A Civil
Service is doubtless a good thing, even a very good thing, and in due time
we shall certainly have it; but that the Constitution of the United States
is on the verge of dissolution at the hands of our corrupt public
officers, that our finance is only another name for imminent bankruptcy,
or that the new millennium of Washington morals will be organized by Mr.
John Harrington--these things we deny _in toto_, from beginning to
end. So wide and deep is our skepticism, that we even doubt whether 'war,
famine, revolution, or all three together' would have instantly ensued if
Mr. John Harrington had not delivered his speech on Wednesday evening.
"In illustration--or rather, in the futile attempt to illustrate--Mr.
Harrington put forth a series of similes that should make any dead orator
turn in his grave. The nation was successively held up to our admiration
in the guise of a sick man, a cripple, a banker, a theatrical company, and
a peddler of tape and buttons. We were bankrupt, diseased; and our bones,
like those of the Psalmist, were all out of joint; and if our hearts did
not become like melting wax in the midst of our bodies, it was not the
fault of Mr.
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