Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1836-09-08

conduct, have taken from it their shape
and color, and without it are inexplica.
cable. And is it to such man that
you are willing to entrust the care of
your stedGast principles, your fixed in
terests, your cherished and unchang-
ing political doctrines-nay, the rights,
interests and institutions of your coun-
try.
Permit us further to suggest, that in
pursuing the public character of MIR.
Van Buren,, you will find his obsequi-
business to be the twin brother Of his
selfshness. Ola thousand proofs take
one You have not forgotten those
words of his as he returned from Eng
land, and which any free"born Eng
lishman would have scorned to utter,
but which he dared to publish in the
hearing Of the American people-when
anxious to propitiate the favor OF &C.
neral Jackson, he proclaimed, cit IS
glory enough for me to have served I'M
der such chief" Many of YOU fellow
citizens, have served your country,
some in high, and some in low degrees.
Did it ever occur to any Of you that he
was serving chief? Is there any
one Of you who would acknowledge
himself the servant of a political mas.
ter-nay more, boast Of it as his chief
and GROWING glory, and that too in
the hearing of the master, to flatter his
pride, and win his favor? If there be
such an one, we do not address him i;
we address the manly, the independent
and the free, we ask of them, if they
can keep down their disgust long en-
ough to to placesuch sycophant in the
chair of Washington. Are they not
taught by all history, by what they see
daily in common domestic life, by the
brute tribes of naturc-that obsequi-
BUSINESS and servlity to those above,
is invariably attended, and always IL.
venges ITSELF by oppression and tyr
ranny exercised on those below.
In addition to the merit of being sup.
ported by General Jackson, and by all
who are subject to his orders, the par
tisans of Mr.. Van Buren, claim for him
another, and that is his professed de-
termination to carry out the principles
upon which General Jackson has adj
ministered the Government.
If there be any principle more pro-
minent than all others in that admins
tration, it is the principle of favoritism
commencing with the president, and
running down through every channel
into the lowest and meanest offices, in
somuch that the readiest and surest ac.
cess to the Government is upwards from
the bottom, through those obscure and
dirty passages. Witness late memo
rable instance. You have all marked
the unprecedented outrage recently in
flcted upon the gallant Scott. You
have seen him a soldier, covered with
wounds sustained in the service of his
country, stricken down by secret blow
at the head of his army, on the very
eve ola triumphant success, secured by
his skill, and made more glorious by
his humanity. And how struck down?
Without open charge-without proof,
without trial-at the instance of a sub
atern officer, patronized by the editor
OF the Government newspaper, " the
vilest and most malignant minion that
inlests the government. Think you
this would have happened under any
former administration? See you not
that men, that gallant and high-minded
men, are compelled to stoop if they
would approach the Government"
through its most favored channels,
to the meanest self-degradation?
And see you not also, that no
past services and no present merit is
secure against the secret venom of the
reptiles which crawl up from the low
purlieus of the palace to the chair of
State, and into all the departments of
the Government?
And when before was there ever
such insolence of Office exhibited as
this system of favoritism has produ.
ced ? 1t is but short time since that
pennsylvania, one Of the most power
tul and respected of the States, ventur-
ed to pass certain laws touching her
own municipal affairs in contravention
OF orders from Washington and for
this, paid deserter from the ranks of
MIR. Clay, who was so odious as a trai.
tor, that he with difficulty obtained the
poor reward of his treason, whom the
power of the Government barely suffi.
Geo to squeeze through the Senate into
an auditors office, by one vote, but
who now presides over a department,
so rotten before as to dread even at his
hands no further injury; this man has
dared deliberately, publicly, and in
writing to denonnce her legislature as
corrupt. Fellow-citizens, suppose this
your own case-that any minions of
the Federal Government had dared