Newly-elected members of the Missouri legislature have been
going to “legislator school” for a few days, trying to absorb what all those
departments, divisions, and institutions look like and are all about; how to make a speech; how to cast a vote; what
cubbyhole office they’ll get (especially on the House side); where the
bathrooms are, and so forth.
This is only a brief brush with the real world they wanted to join. The pressure-cooker that is a legislative session will become all too real early next month. We imagine that most of these newbies think they are starting a career. They are, indeed, doing that. But they also are starting to create their legacy. And what will that legacy be after the next two to sixteen years?
We have come across an old poem that makes that point.
Back on September 13, 1856, the Hannibal Tri-Weekly Messenger printed an unsigned poem in the weeks leading to that year’s general election. Those who are in legislator school might want to read it in the context of their life to-be:
They knew that I was poor,
And they thought that I was base.
They thought I would endure
To be covered with disgrace—
They thought me of their tribe
Who in filthy lucre dote.
So they offered me a bribe
For my vote, boys, for my vote.
O, shame upon my betters
Who would my conscience buy!
But I’ll not wear their fetters
Not I, indeed, not I!
My vote! It is not mine
To do with what I will;
To cast like pearl to swine
To these wallows in ill.
It is my country’s due,
And I’ll give it while I can,
To the honest and the true,
Like a man! Like a man!
O, shame upon my betters
Who would my conscience buy,
But I’ll not wear their fetters,
Not I, indeed, not I!
No, no, I’ll hold my vote
As a treasure and a trust.
My dishonor none shall quote
When I’m mingled with dust;
And my children when I’m gone
Shall be strengthened by the thought
That their father was not one
To be bought! To be bought!
O, Shame upon my betters
Who would my conscience buy.
But I will not wear their fetters. Not I, indeed, not I!
The language is old but the sentiment remains current. Thenewbies will wrap up legislator school later this week. The real world will await them less thanthree weeks later. It’s always interesting to watch what happens to them.