The politician, on the one hand, is framed as a self-interested character whose actions are largely guided, not by what might be best for his country, but rather by what might get him (re-)elected. As the lines cited explain, this argument rests on a fundamental distinction between those deserving only of the label ‘politician’ and those categorised as ‘statesmen’. Reflecting on the state of the nation in the wake of the Civil War, the author makes an impassioned plea for greater evidence of ‘statesmanship’ in the conduct of the public men of his day. Written in 1870, the above extract is from the opening paragraphs of an essay entitled Wanted, A Statesman! by the American cultural commentator, James Freeman Clarke. The politician thinks of the success of his party, the statesman of the good of his country. A politician, for example, is a man who thinks of the next election while the statesman thinks of the next generation. I should not wish to ask for a larger supply of these but there is a wide difference between the politician and the statesman. We have a great many politicians in the country, perhaps as many as the country requires.
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