi- 

 cians. Politics is not only the domi- 

 nant subject of thought, but its method 

 is the dominant method of thinking. 

 "We have hundreds of colleges and thou- 

 sands of common schools, multitudinous 

 newspapers and countless pulpits, and 

 all, as we say, for the promotion of pub- 

 lic intelligence and the elevation of pub- 

 lic morality ; but, when election comes, 

 professors, teachers, editors, and clergy- 

 men, all join in "saving their coun- 

 try " by the means which Dr. Channing 

 has so fittingly characterized. Who- 

 ever is in the pulpit, the pews are filled 

 with politicians; whoever is editor, the 

 subscribers arc politicians; all the in- 

 structors in our public schools are po- 

 litical stipendiaries, and politicians dic- 

 tate the studies. Indeed, the reason 



given for the very existence of these 

 schools is political. As for the col- 

 leges, they are more than anything else 

 workshops for the manufacture of poli- 

 ticians ; as was sufficiently attested by 

 President Hayes, the other day, when 

 he told them at Yale that the great 

 office - holders are mere figure - heads 

 shaped by the institutions where office- 

 holders are made. 



'So rooted and so fortified is this 

 political system which perpetually preys 

 upon truth and justice, corrupts the 

 morals of the nation, and flames out in 

 Kearneyism and kindred scandals of a 

 reckless partisanship which disgrace 

 every State in the Union. But, pow- 

 erfully intrenched as it is, we believe 

 that this system is destined to be ulti- 

 mately improved if not renovated. But 

 it will be slow work, and the reform 

 will not proceed from within. Politi- 

 cians engendered by the system will 

 not transform it. The amending and 

 elevating influences must come from 

 without. Men must be thoroughly 

 freed from the system before they can 

 deal with it efficiently. The first thing 

 needed by the American citizen is to 

 gain an independent position for the 

 critical study of the institutions of his 

 country ; and this can only be done by 

 vigorous individual revolt agaiust party 

 domination. The powerful spell of 

 partisan influence must be broken be- 

 fore men can be qualified to pursue the 

 study of politics by the scientific meth- 

 od, for under the bias of party feeling 

 nothing is seen aright. Personal inde- 

 pendence of action in political matters, 

 freedom from the trammels of partisan- 

 ship, is the true preparation for the in- 

 telligent investigation of political ques- 

 tions. Multitudes of our best people 

 are already thoroughly disgusted with 

 politics. Thousands will not go to the 

 polls except under pressure of violent 

 campaign excitement. Politicians de- 

 nounce this as unpatriotic ; but there 

 can be no duty to one's country so 

 imperative as rebellion against party 



