Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1850-01-05


" except to create place for some favorite."
Thes Union" must have very odd fancies fitting
in its brain when it can give no better reason for
its opposition to confessedly wise if not neces-
sary measure, than that it cannot see what In
terest the Government (meaning here the PresidenD
can have in il other than to create place for
some favorite. The very last desire of the Presi.
dents heart, we dare to say, would be to multiply
places to provide fayorites with. He has had
already experience enough to learn that the last
thing that any wise man should desire, for his own
comfort or personal qualification, is the possession
Of t.x power Of appointmens - caSe, every excs-1
ciseA of which, even the most unexceptionable,.
crectes for him hundred aye thousand, enemies
where il makes or secures him one friend. No
gpaser relief cotdd pn affortcd the President, we
atcsaatisfed, than at ANY moment to be diyest-
ed eisassly, by compe.snp authority, Of this very
poweE But surelySitis is contracted and sordid
objection to any proposition, in itself commendable,
that it will incidentally involve the employment OF
one qualified citizen more in the public service.
The /" Union car very well see how the claim
ants would be Interested in the opposition by the
Government to ~ improper claims" but it cannot
see how the Government (in any sense) should be
interested init Has the Government proper no
interest in justice-in seeing that the laws i'm
cludng traties) be faithfully executed-and there
fore in preventing the intrusion of unsustainable
claims before Treaty Commission, to the injury
and derial of adequate indemnity to just claimants!
And, ifthe Government is not to be at the expense
Of paying properly authorized agent to resist un-
founded or unsound claims, who'is to do it? Is
each claimant expected to fee attorney to contest
every claim but his own, to ferret out evidence
againt them, and, where he doubts their founda-
ton, 10 oppose the dstrusted claims by learned
argument! To subject claimants to such an invi-
dious and onerous exacton to protect them in rights
which the Treaty with Mexico secures to them,
would be very obviously unjust, and failure OF
duty Oh the part Of the Government. Yet, in
case so clear that, though the Editor Of the Union
can, in his own words, Uery soeH see how impor-
tant is this recommendation to the claimants
whose interests he and the late Administration had
so much at heart as to make them the ostensi-
bic ground Of the war with Mexico-he cannot
see any other lan vicious motive in the President
for making it What real objection, what honest
accusation, can he Opposition have to prefer against
the Administration, when such miserable pretences
as this are sgt up by its leading organ as grave
exceptions tothe Message
Respecting our relations with the States Of Gen.
trail America and particularly with Nicaragua, the
Union saS it is evident that " the dispute with
the British government is as good as settled" !"
Though this the language of our neighbor, it is
clear, from th context, that he considers it as bad
settled, rater than as "good," and is very much
disordered trreby. "There is not even" (says
he in despiring tone) "a dark allusion to the
Monroe dedaation;" nor, he might have added
with as mud truth as force, to the Virginia Reso-
luions Of lS9S-'99. But, TO be more serious
That the controversy into which this Government
has been incidentally drawn with the British au-
horities is aAgood settled d'-taking the Unions
construction ohhis part Of the Message will be to
large proporthn of readers, even of the Union,
information quis as acceptable as any thing in that
document. Thee Union" is SO put out by it--so
disappointed, apparently, at the failure Of all its
efforts on this as d the French question to get the
Nation into war With somebody or other-that it
lays the whole blame Of the peaceful adjustment
of this question on, the shoulders of Mr.. Secre-
tary CLAYTON, whoa efforts and arguments in
behalf of the rights oNis country it characterizes,
in terms made classic bS Grose, as "mere humbug
and CANNON. If the, Administration is proof
against the combined free and grace Of such
decisive arguments as thin, it must be invincible
However, let the Union take courage, prevail
upon its friends to call for epapas upon this case
| also, and thus acquire the means of Overwhelming
Mr.. CLAYTON and his compeers withcohfuson and
dismay This advice is the bes, consolation that
we areable to afford to the Union IN its present
distress, destituted it is of all the capital which it
had invested in the French, British, Cuban, and
sundry other questions, which the Message has
at once exploded.
The next topic of the Message advered to by
the i" Union is that which concerns the Finances
and all that is worthy of remark in the comment
of that journal on this subject is its denial that the
deficit in the Treasury grows out of the Mexican
War. The statement in the Message that is
so occasioned is a simple question Of fact, to be
settled by the report Of the Secretary, which was
at the time in possession of the Editors Of the
. Union," and is published in the same sheet with
their editorial denial Of the statement. Quite pos
sibly the Editors had not read that report This
question was, it would seem, predetermined and
il was quite unnecessary to consult the only rule
by which it could be decided. The Report of the
Secretary Of the Treasury occupies, in this matter,
th, ,c he staJ knni-S IS