sire the triumph of that which is right above the
triumph of that which he may think to be right if he is, in fact,
mistaken; and so the partizan, if he be an intelligent partizan, must
be prepared to rejoice in his party's defeat if by that defeat his
country is the gainer. One can afford to be in a minority, but he can
not afford to be wrong; if he is in a minority and right, he will
some day be in the majority.

The activities of politics center about the election of candidates to
office, and the official, under our system, represents both the party
to which he belongs and the whole body of his constituency. He has
two temptations to withstand, first, the temptation to substitute
his own judgment for the judgment of his constituents, and second,
the temptation to put his pecuniary interests above the interests
of those for whom he acts. According to the aristocratic idea, the
representative thinks _for_ his constituents; according to the
democratic idea, the representative thinks _with_ his constituents. A
representative has no right to defeat the wishes of those who elect
him, if he knows their wishes.

But a representative is not liable to knowingly misrepresent his
constituents unless he has pecuniary interests adverse to theirs.
This is the temptation to be resisted--this is the sin to be avoided.
The official who uses his position to secure a pecuniary advantage at
the expense of those for whom he acts is an embezzler of power--and
an embezzler of power is as guilty of moral turpitude as the
embezzler of money. There is no better motto for the public official
than that given by Solomon: "A good name is rather to be chosen than
great riches, and loving favor rather than silver and gold." And
there is no better rule for the public official to follow than
this--to do nothing that he would not be willing to have printed
in the newspaper next day.

One who exercises authority conferred upon him by the suffrages
of his fellows ought to be fortified in his integrity by the
consciousness of the fact that a betrayal of his trust is hurtful to
the party which honors him and unjust to the people whom he serves,
as well as injurious to himself. Nothing that he can gain, not even
the whole world, can compensate him for the loss that he suffers in
the surrender of a high ideal of public duty.

Permit me, in conclusion, to say that the nation, as well as the
individual and the party, must be measured by its purpose, its i