Washington sentinel. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1855, 1853-10-25
That will do.
WASHINGTON. Oct. %. 1879

W ASdlNGTON, OCt. ~, 1898.
Sir: have received your letter of tho 18th
instant.
1t is not my purpose to respond to the many
positions Of that letter, because most of them
bear their contradiction upon its face, and
others are too unimportant to require refu-
tation; and also because, while, in several
phrases OF it, admitting your implied obliga-
ton, as man of honor, to act in accordance
with the known policy Of the administration,
and, moreover, recognizing the propriety and
justice of that policy, by declaring that Won
yourself deprecated and endeavored to prevent
the divisions now existing in the democratic
party in your State you nevertheless INDUCED
in tenor of remark, as to various relations of
the subject which not only impugns my mo-
tives, but indicates an attitude on your part
wholly incompatible with harmonious co-opera-
ton between us, and the proper conduct of the
business ofthe government.
One suggestion appears in your letter which
demands animadversion. You allege, by i'm
plication, that have desired You to appoint
freesoilers to Office, and, in doing 50, Won
strangely misunderstood or misinterpret nv
letter of the Sd instant. / neither entertained
nor expressed any such desire. 1t has been my
pleasure and my duty, not to inquire into the
opinions which may have been held by yourself
and others as far back as the year l84S but to
regard the claimst0 consideration of all who have
acted with fidelity to the principles and organi-
zation of the democratic party since the con-
vention at Baltimore in 1867, and those only.
And with these views / must condemn your
course, when in this letter you inform me that
you have selected freesoilers for Office, without
having given me the notice of the fact, which
would have enabled towithhold my appreciation
from any such appointments. will add, that
the imputation that have required you to act
with reference to controversies Of local or
State character, is wholly gratuitous. Ny let
ter was intended to guard you against distinc-
tons between democrats, founded upon local
politics and local divisions.
The concluding portion of your letter has
left me no alternative but to lay the whole mat
ter before the President, and take his direction
concerning it.
You assume that in relation to certain things
you are to receive instructions from this de-
partment and in others that you are to proceed
without or contrary to- such instructions. This
cannot be admitted in any branch of the pub
lie service; for where the department is not
expressly empowered to give instructions to
subordinates, it has the authority to do SO, as
inherent in the power to remove refractory
officer.
You also assume that you are to appoint the
various persons employed in the custom-house-
some, as you admit, subject to my approval,
and others, as you seem to conceive, on your
sole authority. cannot but regard it as sin
gular that gentleman of your legal acquire
ments and experience should have fallen into
such error. The Constitution of the United
States has empowered Congress to confer the
appointment Of inferior officers in the Presi-
dent alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads
of departments" Congress has not attempted,
nor, if it had, could it have effected, any mod.
hcation of this provision of the Constitution.
Those who are employed under you in the
custom-house, do, both by the Constitution and
the laws, derive their appointment and their
authority as public officers from the Secretary
OF the Treasury alone.
What the language and temper of your letter
would have rendered embarrassing, these un-
warrantable assumptions, marked as they are
BY manifest spirit of INSTRUMENTATION, render
sible--namely, your continuance in the
office of collector Of the district Of New York.
! am, therefore, directed by the President to
say that your successor in the Office will be
promptly appointed.
have the honor to be, very respectfully,
JAMES GUTHRIE.
GREENE c. BRONSON, Esq, New York.