Speeches, Addresses, and Occasional Sermons, Volume 3 (of 3)Parker, Theodore
Religion
Speeches, Addresses, and Occasional Sermons, Volume 3 (of 3)
Parker, Theodore
Sermons, American; Unitarianism
Under such circumstances, the leaders of one party nominated him. I must
confess such an act, committed by such men, seems exceedingly rash. It
was done by the very men who ought, above all others, to have known
better. This is one of the many things we have had, which show thinking
men how little we can rely on our political chiefs. The nomination once
made, the election followed. The wise men told the multitude: "You must
vote for him," and the multitude voted. You know how angry men were if
you did not believe in his fitness for the office; how it became a test
of "patriotism" to believe in him. Now the good man is cold in death,
how base all that seems!
When such a man under such circumstances comes into such an office, you
do not know whether the deeds which receive his official sanction, the
papers published under his name, the speeches he delivers, and the
messages he sends, are his or not his. It is probable that he has little
to do with them; they are his officially, not personally; he writes
State papers by their signature. Some of his speeches were undoubtedly
made for him. You know it once happened that a speech, alleged to have
been made by him at a public meeting, was sent on by telegraph, and
published by the party organ, in one of our great cities, and he was
taken sick before the meeting was held, and could not speak at all. That
speech betrayed the trick of the administration: it was a speech he had
never heard of. From this one act judge of many more. In his arduous
office, he must choose advisers, but he wants advisers to advise him to
choose advisers. Much will depend on his first step; that must needs be
in the dark.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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