ough one general government,
representing and protecting the interests of the whole; and thus
perfecting, by an admirable but simple arrangement, the great principle
of representation and responsibility, without which no government can
be free or just."--_VI. Calhoun_, 66.

We need civil service reform in the United States, States, and cities,
reducing the number, increasing the competency and responsibility of
office-holders, and abolishing the pestiferous maxim that to the
victors in a party contest belong of right the offices of the country.
We need rigid economy, public and private, civic purity, honest
administration. To take a citizen's money, except for the just and
economical administration of affairs, is governmental robbery. Economy
is not possible in Federal, or State, or municipal governments, with
high taxes. Men will steal. The Bible says that the love of money is
the root of all evil. Handling large sums of the people's money is a
temptation before which many have yielded. "Economy and accountability
are virtues without which free and popular governments cannot long
endure."

Closely allied is the good old homely virtue of honesty. Under the
temptation of loss of property, men have sought to accumulate by any
methods and get back to ante-secession pecuniary condition. Public
corruption has been contagious. Men contract debts loosely and
improvidently, and wipe out easily by bankrupt laws. Tweedism has
fastened itself upon elections. False registration, ballot-box
stuffing, the machinery and appliances for fraud, are not the exclusive
practice of one section or party. "Cheating never thrives." It is as
true in politics as in religion that there is no good in sin. It is
essentially and always evil. Party is a great tyrant at best, and the
caucus system enslaves men, and few have the courage to disobey its
edicts and encounter its vengeance; but when party to the terrible
enginery of a caucus, controlled by the vulgar and the vicious, adds
fraud and bribery, woe be to our republic and to our civilization!

An indispensable factor to the product of the South's upbuilding is the
introduction of a more healthful public opinion as a positive element
in politics. It ought to be an ever-present and a permanent force in
elections and the choice of candidates. Any thing like union of church
and State, or the prescribing of a Christian profession as a test for
office, is not to be thought of, except to resist the