Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1841-1853, 1847-12-23
Old Politicians.

aim at something better. Consequently they most
always aim upwards, and generally aim high. Old
men are conservative, and consequently tmld. They
wish to keep things they are, because they have
monopolized the best of every thing yet obtained
Old men wish to keep what they have got, young
men to get what they can. Among farmers. old men
pod on, and laugh at the innovations which yoG9g
men call improvements. Among mechanics, old
thinkers shake their heads at new machinery. Among
physicians, old bleed and blister and butcher
cOrdlng 10 old books, established authorities when
they were young. Among preachers, old men stick
to creeds and platforms, and swear by Hooker or
Hopkins. Old soldiers stick to Frederick and Baron
Seuben. Old politicians stick to their old mistakes
In Revolution, the old men were Tories, who
wished to keep what they had got, while the Wings
were young fellows, seeking their fortunes. Wash
ingon was middle-aged, the great lights of the Con-
tinental Congress no more; Knox and Greene and
Schuyler and Mercer and Morgan and Sheldon and
the rest of them were young fellows, and Hamilton
hardly of age. In the French Revolution, the old
mobiles, the old priests, the old fools-run away.
The Increment was directed by those splendid young
men who afterwards became Napoleon's marshals;
Napoleon himself being little more than STRIPPING
when he crossed the Alps, and cleared Italy Of Aus
tria's grannies.
In our last war with the British, the war depart
ment was directed, first by DR.. Eustis, then by
Gen. Armstrong, and armies led by Gen. Hull,
Gen. Wilkinson Gen. Hampton, Gen. Dearborn, all
remains of the revolution. Every thing went wrong.
Defeat surrender, disgrace the order of the day.
If our young soldiers and subordinate officers gained
victory, the granny generals were sure to lose all
Its fruits. Mr.. Madison became disguised and the
country indignant. He called to his cabinet Alexan
der J. Dallas and other men of greener years, and
put our armies under the command of Brown, Scott,
Gaines, Ripley, oil young fellows. Then every thing
prospered, and the starspangled banner envelop
ed in a blaze of glory. Old Hickory was Just
scarcely forty when he gained the battle of New Or
leans. On the ocean, all the commanders who did
anything young While old Chauncey
poking about on Lake Ontario, young Perry and
young Elliott and young McDonough were gaining
victories on Lakes Erie and Champlain. While old
Rogers made cruise after cruise without finding the
enemy, yOung Hull and young Decatur and young
Bddle and young Jones and midde-aged Stewart and
cambridge were finding and capturing the enemy
every day. Give us young men to act, and nothing
over middle-aged men to think. Our country is
young, and therefore must go ,chile loere young
Old MIR. Gallatin. who was on the superannuated
list, at the close of the last war; thirty-three
years, or one generation ago. has lately dug himself
up in a pamphlet, for the purpose Of showing that
our war against Mexico is unjust, contrary to the
laws of nations in the time Of William the Conquer
or, inconsistent with all the political maxms in
Cesar's Commentaries, condemned by the ethics of
Confucus, forbidden by Zoroaster, and darky limited
at unjust in obscure passage of Ezekiel. We
opened Ezekiel at random and found the very PASSAGE
and here it is.
Therefore thus saith the Lord, Because We multi
piled more than the nations that are round about you
and have not walked in my statutes, neither have
kept my judgments, neither have done according to
the judgments of the nations that are round about
you;
Therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold l. even
against thee. and will execute judgments in the
Z L. Al Al Ia -
" 7, 8.
Mr.. Gallatin was Secretary of the Treasury under
Mr.. Jefferson and managed very well, department
that had been organized and arranged by Mr. Hamil-
ton. But the Treasury Department has become a
very different thing since; and we doubt whether
Mr. Gallan In his best days, could have managed it
now constituted, any better than each among some
dozen of its clerks. He of respectable
talents and requirements nothing more. And being
born and educated Switzerland before our consttu-
ton was adopted, all his political ideas derived
from European sources He is at home among the
fogs and msts of Burlamaqui, Vattel, Wolfe, Gro
thus, Bynkershock, and all those Dutch, German, and
Swiss civilians who always lost in the smoke of
their own pipes. Beginning IN the last age as an
antique, MIR. Gallatin has come down to a
fossil; and his attempts enghten the present gene
ration upon It's duties towards Mexico. is about as
wise would be reference to Aristotle, for insruc-
tions in steam navigation. He is not merely behind
this age He is buried under the rubbish of the last
The pamphlet which he has written is a curiosity
and so would be translation of a manuscript newly
discovered in Pompeii. But supposng that his opin-
ions will have the least influence upon any portion OF
the American people, excepting few superanuated
Bourbons who neither forget nor learn, is sup
posing that the elements of human nature are radi.
caly changed And the old gentleman tells the pre-
sent generation of Americans that they not
quer Mexico As well might any nonagenarian tel
an ardent and Swapping young great-grandson thai
he must not fall in love- Mr.. Galatians pamphlet
against the morality of the war with Mexico! Ha
ha We intend to republish. for public instruction
an old sermon of Cromwell's time, entitled "a high
heeled shoe for limping snner"-Pa. Ledger
HEAT OF THE PLANETs.-Professor Henry, o
Princeton, communicated to the American Association
of Biologists, some interesting experiments, showing
the analogy between light and heat. The expert