Sentinel of the valley. [volume] (Woodstock, Va) 1841-1848, 1844-08-01
From the Spirit Of Jefcrson'
"PROSCRTPTION
Is ITSELF TO BE PRESCRIBED, :"

"PROSCRlPI HON
Is ITSELF TO BE Prosecuted"
Said Senator Preston, and the whole
host Of Wing orators in the last Presi
dental contest. The Democrats were
denounced by their opponents as Ro-
bespierres, ''reeking with the blood Of
slaughtered Victims" and as having
acted on what was denounced as an
unrighteous maxim, "that TO the vic
tors belong'the spoils." But from the
moment the Wing President was
sworn into Office, the guillotine sci
dom stopped, and hundreds and even
thousands Of heads were struck of
without accusation, except devotion to
those democratic principles imbibed
from Hancock, Jefferson, and host
of our revolutionary sires; and the
spoils Of every Office, from a tide-wait-
er to a prime minister, were seized on
by the Wings, with a yoracity totally
unexampelled in the annals Of the Re
public.
Neither patriotism and wounds IN
war; nor virtues in private life; nor ar
duous services in council and legislal
ton, neither urgent necessities nor
honest dependency, were any protection
from this ruthless proscription;but amin
discriminate war was waged upon every
incumbent, however blameless, when
his place was needed by a hungry par
tisan Of power, and where his consci~
entious convictions Of duty prevented
him from joining in the orgies in the
Wing canvass of 1910.
It is not our purpose on this occasion
to discuss the propriety Or improperly
ofremovals from Office on such princl-
pies. But we hold it due to the puri-
ty of public morals, and the safety Of
republican principles, to hang up for
public reprobation and Indignant
scorn not merely the Inconsistencies,
but the hypocrisy and per6dy which
have been practised by the Wing lea.
ders on this absorbing subject"
At Cleveland, Ohio, on the subject
of prescription for opinions sake, Gen
eral Harrison himself said;
q see over the way public officer; al
though he may oppose me, if he does 50 hon
estly and c0nscientiously. shall be the last
man to disturb him. Before would remove
him for mere difference of opinion, WOULD
SUFFER NY RIGHT ARM TO BE SEVERED FROM
MY BODY"
But reader, how do the facts stand
in comparison with the above declara-
tion2 General Harrison was in office
one month, and yet we find from
schedule of removals during that brief
space, in Offices so high as to become
before the Senate for confirmation, but
without causes assigned for the reno
val, either to the Senate or to the pub
lie, t1fty-one of the most important of
fcers under our government. Is not
this most lamentable Illustration, and
chiefly from the official records of
Gen. HIS own Cabinet, as to the man
ner in which prescription aoas prosc7Ib-
edunder the first Wing President du-
ring the short period Of his ephemeral
Chief Magistracy'
And this sanguinaIy system Of pro
scrlption was persisted in to the very
moment Of the quarrel ofPresident "
Ter with his Cabinet and his other Wing
leaders; and the entire removals down
to two or three weeks previous to Sep
TENDER, of those possessing so high
character as 10 come before the Senate
for confirmation, were not less than
1910.
Those not coming before the Sen
ate, could not be less than $500 more;
because in the Post Office Department
alone, It was afterwards admitted on
the floor Of Congress by Mr. Granger
that while presiding over it, he had
made l,700 removals, This is not
one seventh Of all his deputies, intoler-
ant as it seems; and had he remained
two weeks longer and removed, as he
avowed was his intention, 900 more,
it would not have been one third of the
whole, while we have it admitted on
official record from Mr. Webster,
that before September he had remoy-
ed near half the whole number Of mar
Shals.
! NJ. Granger's remarks or this sub