The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1853-10-28
THE REMOVAL OF JUDGE BRONSON.
Address OF tho Democratic State Committee
to tho Democracy OF the State or New

The act to which solicit your attention, and which
OF the American gov ernmsnt We aude to the removal
/ by the present administration of the Hon. Greene G..
Bronson from the Office Of Collector of the port of New
| Yorh.
That eminent urst and highly respected citizen is well
known to you During long life he has held various
stations OF high dignity and trust voluntarily bestowed
upon him by his State BY the people, the duties Of
which he has discharged with such sngeness Of purpose
gree the pukc esteem and confidence Politically, he
has ever been consistent national democrat. Although
could not, with a right appreciation OF his posi-
tioh, enter the arena Of politics as a partisan
combatant, his political opinions have been al
On all the great public questions which divided the demo-
cratic and federal whg parties-durng all the anti
petition and the Aeron resolutions of 1885, to the
free soil ard abolition coalition and its Buffalo move
ment in 1S4S-he stood distinctly as he stands now
against all agitation and among the unchanged of
the national democratic parry He has at time,
than he has deYiated from the path Of rectitude He
has not coalesced with fcon struck hands with
enable them to return and control its des ines to mi
mister TO hs own love of power and his aspra
tions. An earnest frsue of the election Of General
Pierce, and prominent among those who have adhered
with fidelity to the national democratic party and
! its its platform, he has not declared the one dis
In short his political has been constant and
undertaking as his official and private life have been
| elevated and irreproachable.
| Under administration State or national has Judge
Bronson been an applicant for Office He retired from
tne DeDch before period Judicial service
pired followed by the regrets and the approval adm
ration Of all parties. When Mr. Dickinson declined the
appointment Of Collector of the port of New York.
dered and urged upon him by Gen. Pierce Judge
nominated for the vacancy by the Pre- dent
frmed by the unanimous vote of the Senate He had
requested his frieads present his name and his
appointment wholly unsolicited his part and nei
ther known expected by him. If his hesitation to
accept the appointment was at last overcome it was as
much from the that the President greatly de-
sed his acceptance of it, from any other consideration
In the discharge of the duties of the Colectorshp all
hoy had dSnta onGo
rous class of intelligent citizens engaged in the manifold
| and extended pursuits which centre there-w attest
rity and his unquestoned ability The selection Of his
subordinates in the Custom House. every grade was
| task of no ordinary difficulty and embarrassment.
Thousands of capable and estimabe men, the city of
New ork and in many parts of the State presented
were worthy was duty from which he could not shhk,
but from which any public untionary might well AsIe
to be exempt Without assuming to inquire into every
who had formerly denounced assaled and opposed the
democratic candidates and repudiated the national
turned to the support of the latter, he aimed
to appoint greater number of national democrats than
partsaps of the section believing the prepond Or
atng strepgth Of the former in the cities of New York
Brooklyn and the vicinity from which had been usual
to select large proportion Of the appointments to be in
accordance alike with political and personal justice. But
he appointed who did not claim approve the
Baltimore platform and the doctrines Of the Presidents
inaugural address Every official act Of his approved
and all his appointments, with single exception in
which tie Office was abolished, confirmed by the Se
Y,
Of the former and the general complexion of the latter
He has made appointments SINCE nor has he taken
step beyond ore which in no manner pertaned TO his
official position and for which he not amenable to
the federal or any other government, but which,
as citizen of tins State AM member of the
democratic parry it became at once his duty it
clearly his right to perform For that act he has
been removed from station to which he appointed
unsolicited and undesired few months since without
justification, and under circumstances as we
have already said which have parallel in the history
sof this or any free government.
n traQ gni norttC md fhafr
allies the disenters from the national democratic camp
fresh from the of bull ism and convict association
at Syracuse gave public notice OF their meeting in the
city of New York. to respond to state ticket formed
unier aggregation of such elements and published
speakers and friends fr.tsrny he felt it to be
his duty to dscain the assocation and TO place himself
upequy ocay where he has stoodamopg the friends
of order and the national democracy of the State and
the Union He did so in measured phrase hesi.a
ting manner He cid it with the manliness and repub
can drectness by which his life has distinguished
This act, belonging excuively to State politics,
and necessarily comiI within his action a citizen
of the State and member of the democratic party here
which has supported the national democracy of the
unon the signal for assault upon him by the free
soil faction here and their allies at Washington,
panied by such unusual rescrps from official quarters
may be supposed to preede The climax Of foregone
cusion 1t obvious that If resignation could not be
forced by insult removal follow under any pretext
which the lition could devise In letter BILE
only for its absence of all the qualities which sup
posed to characterize the productions of whom
chance or merit have placed in high stations, he
was informed BY the Secretary of the Treasury
/
butte his appointments among different sections of the
the democatc party meaning the national democrats
the hand an. the free soil faction and their allies
the other that the free soil section had not been allowed
their due proportion; and that hereafter the Collector
rule of rea sury distribution, in accordance with Bal
timore platform and the Presidents inaugural address
pledge altogether ideal and about which not word
had ever been said to the Collector and rule the exist
Of which has had the penetration to discover
the national platform the inaugural address 1t
| will not be thought singular, that the parties
are known that this rescript was followed the nest
day by another, directing the Collector to submit,
for the approval of the Secretary of the Trea.
employed in the public stores and in the bonded
warehouses; requeme beyond the jurisdiction of the
Treasury Department, in derogaon of the law whca
vests such appointments in the Collector alone be
fore made by any mber of any Cabinet and deensbe
the designs Of power. And both addressed,
| general circular, to direct the action by common
the city Of New York and elsewhere but exclusively and
nvidousy to the Collector of the port of New York. and
intended for his special edidcaton and instruction.
To these remarkable exhibitions Of the temp per and
manner in which high officer of the government
sumed to step into the of State politics, to de
| eide between its sections, to dispose Of ques
| tions of regularity between conflicting organ
zstions, to manifest preference and superiority
| Tor the free ioil section, and to coerce sub
mission by intimating whence the tenure of
Office or compel retirement by offensive and unwar-
Iantabe exactons Judge Bronson replied in letter dis
tnguished by its calm refutaon of the pons of
his official superior, and by its perfect vindication of the
course Of the Collector, as public officer and
n
disrassonae dignity and cogency that carried conviction
to every just mind that its facts conclusive and its
reasoning unanswerablc
The published reonder of the Secretary OF the Treasury
Is not less remark able production less extraord
nary in its assumptions than it's predecessor In both
spects it is utterly unworthy of Cabinet officer of any
government much less supposed to rest upon the in
elgence of the people, As the organ Of the adminstra
on that functonary the dismissal of Judge
Bronson for "nsubordinationn in declining to comply
with arbitrary exactons, imposed without authority of
law and with all the past Of the govern
"COndcmns
the Secretary for having selected free soers without
giving notice of the fact which would have enabled
me to withhold my appreciation from such appoiat-
ments!n 1t is difficult to conceive of anything in the
descending scale of pettifoggng lower than this The
Secretary of the Treasury the first to aude to
tons in the democratic party and complained that the
Collector had not done Justice to that Of them which
every body understands to the free soil section.
Now the Secretary condemns him for having made ap-
ponments in any instance from that section or that
funconary chooses TO denominate them free soers"
Judge Bronson nowhere makes use of the word free
eolersn but following the SecratarYa idea Of