The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1841-07-24
REMOVALS AND APPOINTMENTS.

1t is not strange that the peous walling of persons
who have been removed from office by the present
Administration either for ncompetency or as more
often the case for grossly improper interference the
party politics of the country and the achrymose ar
cles occasionally served up in the Gcbe either in the
form of communications from the poor suffering inno
cents themselves, or in the editorials of that PRINT
should excite something of sympathy among all per-
sons possessed of ordinary human feelings But we
must be allowed to say that, however much such feel
ings honor the hearts CT those who entertain them,
they ought not to be allowed to interfere with the
strict and equable discharge of the imperative duties
in this regard of the President and heads of Depart
ments.
1t is not to be supposed for moment that removals
from Offices made without cause, as the persons
removed would have believe or as some of the suf
ferng saints would represent because they have only
done their duty too Dsl-or in nine of ten,
the ocofoco Office holders, both in Washington and
throughout the country, were oficio and by cond
ton and contract, demasogues and party managers.
In almost every town and village, the post offices,
custom houses, and land offices, if the incumbents
where they were situated happened, usually the
case, to be friendly to the late Administration, were
openly used and known as the political headquarters
of all the small beer" politicians and party hacks in
the region round about There their private meetings
and caucuses were always held and if any such tri
fling matters blank paper and Irvine" Were need
ed in the course of their party operations, my Go
vernment" always able to furnish them; if money
was needed, assessment upon the salaries of these
ofceholders was always ready of raising it.
rtizan circnlara and to ha
ted postage free, at the expense of impoverished
Post Office Department, postmasters and their depu
ties and clerks throughout the country and others in
the Departments here at head quarters always at
hand to fold and frank and direct them with materials
belonging to the Government, and during the hours
which they were paid for, and bound to employ in
working for the public. Were the letters, papers, and
documents, of Wings to be detained, or opened vii
lans in Office were always ready to do the decd.
Were white voters to be challenged bullied, and
driven away from the polls, custom house officers,
tidewaters postmasters, and their hired menals and
assassins were always at hand to do the bidding of
those upon whose reelection their fate depended
Was it necessary to throw dust in the eyes of the
people, in order to convince them that in disappearing
the sub Treasury, any other scheme for enslaving
them, by first making them beggars they acting
without knowledge, such emissaries your John
sons, and Tappans, and Aliens, and Garlands, and
myriads of other small inteigences" in Office, high
and low, were always at hand to insult the under
standing and moral sense of the community by their
absurd sophistry and lowived appeals to all the base
passions in Others by which they themselves were ac-
tuated.
And shall 1t now be said that when some of the
very who have in this manner assisted in bringing
ruin upon the land and in keeping the peoplein bond
age plunderng, allowing others to plumber the trea-
of the nation drawn from the earnings ofthe peo-
pie themselves riotng and rolling in luxury and wealth
and in the midst of all their tawdry spendor shocking
the common of the community by calling them
selves the exclusive Democrats of the country and
denouncng their honest and Industrious opponents as
" Aristocrats" -defamng every of talents who
dared oppose Misunderstanding the memory of the
Dead and attempting to destroy the hard earned mill
tary renown Of our glorious Republic-shall it be
said, we ask, that when these removed from the
places they have dsgraced and desecrated that cold
blooded, hardhearted prescription is at work with
the bloody guillotine Z"
We wish see justice and the strict Of
duty fully carried out Justice, tempered with mercy
but let the consideration of the mercy which is due to
the feelings of nsuted and suffering people, not be
forgotten Let il be that mercy which prevails on the
judicial bench, and which never interferes with So
lemn duty and justice. Let it be the mercy which
every man shows to servant who has allowed his az
fairs to 60 to ruin, who has for years robbed and
pundered his too confdng employer.
The quality Of magnanimity" exercised towards
those who Notwithstanding their contemplate obse.
quousness If they still had the power, would cut the
Threats Of those who have just disarmed them is too