The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1853-10-27
From the Nelc York Herald Oct. IL.
The Financial and Political Con-
diti0n of the United States,

One vi Jul iiOSb Nlollil 0AS iNN
merchants shipowenrs, manufactures, and
linanciers, in the city of New York, broke
down in the space Of two or three weeks,
and forty thousand more were struck
down in the country, causing failures to
the amount of five hundred millions Of
dollars, and involving all the banks, and
the States themselves, few years after,
in the same catastrophe. The social
calamities which followed in the train Of
this terrible reversion in trade and f.
nance are yet fresh in the minds of thou
sands Families in wealthy and afluent
circumstances were reduced to penury-
widows and orphans to whom compe-
tcncy had been secured, driven to want
and the honest workmen, depending
for the support Of their wives and chill
drcn on the wages Of their daily labor, a.
bandoned to idlencss and despair The
savings Of years Of patient industry, tho
wealth amassed by long and successful
labor, were swept off by one fell blow,
and the hopes and prospects Of number
less families irretrieyabiy ruined,
What was the origin Of this commercial,
financial, and social revolution?
Many causes no doubt conspired to
produce it; but the chief cause, to which
all others were subordinate, was the ad-
ministration of Martin Van Buren, and
| its merccnary spirit, which had already
infused itself into the three last years OF
the administration of his immediate pre-
decessor. 1t was the spoils politicians Of
the Albany Regency, with Gov. Marcy at
their head, who produced the calamity of
1887. 1t was the men who looked upon
the whole problem of government as the
art of procuring majorities at the polls,
10 matter by what reckl }sS or despicable
means, who did the mischief. What
we're commerce, manufactures, agriculture
justice, the honor Of the republic at home
and abroad-what the great mission of
the United States, to men who treated
every Office under the government as plum
der, and whose governmental philosophy
and ethics were summed up in Marcy S
motto "To the victors belong the spoils?
The administration Of Martin Van Bu-
rem was ushered in vain with great prom
ises, and with reiterated professions of
honesty, and integrity. Asurplus of thir-
ty millions had accumulated in the treas
ury, sufficient to control commercial en-
terprise and to effect every species of in
dustry; the country was supposed to be
prosperous beyond all precedent; yet at
bottom there was nothing but delusion,
false pretensions, arrogant presumption
and want Of system and knowledge in all
the arrangements of the goverement.--
The crash at last came-wealth, credit,
the surplus in the treasury, the populari-
ty and power Of the administration, finally
Martin Van Buren himself, together with
the Albany Regency, and all the yaga-
bonds and spoilsmen under it, were swept
from the board
We are now on the eve Of similar rev.
olution, under the auspices Of Marcy and
the younger Van Buren. The vultures
and spoilsmen Of the party have again
possession of the government and are
prostituting it to the same infamous pur-
poses. Our paper circulation is more ex-
.panded than it was in 1887 banks have
multiplied in all directions; State credits,
county credits, town and city credits,
as well as railroad and canal credits, have
multiplied beyond anything dreamed of
in 1886 and 1887, and the increasing
imports will soon raise the surplus reve-
nue. in the treasury from thirty to fifty
millions Of dollars. And in the face of
these appalling difficulties, the threatening
aspects Of our foreign relations, and the
approaching revival Of sectional agitation
at home, the power and influence of the
administration are frittcred away in the
distribution of the spoils among drunken
vagabonds and rOwdy politicians! In the
midst Of financial crisis, and surrounded
by danger from which to escape will re-
quire all the talent and all the experience
of thinking and rejecting statesmen, our
Secretary of the Treasury issues bis man
date to the Collector Of New York to take
care Of the weighers, gaugers, walters
and watchmcn of the Custom Housel
Is this not enough to alarm our busines
Can they look with passive
upon the present condition of
the country! Are they willing to trust
their property and credit-the resuls of
their enterprise and labor-to the hands
Of the present spoils Cabinett ? Have
they not an abiding interest in the faith
ful, energetic and statesmanlike manage
ment of public affairs And are they
not in the end the victims of every weak,
yacillating, corrupt, plundering admins
tratiOn! Why, then, should they not
move in body to rid the country and
the President of Marcy, Davis, Guthrie,
and the whole bunch of governmental
whose minds cannot rise above
the consideration of public plumber and
the distribution of the spoils among per-
sonal friends and mcrcenary followors?-
Let the business community take the mat
ter in hand at once; let them form associ-
ations, and appoint committees whose
special business, it shall be to procure the
removal Of the Cabinett, and let them not
rest till the task is accomplished. We