Daily Richmond times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1849-1850, 1850-01-09
From shd Washington Republic of ltaaday.
GENERAL CASS AND WHO CJIpTDJrJ,v


From tha Washington Republic of Moaday
GENERAL CASS AND WING CUpIDITY
There is familiar adage touching the dwellers in
glass houses 1t IS not prudent for them to indulge in the
amusement OF throwing stones at their neighbors-
hough he has lived toa pretty mature age, General
Cass seems not to have prcted by this scrap of
WISDOM One would have supposed for instance that
he would be the last in the world to indulge in n
taunt on the subject of oiceholdng or office seeking
and yet he throws the first stone II trust he said IL
the Senate on Friday last that we shall take course
which, while asserts the rights of the country will re-
store to the Senate its ecacious control and will Weld
no.lng-l VIII not say to the cuPidity-but will say
to the earnest desire of Office which was never more
powerful, nor more powerfully displayed, than now"
Opder the circumstances this rather bold re-
marx Tor General Cass and it is of the most preg
ant and suggestive observations in his whole Speech
IL recalls OF nearly fifty years. rich in historical
recoechons 1t carries us back to the cradle of the
nineteenth century, when we find the youthful Cass
dofflng the black cockade of Federalism and ENTERING
the services of his country, brandshng the staff OF office
as the marshal of Ohio. Whether he was induced to
accept this trust from the "cupidty, or merely the
earnest desire OF office we cannot undertake to at-
llrn; The distinction is somewhat thin. From 1907
10 lol2 however he continued to reap the harvest of
ices which at that time made this marshalship sufficient
to crafty not merely an earnest desen buf an ahsoI
"cupidity."
During portion OF 1912 he was a warrior" with his
marshars cloak around him"-soldier and civilian
hIspPy IN asoIt OF official plurality and polygamy In
1918, on the doctrine OF rotation in Office as he un-
derstood it, Colonel Cass became Brigadier General
Cass, and Marshal Cass became territorial governor of
Michigan, and superintendent OF Indian affairs Eigh-
teen years-rom 1913 to ls3l-he occupied this guber-
material chair, and three four other offices During
this period, he so pospered and waxed fat that no one
can wonder that his single should breed much
earnest desire not to say cupdty, for official employ
ments AS Lord Give said in the Heuse OF Commons
OF similar opportunities-hs successes We're "such as
flesh and blood could not withstand" The dish was
mol SO attractive to be surebut then the Trimmings
sand do.rn thousand dollars IN salaries and sixty thou
once SO attractive and then rebuke the Earnest de-
s.re" for t2 ~
But the doctrine of rotation again to be applied
IN Its Democratic Interpretation and Gen Cass was ro-
lated out OF good office into better He was made
Secretary OF War in August 1881 In 1886 he was
made Minister to France, with the express understand
ing WIN zen Jackson that he should be permitted to
visit me East; IN pursuance Of which, instructions to the
IN the Mediterranean acre placed n, his
hanas 10 g'oeh every facility in the execution of
nasP4tpoSe ms was as pretty privilege as man
coula desire. Nine Thousand outfit and nine thousand
ayear as minister resident at the court of Versailles and
cruising about Tor months in the government vessels and
AT inc puohc expense playing the sentimental traveller
among the ruins OF Thebes and Babec Is not such =
prospect sufficient to generate in breast merely hu
man-not an earnest desire alone for Office but an abb
so]ue cupidity? W.
For SIN years this Democratic censor of WING anne
tiles cracked his almonds and quaed his burgundy at
the table OF Louis PHILIPPE, and then returned to his
naVe country to the honest enjoyment of the magni-
cent wealth ne had accumulated in the public service
put ne could not live ou OF office. He took the sumn
tor Mr POLK and in March, 1915, took his seat as
Senator OF the United States. In 1948 he laid down
TINS ofce the expectation OF rotating into the Pres
dency OF the United States Failing in this he drons
down again into the Senate, and is hardly warm in his
seat before he commences curious investigations on this
subject OF otfice-hoding. Himself plump with the "ac
knoweogeo corn OF public CRIBS and stocked with the
prouse unctons of office-with not an ounce of flesh
nor crop OF blood that is not the creation of official
meats and official winesan office-holder from 1907
and IN the very speech to which refer bidding for
I(rhn Off n
minister rebuke to his friend and pupil Colonel WEBB
and read homiy to the Wing party on the present
singular prevalence OF earnest desire not to saw
cupdlty,' Tor public employments!
But how peculiarly unkind in General CAss to throw
out these ideas and suggestions in connexon with the
name OF Colonel WEBB! Ii the Colonel exhibited
seeming earnest desire OF office, he had passed through
puplage where he very liable to contract it. We
apprehend that it was when standing Detroit in his
military character that Lieutenant WEBB formed the
acquaintance OF the Governor of Michigan. From his
lips tne young lieutenant received his early tuition in
politics. AT the table and under the root of General
CAss his aspirations first naturally pointed to otf-
eial advantages and political distinctions Early i'm
pressons last the longest Is strange that these early
impressions, derived from his political parent and the
guardian OF his political minority, should have been re-
vlved after twenty years wandering in a wilderness
and should have induced curious inclination dip into
the official feshpots!
Admit that Col Webb was anxious for office-unrea-
sonably longing for ofice"precpitate" in gratifying it
when offered i've would ask, with all sincerity and re-
grace from his early monitor and trend-the guide and
exempar OF his youthful and (measuraby) of his ma
turer years?
Col. Webb had seen Gen. Cass growing rich, and
rosy, and happy in office and in nothing but office; he
had also seen the general avaing himself OF his official
opportunities to transfer and transmit those advantages
10 MS SON. We presume that it from no known fit
ness from no tried merit that young Cass was made
major IN the army OF Mexico. He had figured as car
petknight; he was known a redoubable lady killer;
ne was very Mars in the drawing and bal room
But what public service he had rendered to Justify
lhas appointment, or his subsequent appointment as
charge datares to Rome, we are yet to learn He had
merely inherited the paternal appetite He was seized
with this cupdity, for which Gen Glass; in his new cha
racter OF Cato, undertakes chde Col Webb and the
Wings 1t came TO him naturally enough; but he
would probably have been able toinduIge it, if he
had not been the Of his father. 1t is all right for
Cass the like Cass the father to indulge the lust of
otce in them it is merely audable desire to serve
their country. But in Col Webb, the friend and pupil
and IN these pertinent Wings who have not had look
atpubc honos and empoymens for twenty years it is
acupdity" that must be rebuked by making an exam
pie OF the most precpate and perncious Is the Cass
dynasty tosooth be broken down by these adyentu
refs and interopers!
1t Is not altogether to taste to employ the argu.
mentun dd h0maaem-but when Gen Cass attacks
whole party for vice of which he is himself notorious
~ guilty. we cannot refrain from reminding him of the
singular infelcity OF such an ASSAULT
EATRE.
SEXTON and CHIPPENDALE. Managers