The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1853-05-18
TIL. victors and the spoiIs,

we OF course 10 not presume to offer any
opinion on this subject; but we are privileged
TO near the wise reflections of the triumphant
victors themselves. 1t is thus the Richmond
Enquirer dscourses: l
"What pity it is that the days of miracles
have 90 hopelessly passed away! How bitterly TO
be regretted by the myriad applicants for office
and the envied dispensers of public fayore that
there is no longer any possibility of multiplying
the five loaves and the few small fishes into g sat-
isfactory meal for the mutitudes, with the pros
pect that the fragments of crumbs of comfort for
the outsiders will amount to than the original
stock in hand. We have painfully come to the
conclusion that President Pierce, whatever his
civil and military abilities may be, ia neither holy
prophet expert magician. He has now been
for more than two months at the head of the bread
and butter department, diligently doing out
treasury pap, and endeavoring to repeat the an
Gent miracle; but such is the ngratitude of hu-
manity in general, and office-hunters in particu-
lar that he has not met with the success which
should attend his laudabe efforts to render feast
OF the Barmecides as acceptable to the expectants
which hover round him as the blood of oxen and
the fat of goats He has cha ritably, and with the
best grace which the nature of the case would per-
nit, clothed the naked and fed the hungry, but he
has been compelled to send many empty away.
There was due sense of the fitness of things,
keen insight into the mysteries of political and
social organization on the part of those old Anglo
Saxons who gave to their chiefs head-men the
significant designation Of Hlaford, or Lord-the
divider Of the loaf. If the breaking and distri-
button of bread the highest civil function
of those antique eavages, the ancient duty has
not been extinguished in our day, but still re-
-, L.
the great labor of the President of the United
States. 4 fearful labor indeed it ia. The danger
of bread riots, and the procivity of men to stir
them up, are the conconitants OF all times, and
the trouble of sill organizations, from the treasury
bench TO the country school; and il requires
wonderful diplomacy and great craftsmanship to
prevent or appease the turnults occasioned there
by. Those old Anglo-Saxons had way,
which answered very well in their barbarous
times, of checking discomfort by devOlying this
onerous task upon deputy bread diyioers. They
gave the great charge into the hands Of the pria-
cipal men throughout the country, and by vari-
Gus quaint processes, such as tenancy "A chief,
subin- feudation, &c, &c required each chief to
satisfy the cravings, and be answerable for the
propriety of his own followers. The Turks, on
the contrary, have a preference for the depres-
zion Of the able and illustrious, and for the ele-
walton OF those whom no one ever thought Of be-
fore; but this plan has been stigmatised with the
harsh of despotism and arbitrary rule.
The Anglo-Saxon project was tolerably successful
in it's day, AID has been sometimes initiated in
our country; but of course it is now out of
date. and other procedures must be resorted to.
Bat any change of system will produce clamor;
the sufferers will yell, and il cannot be prudently
asserted, till new Presidential election, whether
their cry is reasonable causeess. 1t is unfor
tunntely the fact that much dissatisfaction has
been excited among the multitude of influential
ofice-seekers throughout the country, by the per-
formance Of the administration chief car
and dispensers of provision; but time, which
cures all complaints, will soon restore the equa-
nimity of all the disappointed"