302 CHARLES J. BONAPARTE 



national, state and municipal, of that government under which 

 we lived. As always happens, it proved easier to recognize 

 evils than to discover remedies ; and, in the like accord with all 

 human experience, our search for the latter was hampered by 

 the proffer of all sorts of wonderful nostrums, warranted by 

 their respective advocates to usher in a golden age. But, 

 with that plain, hard common sense, that distaste for sound 

 and froth, that craving for facts and distrust of ideas and theo- 

 ries, which have ever been the portion of English speaking 

 folk, the people of our union have finally gained a fairly clear 

 insight into the nature of our ills, and are gradually but stead- 

 ily learning what medicine will heal them. 



The underlying evil in the administration of our public 

 affairs is simply dishonesty. Our public offices are too often 

 held by dishonest men, too often gained by dishonest means, 

 too often used for dishonest ends. Of course, I do not mean 

 that all or a majority or even any large number of our officials 

 take public moneys or fraudulently waste public property or 

 in any way cause penitentiaries to yawn for them. Such inci- 

 dents are, indeed, much more frequent than they should be, 

 but it may be doubted whether the proportion of downright 

 thieves among the people's servants is larger than among those 

 of private masters. The great bulk of Americans in public 

 employ wish and intend to do their duty, but a grave and 

 mischievous, though very common, confusion of ideas as to 

 what is their duty makes the best of them sometimes fail to do 

 it, and permits the worst often to neglect it with impunity. 



The error is rooted in a mistaken and immoral theory as to 

 the nature of the position they hold. In law and morals alike, a 

 public office belongs to the people ; its duties are fixed by the 

 people's laws ; its salaries are paid with the people's money. In 

 the words of the court of last resort in Maryland: ''In this 

 country a public office can not be the property of the incum- 

 bent, because it belongs to the sovereign people who created 

 the government. In the declaration of organic principles, 

 prefixed to the instrument creating the government of this 

 state, those holding the most important offices are declared 

 to be the trustees of the public. The same designation neces- 

 sarily applies to all public functionaries. Therefore every 



