There is always something about genius that is indefinable, mysterious, perhaps to its possessor most of all.  It has been the product of rude surroundings no less than of the most cultured environment, want and neglect have sometimes nourished it, abundance and care have failed to produce it.  Why some succeed in public life and others fail would be as difficult to tell as why some succeed or fail in other activities.  Very few men in America have started out with any fixed idea of entering public life, fewer still would admit having such an idea.  It was said of Chief Justice Waite, of the United States Supreme Court, being asked when a youth what he proposed to do when a man, he replied, he had not yet decided whether to be President or Chief Justice.  This may be in part due to a general profession of holding to the principle of Benjamin Franklin that office should neither be sought nor refused and in part to the American idea that the people choose their own officers so that public service is not optional.  In other countries this is not so.  For centuries some seats in the British Parliament were controlled and probably sold as were commissions in the army, but that has never been the case here.  A certain Congressman, however, on arriving at Washington was asked by an old friend how he happened to be elected.  He replied that he was not elected, but appointed.  It is worth while noting that the boss who was then supposed to hold the power of appointment in that district has since been driven from power, but the Congressman, though he was defeated when his party was lately divided, has been reflected.  All of which suggests that the boss did not appoint in the first instance, but was merely well enough informed to see what the people wanted before they had formulated their own opinions and desires.  It was said of McKinley that he could tell what Congress would do on a certain measure before the men in Congress themselves knew what their decision was to be.  Cannon has said of McKinley that his ear was so close to the ground that it was full of grasshoppers.  But the fact remains that office brokerage is here held in reprehensive scorn and professional office-seeking in contempt.  Every native-born American, however, is potentially a President, and it must always be remembered that the obligation to serve the State is forever binding upon all, although office is the gift of the people.

Of course these considerations relate not to appointive places like the Judiciary, Commissionerships, clerical positions and like places, but to the more important elective offices.  Another reason why political life of this nature is not chosen as a career is that it does not pay.  Nearly all offices of this class are held at a financial sacrifice, not merely that the holder could earn more at some other occupation, but that the salary of the office does not maintain the holder of the office.  It is but recently that Parliament has paid a salary to its members.