New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1851-04-09
Whig Prescription of whig..

We have said little about the recent
changes in our State Of otfice-holders I'M
der the Federal Government, because we
cared little about it. We consider no man
entitled to an Office, consequently no man
wronged either by losing or failing to OBJ
tain one. A man fit to hold a responsible
station can hardly lack capacity to earn
good living out of office, and so cannot be
seriously harmed by being reduced to the
ranks. If President Fillmore prefers such
men as John T. Bush to such as Palmer V.
kellogg for his most responsible trusts, we
consider the fact proof Of very bad taste
on the Presidents part, but of no great
public consequence. Mr.. X. can be elect
ed to office if he chooses, and has been
chosen Sheriff of the County Of Oneida
when the Wings were thousand minus in
the Popular Vote of that County-a streak
of luck not likely to happen to either the
functionary who removed or the one who
supplanted him. In fact, we consider Mr..
Kellogg every way too good a man for
chief Slave catcher in Northern New
York, and think he should have resignedif
he had not been removed. He ought to
be obliged to the President for relieving
him from duties so repugnant to every
pure conscience, to every generous heart.
But while we have not the least OBJ
lection to the Presidents appointing such
officers as he likes, and feel no shadow of
resentment because those who are supposed
to think as we do are turned out and those
who profess to think as we don't are put in
their places, we cannot so quietly permit
false and deceptive statements of the causes
of these changes to be circulated. For in
stance, the Windsor (Vt.) Journal is try
ing to earn little dirty pudding from the
Executive Departments by assuring its
readers that the difference which has ledto
the recent changes in our State " is purely
PERSONAL" and that
at Is pretty generally known, believe, that nearly
all The Offices in New within the disposal Of the Pres
ident Senate have been held by those known Sew
ard WhigS, while those who are known as Conserve
tives embracing the personal friends Of the Presi
dent have been almost wholly excluded from such fsvors
Now, while we make no objection to the
Silver Grays taking all the offices, we do
object to their giving false and unfounded
pretexts therefor. They have the power,
and are not required to account to US for
their exercise of it; and if they appoint
good men, who serve the public faithfully,
we don't believe the People will trouble
themselves greatly as to the incumbents 81
the principal offices. But it is not true
that "nearly all the offices in New York,
within the disposal of the President and
Senate, have been held by those known
as Seward Wings" On the contrary,
Mr.. Fillmore, on his accession to the Pres
idency, found the best offices in the Presi-
Dental gift filled as follows:
Hugh Marvel, Collector for this Port
John Young, Sub-Treasurer;
William v Brady, Postmaster;
Henry T. Tallm0dge, Marshal 8. Dist.
Palmer v Kellogg do. Northern Dist.
Philip Hone, Naval Officer;
- Leroy, Navy Agent;
Charles b. Stuart, Engineer Dry Dock.
These are all the Offices of much account
in the State-all places of great response
bility, patronage and power; and only one
of them was filled by Seward man. so
called-that of Marshal of the Northern
District. Of the interior Post Offices of
any account, majority were held by Sew
ard men, because they had been dictated
by the Wing party of their several locali-
ties, but several of the more important
among them were held by anti-Seward
men, and Mr.. Fillmore exercised his I'M
doubted prerogative in Withdrawing Gen.
Taylor's nomination for Postmaster at AL
bany and substituting one of his own most
devoted partissns. He might have done
the same with regard to the Troy, Buffalo,
Auburn and other offices had he seen fit,
but he did not. The Postmasters at Can
andaigua, Geneva, Batavia and several
other important towns were and are active
anti. Seward men. But all these amount
to little. The chief effective patronage in
this State was welded by the Collector,
Naval Officer, Surveyor, &c. in the Gus
tom House, the two Marshals, the Dry
Deck Engineer, and our City Postmaster;
and of these only the Marshal of the
Northern District was Seward man.
He has been turned out; so have the Post
masters at Troy, Little Falls, Corning, &c.
the Collector at Rochester and few more
of the same sort. We make no complaint