Page:The autobiography of a Pennsylvanian.djvu/185



HE prevailing sentiment in Chester County during the time of my early life there was that it was the duty of all men to show an interest and even to participate in the management of public affairs. Many of the youths about to enter upon the struggles that confronted them had some ambition in the direction of seeking public station. In any event, they had a real concern for, and earnestly discussed the acts and the merits of officials, whether executive or representative. As one of them I saw, or thought that I saw, much that needed improvement and I was altogether ready to take hold somewhere and make an effort to have the evils which afflicted the administration of public affairs corrected. My experience had not been sufficient, nor was my philosophy subtle enough, to enable me to see that while there is much in the conduct of men that is imperfect, such imperfection is at least as great among those who narrate and comment as among those who do the work of the world. What appeared in print was accepted as the truth, and there my reasoning began. It needed to go much deeper. The feeling in the county was very antagonistic to Simon Cameron, who was then a controlling factor in the Republican party in the state, and with that feeling the members of my own family, which for over half a century had been active in county affairs, were in entire accord. I regarded him as a malign influence which was, through the efforts of those imbued with a due regard for the public welfare, to be in some way or other overcome. The entire line of this political thought was that a Democrat was an obnoxious person who had been helping Rh