The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1853-01-01
General Pieree,s crock Ahead.n

for their present and future happiness
General Pierce's crock Ahead,
With the construction or the policy of the
incoming Cabinet we have as yet nothing to do.
Propriety and inclination require us to wait
patiently for the period when the whole mys-
terry will be solved. It is not our task to
remove difficulties that stand in the path Of
the President elect, to reconcile the conflicting
interests that have arrayed themselves in his
support, or to nominate the men to whom he
shall confde the secrets Of his office ANY
interference in his behalf wonld be miscon-
strued; and as to the selection of his confden-
tial advisers, we are content to leave that to
the score of letter writers who make and un-
make Cabinets at pleasure.
But though well nigh silent as commenta
tors, we are not forgetful of the duty that rests
upon US as veracious chroniclers We cannot,
indeed, keep pace with the manufacturers of
cabinet ware, and the smallest modicum of good
taste would restrain us, if we could, from print
ing all the programmes of distinguished non-en-
titles which jealous Democrats have constructed
for the occasion. But the piquant criticisms of
one section of Democrats npon. the merits of
another-the extraordinary forms in which
their brotherly affection is frequently manifest
ed-the anxiety they show to enlighten Gene
raj PIERCE in regard to the particular weak
nesses of particular individuals: all these are
items of information which it were gross cara
lessness to neglect. We try to print them all.
Yesterday the revelations of the Souths;de
Democrat concerning the huge crowd of ex-
pectants who now cry for rewards, challenged
the wonder OF our readers. To day we have
more hot words upon the same subject from
the Richmond Examiner, whose editor seems
to have visited this city to study the peculiari-
ties of the animals he describes. He charac-
terizes the distribution of patronage by every
new President as s@the many. headed, triple
tongued Cerberus at the portal Of hell, - and
then proceeds:
seThe difficulties here sketched have attended
the entrance of every new administration hitherto,
and will await all that time shall bring in future
but never have they appeared in a form SO very
much exaggerated as they do The distribu-
ton of place by Mr.. Pierce will be the most trou
blesome and delicate duty that any Chief Magis.
trate has ever been called upon to perform.
He has been carried into power by the tenn
porary union of all factions and cliques. There
is not man in all the immense mass who has
feud with him, or who has rea on to believe
that others will be preferred before him. Hence
the number Of office seekers who look to this
administration is something unparalleled hither
to in political arithmetic. Every member of
Congress has half dozen constituents continu-
ally at his heels. The influx of the hungry has
enriched all the hotels in Washington One knows
them on the street there at first sight. At noon
they crowd the galleries of the Senate and the
House; and in the dusk of the evening their large
and haggard eyes CLEAN classify on the piazzas
OF the hotels, like those of hyenas in an Eastern
graveyard. No pitch of degradation are they not
ready for-no amount of cold shouldering will turn
them off. Each has tale of some vast Influence
which he can command in moment, and each his
seven volumes [vials] of woe, and poverty, and
ruin, which he will pour into every ear that he
can grip by fair means or by FOUL
The Examiner estimates that at least
5OO,0 men are now engaged in this unscru-
pulous conflict for the plums Of office-"this
grand exhibition of shameless greed" To
General PIERCE, the writer adds, it must bring
tfa peculiar and personal sorrow:'
..We repeat, this preponderance of place-hunters
over places, BODIES i'll Tor the comfort of the new
administration. 1t will require all of the Presi-
dents good sense and resolution to award the
Offices in his gift as to keep our oyergrown or
ganization together. The only safe rule he can
adopt is, to aim at pleasing the country, and not
the ofice-seekers, by his appointments. He must
make enemies among the last, do what he will.''
However unpalatable these remarks may be
to those whom they Immediately affect, we can
not doubt that the good men Of all parties will
concur in the hope expressed by the Eramiser
that our countrymen will at no distant day look
.'to more manly and profitable sources Of emol-
ument," instead Of "toadying to power for the
sake of places"
"That five hundred thousand men-and the
number Of those seeking Office at this hour from.
the new administration cannot be reckoned iess-1
are resting their oars. deserving whatever hon-
eat pursuits they have hitherto had, and seeking