first hint at
such a possibility; but such opposition should not prevent moral and
Christian men from demanding honesty in officials, fairness and
openness in party machinery, and common decency and morality in
candidates. In cities, political preferment and success in nominating
caucuses are largely the result of party machinery by "pot-house
politicians," by grog shops and gambling saloons, and by men not
conspicuous for virtue or intelligence. So foul is the atmosphere of
party politics, to such dishonoring and degrading practices are
applicants for office often reduced, so necessary is it to spend
money corruptly and to pension the _claqueurs_ and intriguers and
wire-pullers, that the virtuous and patriotic are often disgusted, and
many Christians are unwilling to peril spiritual health and life by
contact with such impurities. The complications and "trimming"
expediences often deter the pure and refined from political
associations, and those who control American politics are quite content
to dispense with the presence, except at the ballot-box, of those who
ought to give tone and direction to public opinion. Moral character,
sobriety, decency, chastity, are not the elements of availability in
the selection of candidates. Drunkards, profligates, connivers at
fraud, plotters, are apparently as acceptable for nomination and
election as those whose intelligence and virtues should commend them to
public approval. Macaulay has a sentiment which ought to be printed on
satin and hung up in every house to be memorized by every voter: "The
practice of begging for votes is absurd, pernicious, and altogether at
variance with the true principles of representative government. The
suffrage of an elector ought not to be asked, or to be given, as a
personal favor. It is as much for the interests of constituents to
choose well as it can be for the interest of a candidate to be
chosen.... A man who surrenders his vote to caresses and supplications
forgets his duty as much as if he sold it for a bank-note. I hope to
see the day when an Englishman (an American) will think it as great an
affront to be courted and fawned upon in his capacity of elector as in
his capacity of juryman."

Not lightly fall
Beyond recall
The written scrolls a breath can float:
The crowning fact,
The kingliest act
Of freedom is the freeman's vote.

The too common practice in all portions of th