Excerpt from Public Life in Washington, or the Moral Aspects of the National Capital, and the Apparent Tendencies of Political Thought and Feeling in Congress and Cabinet: An Addresses Read on Sunday Evening, May 7, 1866, to His Own Congregation For goodness, or fixed principle, or faith and piety, are not of themselves alone qualifications for public office. We must have knowledge, strength of intellect, powers of expression, and capacity for busi ness, besides. Another thing is to be taken into consideration. The machinery of elections robs the people in certain States and communities of a fair opportunity of nominating and electing men of their own choice and approval; and this is to be allowed for in judging the people by their rulers. Just in proportion as the national theory of representation is falsified by any cause, the test we propose is vitiated to the extent of the perversion of the principle. On the whole, we do not doubt that the national taste, principle, piety and will, find a fair and just expression in our Con gress and our rulers. Sometimes the Representatives are better than the communities they represent and sometimes worse; but the average is nearly correct. Having just enjoyed an opportunity of studying this question for ten days at the capital, I propose to give you, in the interest of national morals, the result of my cursory observations. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.