The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1849-04-26

il duty TO hoard the patronage OF Office 10 purchase par
~ strength. And he did hoard it. He carried out the
doctrine of prescription with remorseess consistency
and worked the political guilotine with steady hand
and heart mistaken by pity Although John Quincy
Adams in a minority. not only before the peo-
pie but in the electoral college, and could not be
presumed TO represent majority of the people, yet
hs disregarded The system pursued by Jefferson and
Madison and Monroe and chung to that which his
father had first established. In doing the
passed the father; and far improved upon has crude
ideas of political prescription that hundred and forty
OF the hundred and ninety six officers in the depart
ments in Washington federalists when he
dered the government General Jackson in 1929 in obc
dence to the WISH expressed through the ballot box of
vast majority of the American people II the law
of retaliation could justify prescription, it would have
justified it in General Jackson. The elder Adams had
pracised it, and yet Jefferson and Madison and Monroe
forbore Without excuse Justification Mr. John Qun-
cy Adams renewed it /; and Gen. Jackson might well
have thought that orbearance had ceased be virtue
The canvass against him had been conducted with
degree of which has been equaed before
since Coffin handbills circulated, his character
was assailed, and one whose character dearer to
him than his own was assailed by the blacklist deama
we may say without Boosting, that not ignorant
of the principles which would guide his administration
when il came into power and in the Richmond Enqui
rer of the 10th of April, 1929. find the following par
agraph:
:" We understand that the removals from office will be
conducted with justice. Those who have suffered their
party feelings beray them into official abuses during the
last election whose party feelings still great in
tersre with their official duties who incompetent
No htv he
applying this rule mistakes may be made through
ignorance misrepresentation But it is intended
that any good officer shall be turned ou for the purpose OF
putting in any friend of the administration"
These, as far as we then knew and believed, or now
know and believe, were the principles upon which Gen
Jackson dispensed the patronage of the government If they
amount to prescription, willing TO stand by them
when power is lodged in the hands of enemies
remembering always that they should not be removed
because they exercised their private rights reemen
but because they guilty OF official abuses, and that
they suffered their politics to interfere with their Official du'
ties Looking back to files. that up to the 7h
of July 1922 only twenty of nearly four hundred OIL
fcers at Washington and only one hundred OF nearly
eight thousand posmasters had been removed And
as late March, 1s4l when the democratic party had
been in power for twelve years. there more federal
lists than democrats holding Office in this city When Gen
Harrison was naugurated, them there was no excuse
for prescription II had been practsed by the dem
ocratc party The ederasts had alone sustained it and
the federass had enjoyed from the time Of John Adams
to that of Gen. Harrisona period of forty yearsmore
than their due proportion of the patronage of the gov
eminent They enjoyed than their due proportion
them and yet Henry Clay-who could not afford to re-
tain democrats in office when he premier. who bad
denounced in advance prescription under Jacksonn his
place in the Senate likened democratic Office holders to
criminals in their way to execution with haers
about their necks and declared that if any spared
they would only be monuments of wing mercy" In a
few weeks seventeen hundred criminals whose crime
was democracy, were removed in the Post Office De-
par.ment alone In five months, more removals had
been made in the higher officers, embracing surveyors
general OF territories, district attorneys, mar
shas and collectors than in the twelve OF General
Jacksons and Mr.. Van Burens administrations. On the
4h of March, the lesser officers in the departments who
were members of the wing party received more than
those who were members of the democratic party by
$i46l3; and this was increased by the 10Th OF
May-two months and fourteen days-to $ll4,33.
From that time TO the present we are informed that the
wing party has continued to enjoy It's due pro-
portion of the patronage OF the government, Judg-
ing from the condition of things in this city If our in
formation incorrect OF the wing organs will
we trust correct for truth all seek in this behalf
We know that Mr.. Polk not proscripve We
him almost daily and conversed freely and frankly with
him on all subjects of public concern and the removals
which he was forced make made for the good of
the country and not from any desire punish those who
did not accord with him in political sentiments In few
DAYS we hope to be able to furnish statement OF the
manner in which the burdens of the public service were
distributed on the 4h of March last and TO bring up this
history of prescription to the present time. We have
called upon the organs of the administration do this
work. bat they have faed-contentng themselves with
unauthorized assertions and unounded denunciaons of
the democratic party. Even if it should appear-and we
are confident it will not-that information is un
true and that under the late administration the demo-
cratic party enjoyed more than its share of public
patronage, it was the first time in the history of
the government The sketch which we have made,
and the facts which we have presented prove incontes
ably that the wing party has uniformly practsed pro
scrption when in power, although it has denounced il
when was elected from the high places of the govern
ment In TRUTH it may be said that prescription for
opinions sake" is the most fixed of all fede raj principles
But General Taylor is the last who should practise
it. He has no sort of excuse to avail himself of the
rules and acts OF his predecessors He has made solemn
pledges that he would in, not Tor party purposes
not 10 avenge the wrongs of party upon another
not to equaze the patronage of the government by taking