M. A. C. ALUMNI REUNION. 4il 



})lodding j>aths of virtuous labor for the quicker and corrupt roads tv 

 glory. 



In politics, often, candidates for our lii<;h offices seem to be above the 

 law, and if they can, by the judicious (?) use of money corrupt the 

 caucuses and conventions as well as the ballot box, thereby attaining 

 the object of their ambition, they have no fears of being called to 

 account for the means by which they were elected. The^' often en- 

 deavor by fraud, bribery and falsehood (the ordinary and vulgar arts 

 of intrigue and duplicity), or by crimes of the most enormous character, 

 to su})plant and destro}' those obstacles which stand in the way of their 

 desires for gain and greatness. It is fortunate, however, that they 

 more frequently miscarry than succeed, and commonly gain nothing 

 but the distrust of their fellow citizens and the punishment awaiting 

 them when pursued by the hand of justice. 



The low estimate put upon the value of personal ambition in the de- 

 sire for holding as well as the faithful discharge of the sacred trust 

 of a public office is manifest to our people by the unhappy coincidence 

 that seven of our heretofore prominent public State officials stand in- 

 dicted, one of whom is convicted and six still awaiting trial for consi)ir- 

 acy, robbing the public treasury, or else giving or accei^ting bribes 

 to do the bidding of private interests in the legislative halls. The 

 peo])le of our State will maintain their usual self poise and presume all 

 the untried parties not guilt}' until the proven facts show otherwise, 

 at tlie same time the people have a perfect right, — nay, it is their duty, — 

 to demand the unrelenting prosecution of these cases in order that 

 every guilty one may meet condign punishment, and that examples of 

 what will follow malfeasance in office be set before others. Our public 

 officials should be given emi>hatic notice that it is just as criminal to 

 steal from the public treasurj-^ by fraud in oflSce as it is to crack a bank 

 safe in the night, and that prosecution will be as certain in one case as 

 the other. 



Another apt illustration of misguided personal and political ambition 

 is shown in the career of Napoleon the Great. This extraordinary man, 

 dreaming of universal em])ire, superstitiously believed that fate in- 

 tended him to hold Europe in his hand. But we can see that he was 

 designed by that remorseless fate for a very different purpose, and a 

 very brief oflBce. He was the terrible instrument whicli she intended 

 to use for one specific j)urpose only and then to cast aside. This work 

 was the destruction of the Roman-Germanic Empire. That lifeless 

 mass, whose oppressive weight had crushed the life and hope out of 

 Central Europe for centuries, needed some tremendous force from with- 

 out to break up its time encrusted rivets. And that force was in the 

 hands of a workman who supposed he was rearing a great edifice for 

 himself. 



Kapoleon, in fact, entered upon the most daring scheme ever at- 

 tempted in Europe; to convert the whole continent into one vast empire 

 with the kings and jtrinces over the several nations all subject to him. 



His career was a grand one while he was engaged in crushing out the 

 supei'stitious customs of the .ancient church that held the nations of 

 Euro])e in his grasj), but when that was ended and he still continued 

 on the march for unworthy ])ersnnal ends, the fate that had picked him 

 up, ffung him aside. He learned it too late. History holds no picture 



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