Ability Should Be Considered

To the Editor: It has been said by the editor of the Times, that the only objection that vvill be raised against the personality of Mr. Bryan, is his youth. It is urged upon those who might utter such au objection, that they should not forget that Alexander, tlie greatest soldier of the ancients conquered the world at the age of thirty-three; that Bonaparte wrote the iminortal Code Napoleon, at the same age ; that Byron's eternal poems were in print when he reached the age of thirty-six; and that Mozart had finnished his masterpieces before his thirty-fifth year ; and numerous instances are cited of a like character, as an answer to the claim, made by many persons, that Cundidate Bryan is too young to be our president. Some of the readers of the Times have been thus far unable to discover any force in the argument thus presented. Does the fact that the great Alexander had subjngated a hemisphere to his rnighty will by the power of the sword before he had reached the age of our presidental eügibilitj', argue anything in favor of the fitness for chief executive of the nation ; of a man who was an infant in his mother's aims when many of those wliom he now seeks to rule were fighting for the cause of freedom, and who has never smelled the smoke of battle, at the age of thirty-six? Does the fact that William Pitt was premier of Englaud at twenty-four afford any assurance to a trembling people that Bryan, whose entire training in the practical administration of public affairs must have been secured in four years of inconspicuous congressional membership, will now be able successfully to gaard the interests of the union in a great inter-national controversy with our mother country, and save the flag at all times from dishouor and humiliation ? If so, the sanie line of argument would sustain the assertion that any whistling school boy is fitted for the highest office in the land. We are certain that Mr. Bryan has not prepared himself for this high function by experience, and there is nothing anywhere to indícate that he has received the necessary qualifications by the process of intuition. If Alexander Hamiltoii, at the age oí thirty-six, had been honored by a great political party with the nomination for the presidency, few men would, for a moment, have questioned his ability or urged his lack of maturity as effecting the propriety of the choice; bat had the objection now made to Mr. Bryan been offered under such circumstances agaiust Alexander Harnilton, it would not have been answered by any recital from autiquity of the lives of men distinguished by yonthful achievements, not at all ; the book of Hamilton's own career would have been laid open, and there, upon the bright pages of history, would have been reaJ, with overwhelming convictión, his conclusive credentials for any station within the gift of the people. Guizot says of him that "there is not in the Constitution of the United States an element of order, of force, of duration, which he did not powerfully contribute to introducé into it and to cause to predomínate," and and the constitution was adopted in convention before Hamilton had arrived at the age of thirty-one. "By their fruits ye shall know them." It may be true that the pages of history are filled with accounts of great deeds and great works accomplished by many of the worlds illustrious men before they had arrived at the age of thirty-six years; and men might be fully qualified for the duties of the office to which Mr. Brvan now aspires, but certainly the researches to date exhibit an emphatic dearth of great accomplishments in his biography which renders his name illustrious to any degree whatever. We are not aware that any of the notable persons mentioned by the Times made use of the "crown of thorus" and '"cross of gold", but we venture the assertiou that in all history there will not be found an instance of an eagle flight so unexpected and unwarranted by past accomplishments, as that which would occupy the attention of the American people it' William Jennings Bryan, the Boy Orator of the Platitudes, should happen to succeed Grover Cleveland in the White House.