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VEMBER 30", 1906
RACING SOME
Writing: in the North American Review, Pre
ssor urander Matthews attributed to Thomas
Reed this remark: "When Dr. Johnson defined
itriotism as the last refuee of n snmmrwi i,
Id not foresee the infinite possibilities of the
Professor Matthews is a member nf n
Itteo which has undertaken tn "flimnitf ai.
In spelling, and the New York World intimates
iut uie proiessor is lleslrous of "simplifying
uciittu nioiury, too,- necause he attributed to
lomas B. Reed a remark which the World
lys was made by Roscoe Conkling. According
iuu wurm;
J'The remark was made by Gonkilncr fn
speech at the republican.state convention in
Kocnester September 26, 1S77. Piatt, whn wn
not yet a senator but already one of Conk-
"ufc uauuy ei-ra.ua ooys, aced as tempor
ary chairman of the convention, and in his
t'speech attacked the Hayes administration,
gthen only six months old. The resolutions
fc'cirartea by Conkling contained no indorsement
&'of the president or his policies. On the floor
rof the convention George William Curtis
onered an amendment to the resolutions de
claring that Hayes' title to his seat was as
p regular as Washington's and commending the
h administration. It was in answer to Curtis'
$ speech that Conkling delivered the master
piece of classical scurrility in which the re
mark occurred which Prof. Matthews under-
R takes to" quote: 'When Dr. Johnson defined
v patriotism as the last refuge of a scoundrel
fc lie -was unconscious of the then undeveloped
capaoiuties and uses of the word "reform." ' "
Maybe Mr. Conkling got his idea from a state-
lent made by Charles L, who said "public re
formers had need first practice on their own
iearts that which they propose to try on others."
it is not always an easy task to locate the
origin of a "popular phrase and many amusine
knd easily explained errors are made by well
liormed men in bestowing credit for some of
rate phrases.
I, Some time ago Harper's Weekly undertook
i-'lnnnto V10 rvnlo'ln nf flirt nVii'ion "n nuliltn nfllin
a public trust." Harper's identified it with
le name of the late Daniel S. Lamont, but, taken
to task by one of its readers, Harper's said it
lid not claim that Colonel Lamont was the author
the phrase, but that he adapted it to fitting
e in a Cleveland campaign. Harper's then pro
jeded to give the credit to the late Governor
tugh S. Thompson of South Carolina who, ac-
rding to Harper's, "first employed the expres-
m in his inaugural address in 1882." Another
tder of Harper's took issue with this state-
it and said that the credit belonged to Daniel
ebster who, seventy years ago, in a speech de-
rered at Boston, declared: 'It is time to declare
it offices created for the people are public
ists, not private spoils."
The Commoner pointed out at the time that
irper's critical reader as well as Harper's itself
in error. Grover Cleveland or Daniel La-
nt, as you please, used the phrase in 1884;
)ram S. Hewitt used it in 1883 and Governor
lompson used it in 1882; but Dorman B. Eaton,
few York lawyer, said in 1881: "Public offices
public trusts; and as early as May. 1872,
iarles Sumner declared: "The phrase 'the pub-
office Is a public trust' has of late become
jmmon property." Daniel Webster, as this read
er of Harper's Weekly reminded us, said: "It
time to declare that offices created for the
ieople are public trusts, not private spoils." But
r. Webster said that October 12, 1835, and eight
months prior thereto, February 13, 1835, John
tC. Calhoun said: "The very essence of a free
I government consists in considering offices as
public trusts, bestowed for the good or tne coun
try, and not for the benefit of the individual or a
f party." Years before that Edmund Burke, in his
address on the French Revolution, referred to a
public office as "a great trust," and in 1807
Thomas Jefferson said: "When a man assumes
a public trust, he should -consider himself as
public property." But away back in seventeen
hundred and something. Matthew Henry, a British
h divine, published a commentary on the old and
U -nnw testaments. In the third chanter or tne First
Enistle to Timothy, referring to the qualifications
K of deacons .as" well as bishops, it is said: "And
: let .these also lirst De proven, uommeuuug on
thts Matthew Henry said: "It is not fit the public
trusts should bo lodged in the hands of any till
The Commoner.
OF THE POPULAR
5
they are first proved and found fit for the busi
ness they are to be entrusted with."
It is not difficult for one who studies the
origin of some of these popular phrases, to con
elude that there is "nothing new under the sun."
Tnh2SaT?,U Brle' one of th0 directors of the
LnHn, f"ey RaIlroad company, might have
when ,Hn Tf3 gotflnB 0ff billing original
tSni' ? , ? U,e COaI strlkG In December, 1902,
nSSS.idifby a ewsn-aPer reporter that the
public might want to know something concern
ing the proceedings of the special board meeting,
he retorted : "yell let them go to h-- it Is no
body s business what was done." But the elder
Vandcrbilt put this doctrine much more sue
clnctly long bofore, when ho said: "The public
be d d."
Grovdr Cleveland Is commonly credited with
several phrases which did not originate with
mm. No one has yet claimed credit for his
Innocuous desuetude" phrase, but when he said
it is a condition which confronts us not a
theory," it sounded very much like something
Disraeli had said in 1843. When Mr. Cleveland
referred to "the cohesive liower of public plun
der," he reminded one of something John C. Cal
houn said in 1836, towit: "A power has risen
up in the government greater than the peoplo
themselves, consisting of many and various and
powerful Interests, combined into one mass, and
held together by the cohesive power of the vast
surplus in the banks."
To Lincoln is generally attributed the phrase,
"government of the people, by the people, for the
people." He used that phrase In his Gettysburg
speech in 1863, but at Boaton in 1850, Theodore
Parker described "the American idea" as de
manding "a democracy that is a government of
all the people, by all the people, for all the
people." In 1830 Daniel Webster used this
phrase: -"The people's government, made-for the
people, made by the people, and answerable to
the people."
In 1865, Lincoln said: "With malice toward
none, with charity for all," but in 1838 John
Quincy Adams said: "In charity to all mankind,
bearing no malice or ill will to any human being."
Of course Lincoln put it much better than John
Quincy did.
Henry Ward Beecher is credited with saying:
"A man in the right with God on his side is in
the majority though Jbe be alone." But Wendell
Phillips put it much better when, long before
Beecher spoke, he said: "One on God's side Is
a majority."
For years Abraham Lincoln has been credit
ed with the saying: "You can fool all of the
people some of the time, some of the people all
of the time, but you can not fool all of the peoplo
all of the time." The Washington Post is au
thority for the statement that Representative
Snooks, of Ohio, called upon the congressional
librarian to say where this Lincoln quotation
could be found, and that Assistant Librarian
Spofford replied that the sentence, does not occur
in any of Mr. Lincoln's writings. Mr. Spofford
said that Mr. Nlcolay, Lincoln's secretary, told
him (Spofford) that Mr. Lincoln did not use
this phrase, but that P. T. Barnum, the great
circus man, was the author. William Pitt Kel
logg, however, declares that he remembers dis
tinctly hearing Mr. Lincoln deliver this phrase
at a meeting at Bloomington, 111, in May, 1856.
Mr. Kellogg says that Mr. Lincoln used this
phrase 'frequently in his speeches, but that he
remembers particularly that at Bloomington Mr.
Lincoln said: "No one can long be deceived by
such sophistries; you can fool all of the peoplo
some of the time, some of the people all of the
time, but you can not fool all of the people all
of the time."
In 1896, the republican leaders sought to poke
fun at Mr. Bryan because he had used the ex
pression, "the dollar before the man." But they
forgot, or did not know, that in a letter written
to certain Boston republicans In April, 1859,
Abraham Lincoln complained of those who, he
said, "held the liberty of one man to be abso
lutely nothing when in conflict with another's
right of property," adding: "Republicans, on the
contrary, are for both the man and the dollar,
but in .case of conflict the man before the dol
lar." Jt was, too, William McKinley who, ar.
raigning. the Cleveland administration, com
plained, that Mr. Cleveland's purpose was to make
men cheaper and money dearer, "money the mas
ter, everything else the servant"
. Just where the very common phrase "the
PHRASES
greatost good to the greatost number' originated,
would bo difficult (o say. Francis Jlutchoson, a
Scotch oducator, wrote In 1720: "That nctlon is
best which procures tho greatest happiness to
the greatest .numbers." Boccaria, an Italian po
itical philosopher, in 1761, used tho expression
in tho introduction to his "Treatlso on Crimes
nn , ?n,8hn,nfc.M Bontham, an English jurist,
II n n u lnl1 ,enrnod from Joon'1 Priestly,
SL? 8 iB nh,,oaonnGr. that "tho greatest Imp'
Plness of the greatest nurcbor, is tho foundation
of morals and legislation."
"Eternal vigilance Is the price of liberty." Is
commonly attributed to various American ora
tors. John Phllpot Curran used It at Dublin In
When Andrew Hamilton, tho insurance lob
bjlst, appeared boford a New York committee
ho sought to justify his manipulation of legisla
tures through the use of monoy, upon tho theory
that there is "a higher law that requires the pro
tection of business interests." That was putting
to very bad use a phrase that has somo noble
associations. In the house of commons, in 1830,
Lord Brougham said he did not recognize any"
rights of property in a slave, adding: "In vain
you tell mo of laws that sanction such a claim!
Thero is a law above all enactments of human
codes the same throughout tho world, tho sarno
in all times such as it was beforo tho daring
genius of Columbus pierced the night of ages,
and opened to one world the sources of power
wealth and knowledgo; to another all unutterable
wqes; such aB it Is at this day. It Is tho law
written in the heart of man by the finger of
his Maker; and by that law, unchangeable and
eternal, while men dospiso fraud, and loatho
rapine, and abhor blood, they will reject the wild
and guilty phantasy that man can Jiold proporty
In map! In vain you appeal to treaties, to covo-r
nants between nations; tho covenants of the Al
mighty, whether of the old covenant or tho new,
denounce such unholy pretensions."
In a free soil meeting in Boston, in May,
1849, Wendell Phillips referring to "the higher
law" said: "We confess that wo intend to"
tramplo under foot the constitution ot this coun
try. Daniel Webster says: 'You are a law-abiding
people;' that the glory of New England Is 'that
it is a law-abiding community.' Shamo on It, if
this bo true; if ever the religion of Now England
sinks as low as its statute book. But I say we
are not a law-abiding community. God be thanked
for it!"
In a speech delivered In tho United States
senate In March, 1850, William H. Seward said:
"We reverence the constitution, al'hough wo per
ceive this defect, Just as we acknowledge tho
splendor and the power of tho sun, although its
surface Is tarnished with here and there an onaque
spot. The constitution regulates our stewardship;
the constitution devotes the domain to union,
to justice, to defense, to welfare, and to liberty.
But there Is a higher law than the constitution,
which" regulates our authority over the domain
and devotes it to the same noble purposes."
This lobbyist, Hamilton, was not tho first
ono to put to bad use a phrase that had served
good purposes. In February, 1899, John B. Hend
erson, formerly a senator from Missouri, delivered
an eloquent speech, protesting against Imper
ialism, the keynote of which speech was: "Why
not let well enough alone?" In that speech Gen
eral Henderson said: "We are now entering upon
an untried experiment In our system of govern
ment. Why not let well enough alone? Imper
ialism contains more armed soldiers than tho
fabled wooden horse of Troy. Imperialism re
verses the entire theory of self-government. It
discards the wisdom of our fathers, repudiates,
without shame, the Monroe doctrine, and joins
hands with the execrated holy alliance. It re
jects the civil equality of men and accepts, with
out protest, the oppressions and despotism of
the sixteenth century. This war in the Philip
pines brings us back into the shadows of the
Dark Ages. It is a war for which no justification
can be urged. As no reasons could be assigned
for its existence, congress was ashamed to make .
up any record of its declaration. It has scarcely
better excuse than the wars of subjugation watred
by imperial Rome, whose object was to plunder,
and enslave the weak, and whose result was, bz
tho language of its own historian, to make a
desert pf other lands and call It peace."
And that's where Mark Hanna found his 190C
campaign slogan.
RICHARD L. METCALFE.
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