The Belmont chronicle, and farmers, mechanics and manufacturers advocate. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1848-1855, 1853-10-28

The reader will find in the following letter
from Collector Bronson to Secretary Guthrie,
all the rebuke that has been expected to the
the unwarrantable letter of that functonary:
COLLECTOR BRONSON TO THE Sec
I RETARY OF THE TREASURY.
! New YORK, Oct. II, 1853.
i SfR--The pressure of official business and
confinement to sick room have prevented
an earlier answer to your letter of The Sd inst.
You first state, In substance, that I have
been under pledge which has not been re-
deemed, to distribute the offices in my gift
among the different sections of the democratic
party, and then prescribe the course you ex-
pect me to pursue in future. You do not COM
plain that my appointees are not proper per-
sons for the place they occupy, or that they
are not sound democrats, sincerely attached
to the principles of the party and firm sup
porters of the national administration. But
you think have not properly regarded all
sections Of the party.
When Mr. Dickinson declined the Collec.
torship Of this port, in April last, | was asked
by several friends whether would allow nv
name to be mentioned 10 the President for
the place, and answered in the negative. /
thought no more about the matter until
two days afterwards when saw in the public
prints telegraphic despatch announcing
my appointment. / had two years befoft
resigned my place as Chief Judge of the
Court of Appeals, with the intention of
never again accepting public office; and
grateful as was for this new mark of conf
dence, I should have declined it but for the
irh u,b; ;nb I
President and his principles, and the assu-
rance Of friends that he earnestly desired my
acceptance Of the trust.
When accepted the place, I had never
seen OR had any communication with the
President, and of course there were no pledges
between US, save such as may be implied be-
tween honorable men holding the like rela-
ton to each other. He had a right to expect
that would diligently and faithfully discharge
the duties of the Office, and maintain in all
proper ways, to principles which restored the
Democratic party to power; and so long as 1
performed that implied obligation, had a
right to expect that his confidence in me
would not be withdrawn. have never COM
pained that the President has not discharged
his part of the obligation, and am not con-
scious of having emitted to discharge nv
own.
you tell me that the President and his con.
sttutional advisers stand pledged before the
world to the principles and policy laid down
in the Baltimore platform and the inaugural
address, ''and had reason to believe that all
gentlemen who consented to accept Office
fee under the adm nistraton, stood pledged
to the same principles 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 in
the inaugural address about distributing offices
among the different sections OF the party. If
the President or his appointees are pledged
to any such distribution, you must look to
some other document to fnd evidence of the
obligation--some document which I have
never aeen.
1t may be inferred from the acts Of the
President, that he regards as eligible to office
all Democrats who cordially unite on the Bal
timore platform in 1852, and are sincerely at
tached to the principles of the party, although
at some former period they may have been
out of way. That is proper rule. 1t is the
one on which | have acted in making ap-
poinlments to office-not because | was un-
der any pledge to do SO, but because thought
the rule Just in itself. But, your letter pro-
ceeds upon the ground that should go be-
yond the inquiry whether applicants for Of
flee are good Democrats now, and ascertain
to what section they formerly belonged; and
then to make such distribution Of Offices
between the different sections, that no one
of them will have Just cause for complaint.
1t is not only impossible to administer such
rule as that with success, but the conse-
quence of adopting it must be that we shall
never have one Democratic party, united upon
a broad basis OF principle, but mere combi.
nation of different sections, held together BY
no better bond than the love of office, and
ready to fall to pieces the moment one sec.
ton thinks itself aggrieved in the distribution.
Notwithstanding what has been said, I
think it would be found, on proper scruti-
nv, that the section which has so loudly and
bitterly complained of injustice has received
its full share of the Offices which have be-
slowed. 1t is undoubtedly true that more ap-
poiutments have been made from one secl
ton of the party than from the other; and a
single reason will be sufficient to show why
it was proper to pursue that course. Most
of the Custom House appointments for this
mort have always been made'from the coun.
lies of New York and Kings, in which are
the three large cities which form part of the
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