CORRUPTION IN PUBLIC LIFE. 



BY CHARLES J. BONAPARTE. 



LCharloR JcToiin' Ronaparto, scrrctary of tlic navy; born Haltinioro, Md., June 9, 1S51; 

 rccH'ivcd his early education at a boarding; school, and later prepared himself under 

 private tutors for Harvard university, which he enti-red sis a junior, and from which he 

 graduated in 1S71 ; in Sejjternber, IS? 4, was admitte<l to the practice of law in 

 Maryland, in the Circuit court of Howard county; was appointed by Pn^sident 

 Roosevelt to investigate the Federal post office frauds, and in 1905 secretary of the 

 navy; was also a member of the Board of Indian oouuuissioners.] 



Many years ago a story was told of a well known profes- 

 sional politician in this city, now dead, who, on his return from 

 church one Sunday, was met by a newspaper reporter, who re- 

 marked to him, in substance : *'Mr. A., I do not understand 

 how so regular an attendant at church as you are can })e also so 

 great an adept in stuffing ballot boxes, fixing juries and wit- 

 nesses, and plugging corporations." 



"Mr. B.," replied the statesman, ''I never mix up politics 

 and religion." 



Of late years the American people has shown a disposition 

 sufficiently plain to be widely remarked to act upon a different 

 principle. So many of our citizens are beginning to mix up a 

 good deal of what my late fellow townsman would call religion 

 with what he would call politics, and the resultant of this mix- 

 ture is so unpalatable and unwholesome to those of his ways of 

 thinking and acting, that a few words as to the real nature, 

 causes and consequences of the phenomenon may be timely 

 and not without interest. 



In truth, the mixing up of politics with religion to which 

 my deceased friend referred constitutes one feature of every 

 notable popular movement in progress for some thirty years 

 throughout our country. After the Civil war and the period 

 of reconstruction, the American people found time to take 

 stock. We were reminded by our tax bills that we had a 

 government, a fact our busy, prosperous fathers could more 

 than half forget during the two generations space of steady 

 internal colonization ; and, with this reminder, came a growing 

 measure of doubt and anxiety as to the practical merits, in 

 sober truth and not in fourth-of-July oratory, of all branches, 



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