Henry Watterson: “If slavery be not wrong,” he said, “nothing is wrong,” but he also said and reiterated it time and again, “I have no…”

In short he was an opportunist void of conviction and indifferent to consistency.

But my face in the glass I’ll serenely survey, And with smiles count each wrinkle and furrow— That this worn-out old stuff which is thread-bare to-day Shall become everlasting to-morrow.

Yet it is after all a figure of speech not a personality that appeals to our sense of duty without necessarily engaging our affection.

From fakers who have cards up their sleeves, not to mention snakes in their boots, we hear a great deal about “the people,” pronounced by them as if it were spelled “pee-pul.” It is the unfailing recourse of the professional politician in…