Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1841-1853, 1845-04-17
trThe following article, from the WashingtO
Globe, deserves to be printed in letters of gold:
DEMOCRATIC MECHANICS.

Globe, deserves to be printed in letters of gold
DEMOCRATIC MECHANICS.
If an example were required to prove disinterested
devotion among the people to the democratic nstitu
tons of the country 1t may be found In the conduct
of the democratic mechanics in the late presidential
contest This powerful body of men, throughout the
Union, were in correspondence with the democratic
association in tins city, and contributed with great
zeal and activity TO spread information, derived from
this quarter, Though the communities in which they
lived, and to extend and enforce the principles Of the
party. We have never seen more energetic spirit
than displayed among the mechanics Of this city,
both in their correspondence with societies in every
section of the Unon and in the purchase and despatch
of documents. Those who worked all day In their
respective caipgs, gave their nights to lncessant e
fort in promoting the cause And what peculiar per-
sonal advantage could the great mass of these men
expect from the success of their labor! The time,
attention and exerton necessary to acquire skill in
the various arts to which their lives dedicated,
unfit them for most of the government offices. They
not lawyers and knowledge of the laws is es-
sential to the higher functonares by whom the laws
are administered. They not for the most part,
skilled With the pen; and this circumstance Is bar
to the vast multitude of empoyments in which clerk
y experiences is indispensable. Here, them is this
great body of intelligent industrious, vrtuous class
of czens-as class the most virtuous and patriotic
in the country-excluded, for the part, from the
hOnOrs aud emoluments of office; and yet they were
fOund IN the late conflict, the most ardent and ener
getic, and powerful class in conducting it to tri-
umphant result Nothing can be given to them to
compensate their labors. They are, in the political
struggles ct the country, in fighting Its battles
against foreign enemy, in the tutst sense the sin
Of trar. Their courage strength, skill and pat
riotism-their Intellectual and physical prowess con-
sttute the buwark of the republic but its Lonors,
its favors, and its pecuniary rewards go to other
classes who deserve them less but prepare better to
appropriate them.
These considerations should, in our opinion, induce
the Chief Magistrate to make it an invarable rule
whenever Office comes within the province of a
mechanic to confer it upon one. Whenever the duty
has reference to construction, and depends any of
the arts in which mechanical education and capacity
are required mechanic should be appointed to the
Office Of direction As the circumstance of pecu-
liar education units the artist for almost al the offices
of government, those adapted to their requirements
should never be conferred on an individual of any
other class Of citizens. The executive should seize
every occasion, where such opportunity offers, to dis
tinguish able, and worthy, and patr;ptic members of
this order with the government patronage It's prop
or that the arts and mechanical skill of country
men should be thus distinguished by government ia
vor and it is just that the disnerested patriotism
which stimulates such multitudes of laboring men to
sacrifice their private interests to public on
fields of battle and at the hustings, should have the
evidence of the respect and consideration of the gov
eminent bestowed upon some member of the class
whenever it is compatible with the nature of the trust
to be bestowed.