The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1841-05-08

was he permitted to retire for rest and refreshmen
AFTER the immense exertions of the day. Nay, ne
had to stand until the vast assemblage could be ind
yidually introduced to him. i have heard and be
hevc that as the visiters came TO offer their hands
Professedly in congratulaon, it was "Here, General
here are my letters" and Here, General are mlne!'
Al another time two respectable gentlemen OF this
city called and found the President in the passage
leading to the saloon He asked them in to the fire,
and with frankness that surprised them said" Gen
tlemen, have been almost run down cannot stand
It this turning out of worthy men never will con-
sent to-. Only just now beautiful young looking
woman called me, and said, My husband is turned
| out of employment and actually here in this
expensve.cy having nothing 10 eat MY dear sirs,
continued the President, sit almost kills me; can
hardly stand it the unworthy will not go out and the
worthy shall not be turned out" Now, this is fact
/ that can be established upon good authority.
/ The immediate cause which worked up his feversh
excitement into paroxysm, chill produced by be-
ing caught in light rain being closely beset to
be detained on his way home after walk. But when
letter after letter came, bearing from this one and
the other applications for Office Some Of them were
left in the ha nds Of friends in this city, and de-
iivered Day by day during President Harrison's
illness, men mere turned out Of office. Some loho
had been erPeiled before his illness appealed to him
he assured them that he knew nothing of it. though it
was affirmed that he did it. And, but brief space
before his death several were dismissed n .As- sn'
Thus excited by continued applications, many Of
them OF conflicting character and the Notifying
Election that although he had denounced prescription
| he was forced by those around him to do what he
never intended, when DOING his mind was continual
ly running the distress inflicted on the many help
less families within hail of his own dwelling; and yet
prescription was still pressed upon him Who that
has eper sdW man hborng in the last stage of in
hammaton affecting all his vitalsthe state In which
the President died-does not know that when a
subsultus tendinum comes on, and the muttering de-
lnium the with the President, often inter
rupted BY broken expressions the patient is
pinching and pulling the bedclothesthe mind is
and anon recurring to and dwelling on whatever
pressing on it and producing anxiety during health
This was the case with President Harrison. Hun
dreds of individuals had been here from the first Of
March demanding the places efothers, whose proscrp-
ton they insisted on Their letters their personal
applications forced ON the President and their
claims were pressed by the Cabinet. At last, the
President told that if his political friends not
warded his forces will be dshanded and at the called
session of Congress he will find himself in the minori
~ The work of excision is pressed on. The Presi-
dent is III absent from his family, without the kind at
tenon Of the wife Of his bosom, most of his children
and grandchildren are distant. He behed the friends
who had accompanied him TO Washington around him,
but without the power to resist the torrent and relieve
his feelings. He hears only Of his cabinet, to
know that they paying off their political friends,
by depnying whole families the means of subsis-
tence The Preachers Of the Gospel, the members of
Christian Churches, the meek quiet citizens, who
came here to get Offices and who stad here until they
got them-some of them just the of the Presi-
dents death-had received their pay; but where are
those lovely women and children who have no breadl
this state, laboring under aderum, the last efforts
Of his distracted mind turned toward the victims of
the cruel policy Of his cabinet and expressions con-
stanty escaped him deprecating the cruelties which
he had endeavored in vain to arrest
1t was in this way President Harrison died, and
who will say ne was Dotpersecutedto the death 2 @
We take it upon ourselves to pronounce these
vile assertions and insinuations in regard to the
debiitated condition of the President on arriving
at the Capitol, as false. When he entered the
Senate Chamber, before commencing the Inau-
gural Address, his appearance indicated no un-
usual degree Of fatigue, and Immediately after
wards he commenced, and continued with
out interruption, its delivery, throwing his
voice to the very outermost limit Of the inn
mense crowd for the space Of more than an hour
and half We were near him then and after
wards as he walked up the steps to the Portico,
and we appeal to every man then on the steps
of the Capitol to say whether one man in five
hundred of that audience could have performed
such task with SO little effort or fatigue.
| Who that was present will ever, can ever, for
get the clear, calm, earnest voice, and impress
sive manner, with which, near the conclusion
of the Address, he, without the usual dictation,
| took the solemn oath The whoIe croacd heard
it, and with simultaneous impulse, without
| signal or example, all barred their heads as he
appealed to Heaven. From desire to gratfy
the wishes of the multitude, the President, in
| the afternoon, received those who called upon
him, but he 6 shook hands, with none, and but
| ipfro
But we presume and believe that the assertion
that men took that occasion to present their ap-
plications for Office is another of the usual I'M
founded statements so common in that paper
If true, we doubt not that these individuals were
some old stagers Of the spoils party, for they
have not been either few or modest here for
some weeks past
All this might have been prevented had Gen.
Harrison followed the example set by |" his illus
trious predecessor" of stationing an armed SEN
try at the door of the White House to keep out
the thousands Of :" cobblers and thinkers" and the
"log cabin gentry who wished to see their Pre-
sident. %af
1t is true that the President elect was impor-
tuned for Office, both before and after his Inau-
guration. He expected it. twas nothing new
or strange. The custom of personally soliciting
Office was introduced into this country by the
friends Of Gen. Jackson in 1s29 and has been
practised by them ever since. And though it
cannot be denied that many worthy men have
been driven by the late terrible reverses to seek
office, and that many from sincere desire to
serve their country in the places now held by
those who have aided and abetted in pundering
the Treasury, have urged their applications
Yet we have never known any among the
crowds we have lately seen, so importunate, so
earnest, and pressing, in annoying the late and
present President and heads of Department, as
those who have all along supported the late and