New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1853-10-27
Reply of Judge Bronson,

| SIR: The pressure of official business and
| confinement to sick room have prevented an
earlier answer to your letter of the Sd instant.
You first state. in substance, that have been
under pledge, which has not been redeemed
to distribute offices in my gift among different
sections Of the democratic party, and then pre-
scribe the course you expect me to pursue in fu
ture. You do not complain that my appointee
are not proper persons for the places they occu
py, or that they are not sound democrats, sin
cerely attached to the principles of the party
and firm supporters of the National Administra.
tion: But you think have not properly re.
garded all sections of the party
| When Mr. Dickinson declined the Collector
ship of this port, in April last, was asked by
| several friends whether | would allow nv name
to be mentioned to the President for the place.
and answered in the negative. thought no
more of the matter until two days afterward,
when saw in the public prints a telegraphic
dispatch announcing my appointment l had
two years before resigned my place as Chief
Judge of the Court of Appeals, with the inten-
ton Of never again accepting public office;
and grateful as was for this new mark of con-
fdence, should have declined the appointment
but for the high opinion which | entertained of
the President and his principles, and the assur-
ance Of friends that he earnestly desired my ac-
ceptance of the trust
When l accepted the place. l had never seen
nor had any communication with the President
and of course there were no pledges between us,
save such as may be implied between honorable
men holding the like relation to each other He !
had right to expect that would diligently and
faithfully discharge the duties of the office, and
maintain, in all proper ways, the principles .
which restored the democratic party TO power;
and, so long as performed that implied obliga-
ton, had right to expect that his confidence
in me would not be Withdrawn l have never
complained that the President has not discharged
his part of the obligation, and am not conscious
ef having omitted to discharge my own.
You tell me that the President and his con-
stitutional advisers stand pledged before the
world to the principles and policy laid down in
the Baltimore Platform and the Inaugural Ad-
dress, "and had reason to believe that all gem
tlemen who consented to accept Office under the
Administration, stood pledged to the same prin-
ciples and policy" | agree to that and,
though it is but an implied pledge, | admit its
full force. But it proves nothing to the present
purpose, for there is not one word either in the
Baltimore Platform or the Inaugural Address
about distributing Offices among different Sec
tiou af the party. If the President or his ap-
poi $ are pledged to any such distribution,
you must look to some other document to find
evidence of the obligatiou--some document which
| have never seen.
1t may be rcrred from the acts Of the Presi-
dent, that b. Tegards eligible to office all
democrats wLo cordially united on the Balti-
Hlore HttioTli III loo-i anu are sincerely attach
ed to the principles of the party, although at
some former period they may have been out of
the way. That is proper rule. 1t is one on
which have acted in making appointments to
because | was under any pledge 30 do
so, but because | thought the rule just in it.
self. But your letter proceeds upon the ground
that should go beyond the inquiry whether ap-
plicants for Office are good democrats now, and
ascertain to what section they formerly belong
ed and then make such n distribution of o4f;ces 4
between the different sections that no one of
them will have just cause for complaint 1t is
not only impossible to administer such a rule as
that with success, but the consequence of adopt.
ing it must be that we shall never have one
democratic party, united upon a broad basis of .
principle, but mere combination of different
sections, held together by no better bond than
the love of office, and ready to fall to pieces the
moment one section thinks itself aggrieyed in the
Notwithstanding what has been said think it
would be found, on proper scrutiny that the /
section which has so loudly and bitterly COM
planned Of injuries has received its full share of
the offices which | have bestowed 1t is un-
loubtedly true that more appointments have
been made from one section Of the party than
from the other; and a single reason will be
sufhcient to show why it was proper to pursue
that course. Most of the Custom house appoint
ments for this port have already been made from
the counties Of New York and Kings, in which
are the three large cities which form part OF
the port. In 1S4S the democratic and free-sou '
votes in those counties bore the relation OF more
than four for the former to one for the latter.
From the free soil vote should be deducted, the
whig abolition vote which went in the same d. II
rection. After making the proper allowance On
that account, / think it safe to conclude tha' q
not more than one out of seven of the democrats
in those counties voted the free-soi ticket 1910