Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1848-09-30

in the administration OF the Government. If man
had an Office which you wanted, you set up the cry
that there should be rotation in office; that every
man should have his turn;" and you got him turned
out yourself put in stad there the rest fyour natural
life-uness you could get still fatter place; and
at your death left it, if you could, to your son. Or,
more Complementary, to enlist the rapacity of
every mercenary, and keep up standing army of
such, you proclaimed that every thing public-hon-
ors, Offices emoluments, jobs--shall be the spoil
of party, and that every man shall receive share
of the plumber, proportional not to his fitness to
discharge trust, but only to his INSCRIPTIONS
usefulness in getting possession of /" the spoils."
Lastly, of close kin to all these inventions in morals
was that held by high authority in the party, that it
is perfectly proper for State to grant charter, at
an enormous bonus and then break it; and that
other Locofoco practice Of borrowing money on the
public faith, and then repudiating the debt.
! Such were the inducements held out by the New
Democracy to entice with congenial principles the
bad. But, as the reputation Of being supported by
such alone is dangerous, the good, or at least the
shallow, were to be bated with Promises cheat
that was always used upon men, and, when hardi-
ly, always with success. OF them, there was no
stint Boundless Reform was promised; vast
Retrenchment" of the public expenditures an
admirable Economy" of all the Government re-
sources-that is, their conservation to the best ends
alone; an amazing "Purity" was to put to flight
forever the monstrous corrupions ayerred to pre-
vail; sort Of Golden Age of the Constitution was
to be led back; and, quite as in Pope's prophecy
of the Messiah,
All crime shall cease; all former frauds shall fail
Returning Justice lift aloft her scale;
Peace o. r the world her olive branch extend
And white-robed Innocence from heav'n descend ~
And now we demand to know-for a reckoning
time has come at last-what has been the perform
ance of all or of any of these things? What but
such as that casting out devil from man only to
put back into him seven DEVILS each worse than he
that was cast out!
1t was promised that, in Democratic hands, there
should be every wholesome Reform: we have yet
to see, after twenty years, the first that is not
mockery of the name, a libel upon the word Gil
gantc and multiplied abuses have been the sole re-
forms. The expected Retrenchments have tripled
and quadrupled the public expenditures, denounced
as being, under ADAMS and CLAY, SO extravagant
The Economy has consisted in stopping rghtful
and benefcent appropriations, in order to pour out
in profusion useless or pernicious ones ; in such
strokes as vetoing the indemnity to surviving suf
ferers by French Spoiations, or for removing the
snags from the Mississippi, in order that hundred
and fifty millions of money may be flung into the lille
gal gulf of the Mexican war. The Purity that was
to be is general rottenness the scare of the Con-
stimtion " has realized itself in series of Kingly
usurpations such as no man had ever before dreamt
of as possible; the Justice has been that of re-
primanding the TAYLoRs and communicating the
ScoTTs, by whose patriotism and vaor alone have
the arms of the country been saved from disgrace
As to the "Peace of the Country it has been in
the hands of those whose policy it has been to keep
up high-handed rule at home and to swagger
abroad with strong nations to buster, and to hec-
tor and beat the weak. The Innocence" has
been encouraging that spirit and Except in one in
stance) aiding those acts among our people which
made, towards nations to whom we were bound in
the ties of amity and faith, the Canadian invasion
and the Texas revolution intrigued for the over
throw of SANTA ANNA while negotiating with him,
and then brought him back with 81 passport" to
make head against our too successful Generals
got up in California, through its agents, while
we were at peace, the Grisly Bear Revolution y
hung, in Santa Fe, by new law Of Treason, and
without courts, Mexicans whose noble crime was
only defending their own country against fierce in
vaders and, at home, begot the Dorr Rebellion,
stirred up the Anti-Renters, and gave an office to
the President of the Empire Club. The old cry of
Jacksonism was that Members of Congress and
Editors of Newspapers had been rewarded with
officev' Ifthat was then corruption, it has been
multiplied tenfold. 1t loudly accused the Adams
Administration of bringing the patronage of the
Government into conflict with the freedom of Elec-
tons - and il has ever since rewarded just that
sort of service by appointments to office just such
sort of service, indeed, persons actually in Office
now performing Immediately under the eye of the
Executive
Meantime, amidst all this strange mixture Of
whatever saddens the heart and appals the imagi-
nation of the good and wise, we at least witness all
the while the progress of one phenomenon which,
however melancholy for the time, treasures the
land, if it has made il weep or still makes il blush.
It is plain that its long-nsulted virtue and sense
y;ll h,,t Cor little while mora opH,ar ,ba,p saIyes