American telegraph. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1851-1851, 1851-08-22
EDtToRss CORRESPONDENCE.



aboye-named gentlemen, with their official assoc
oiates, think 1t burning shame that they should
be censured and denounced for keeping in
large majority of the best clerkships in their
respective departments their political oppo-'
nents. They maintain that it is their preroga-
tive, as well as their pleasure, to keep ultra
Democrats over the heads of meritorious and
capable Wings, and that all Wings who complain
Of their conduct in these things are captious and
fault-fnding, and ought to be put down.
What if Mr.. Fillmore, at the time he was
called to tho Presidential chair, had appointed,
instead of Mr., Corwin, Mr.. Shannon of Ohio,
Secretary of tho Treasury and, instead of Mr..
Stuart, Mr.. Bayly, Of Virginia, Secretary of the
Interior; and instead of Mr.. Hall, Mr.. Chat
field, Of New York, Postmaster General would
we not have heard loud complaints and denun-
Citations by Messrs Corwin, Stuart, and Hall,
against Mr. Fillmore for thus calling about him
three conspicuous Democrats, instead of as
many Wings to those Cabinet stations, to help
him carry on the Government? 4 . g,f.t.,S
But Messrs. C0rwin, Stuart, and Hall would
have had no more reason or right to denounce
Mr.. Fillmore for such a line of official conduct,
than good and true Wings, all over the country,
now have for denouncing the line Of official
conduct pursued by the aforementioned Cab-
net officials.
1t perhaps is not right just at this critical
juncture, to expect Mr.. Corwin to remedy the
great error, in this regard, which he has been
guilty Of 1t is understood that his whole time,
since his return from Ohio, has been engrosscd
in the matter of the Gardiner Claim and that
he has refrained from signing any rcauisitions,
rs Secretary of the Treasury, since he last came
to Washington. If this line of conduct has
been pursued at the suggestion of President
Fillmore, who may have requested Mr. Corwin
not to act any more as Secretary of the Treasu-
ry until the Gardiner Claim business could be
cleared up, the circumstance reflects honor upon
the President for making the request and it is
commendablc in the Secretary to conform there
to. r
1t is right and proper, after all that has been
charged and published to the world relative to
the Gardiner Claim, and the connexon there
with of the Secretary of the Treasury, for Mr..
Corwin to be deeply concerned in the matter
which it is alleged now engrosses his whole
time, and that of one or two of his friends stay
ing at his residence, who were connected with
him in the Gardiner Claim.
If Mr.. Corwin should resign the office of Sec
rotary Of the Treasury either Voluntarily or at
the request of the President, it will not do for
him to 60 home to Ohio (where he has always
hitherto been known and esteemed as an honor
able and honest though poor man) with
fortune of ZOO, realized while he was at
the head of the Treasury Department, and
suspicion thereunto attached that that fortune
came out Of Uncle Sans Treasury through
claim no better than the great Galphin stumble.
= The black spot stamped upon the bright
Wing escutcheon by the Galphin swindle can
never be efaced or wiped out. The Cabinet
Minister who did that deed will never escape
fho ndiupn ba xual1 Mr.. I
take it, is one of the last men in the world to
wish to follow has example, and reap has re,Odrd.
] will here, for the present. leave Mr.. Cor
win and his co-laborers at work on the Gardiner
Claim, and revert to the manner in which Mr..
Corwin, as Secretary of the Treasury, has cx-
hibited his good wishes toward the capable and
honest men of the Wing party, which made
him what he is in official greatness.
No more sagacious politician ever held the
Office of the Secretary than the Hon. Robert j.
Walker. He knew his men, who to put conf
dence in, and who to trust. In the heat of the
last Presidential campaign he deputized three
prominent clerks in the Treasury Department
1.-TWO of whom had been editors of Democratic
papers, and two of whom have been seen march
ing with torches or banners in Democratic
torch-light procession in this city, in honor of
the election Of Polk and Dallas) to go to the
North, for some two months, ostensibly to look
drafts on collectors of the customs, ranging from
1850 to $500, each, to bear their expenses,
while their salaries were running on at the
Treasury Department during their absence, and
paid to them on their return.
Those three influential electionecring Demo
cratic subordinates, whom Mr. Walker trusted
so confdingly, are all retained and kcptin place
by Mr.. Corwin!
Mr.. Walker had another subordinate who
L. Cal fall. hat thn IN ha-
fore he left the office of Secretary of the Urea
sury, he gave that faithful clerk land know
not to how many others) draft on the Col
lector of Customs at Baltimore for ST. 900,
which was cashed in gold by the said collector.
That clcrk, so true and faithful to Mr.. Walker,
has not only been retained, but promoted to
the chief clerkship Of the Treasury Department
by Mr.. Corwin
More items in this connexion viii DO given
on n future occasion.
Mr.. Secretary Stuart, it appears, is to have
conferred upon his brother-in-law, Mr.. Bald
win, Of Virginia, now fourteen hundred dol
lar clerk in the Interior Department, the Office
of Military Storc-keeper in California, which
Major James Nj. McRea was induced to resign,
because President Fillmore tods induced 10 RUE
him off, notwithstanding Major McRca had
done ten times rs much for Mr.. Fillmore and
for the Wing party, as Mr.. Stuart had ever
done. And for this kind act, on the part of
Major McRea, in resigning the office conferred
upon him by the Secretary Of War, after his
bonds had been satisfactorily executed, and
thus leaving good place to be filed by Mr..
Stuart's brother in-law, the magnanimous Mr..
Secretary Stuart has rendered to Major McRea,
not the fourteen hundred dollar clerkship to be
vacated by Mr. Baldwin, but temporary place
in the Census Bureau, at the rate Of one thou
snnd dollars o year, with the kind assurance
that this was oil he could then do for him
Mr.. Stuart probably wishes to confer the
office which Mr.. Baldwin is to vacate, upon
va -. friend orM atho-