Delaware State journal, advertiser and star. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1832-1833, 1833-08-23
For the Delaware Journal.

For the Delaware Journal.
IA DANIEL! YEA SECOND DANIEL COME
TO JUDGMENT"
have iust read in the Gazette, a misera-
Bile production written avowedly with view
to electioneering purposes and an intention to
create feeling of dstrust and dissatisfaction
In the public mind towards highly res
pectable and valuable public officer, Mr..
Thomas Stockton. Although it is farthest
from my thoughts to insult the literary PRIDE I
of the gentleman WHO penned it, or provoke
scribbing contest with him or any one else,
vet must be allowed to pronounce it the
poore est, most contemplate and most puerile
of all the insdous attacks of the many have
seen upon our public men, for the last five
wears. 1t is conceived in ignorance, and elic-
Gated in malice !; and is written in style that
would cause even the meek and quiet splr-
it of a Dominic Sampson to rise IN anger,
and hageilate the merest booby in his school |
of fourteen who should disgrace his tutor by |
such limping composition. 1t commences
with trite aph risH, proceeds with state |
ment palpably false in regard to the offices OF
the State, makes severe hit at MONOPOLY, !
involves its readers in the sad dilemma OF
solving scriptural paradox, by way OF ar
gument, and concludes with hope that the
people will attend to their interests IN the
true demagogue style of the Jackson school,
that is quite irresistible. Now, it is not SO
much my object to defend the gentleman who
has become the target of the political archie
nv of the writer of this THING, as to endeav-
our TO counteract so far as ! am able, the per-
ncious effect which this incorrect statement
might operate in the minds OF those in the
community who do not permit themselves to
think, or who, at least, may only hear one
side of the question. I have no malice to be
grati6ed,-am seeking no political advance
ment, and have no other object in view than
solely to put the public right on subject
which has been falsely stated or totally mis-
understood by this Mr. Z. The man, if in
must Certainly have been laboring under a
.hailucination of ideas or scrlbbling mania,
when he wrote the THING, superlnduced per-
haps, by very severe longing for some OF
the loaves and fishes among our many sine
eures!3
Apropos, of sinecures!! The gentleman af-
ter uttering stale, old maxim of government
filched no doubt from an old Franklin alma
mac of 76, or thereabout, proceeds to say thai
many of the Offices of our State are mere
sssinecures, with unwarran;able revenues!!'
Now sinecure, as believe it is generally un
derstood, is ain Office 7pithou care, to which
a fixed and certain salary is appointed, with
out any return of duties on the part of hin
who holds it. Can the writer then, who tlit
not understand the word he was using, poln
to a single case in the whole civil list of
Sinecure in its literal sense and meaning, o
even to single instance of extravagant com
pensation to any public officer for service
rendered as such? We do not know of an
such, and defy the writer to the proof of a
assertion which never could have been safel
made since the organization of OUT State gov
eminent. Granting, however, that it ha
been so under the OLD CONSTITUTION it
in bad taste that this Jackson man allows tina
our late Convention, originating as it did wit
those of the true faith, and all the popula
constitutional amendments of which are claim
ed to be exclusively their own-when rs
srenchment was the order of the day and c,
cry Office of the State was curtailed OF ever
cent of revenue over and above what the
considered as fair remuneration, could haS
overlooked stmany Of our public offices wit
unwarrantabe revenues" and suffered the
to remain as dead weights upon our lreas
ry--mere sinecures. Never did miser, eve
Jimmey Jenkins himself husband his resou
ces with a more careful hand, than the CA
tioas and economizing trainers OF our const
tuition the Treasury Other State, when ev
ny Office was pruned and Topped OF eXtrav
giant expenditure so as to silence even Il
most captious of the brawlers of the da
This would indeed be a sad commentary u
ON that sagacity which was SO apt to discov
faults in the old Estate Of things, and would fiji
of the ". Castle delegation, that brilliant no
city in constitutional science, will the famo
ONE JUDGE SYSTEM! Now, Mr.. Il. We
much oblige us by telling MS where these 81
ecures and offices with unwarrantable rem
seration are to be found. 1t certaily cam
be the case in the Office of Mr. Stockton,
duties of which are very arduous and abo
ous-and undertake to say, not more I'll
barely compensated by the fees allowed
law.
In regard to the next question attempted
be raised by this last of scribblers and the
phabet, 1 have to reply, that the acceptal
of any of the Offices of clerk, does not eXpr
or imply promise on the part of the acce
or that he shall not receive any aid in the {
charge of his duties. And although it wo
certainly be am pnsound doctrine as well
unconstitutional, to hold that these off
may be farmed out, yet the constitution
its agent, the appointing power, with this
ception, look only to the fulilment of
promise of the officer, and do not regard ,
direct or indirect means by which ne p
forms his duties. whether by himself or