POLITICAL CORRUPTION John Jay said that the greatest achievements of diplomacy were often little noted by history and that their authors got, in general, little credit.

He compared it to the work of levelling uneven ground of which the face of the earth will show no trace when it is done.

The same thing is true of successful battles with political corruption in high places, the most formidable peril to any Government and, if it be not encountered and overcome, fatal to a Republic.

A nation will survive a corrupt minister or monarch, but a corrupt people must surely and speedily perish.

We have had sporadic examples of corruption in high office at several periods in our history.