The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1853-05-11

(coaaEsroxDsxcs OF THE RspusLlo.]


gentleman-who, but the day before it's announce
ment, was enthusiastically pleased with the dis
elimination the President has manifested in the
selection Of recipients ohis avor-to his utter want
ofjudgmen. his incurable fogyism, his ingratitude,
to the certainty that his Administration is very
shortly to prove dead failure, &c., &c. Indeed,
no turn o IA kaleidoscope ever presented more
wonderful sudden change to the vision of the be-
holder than has Meriwether's selection to the
mental optics of those who fancy that it is to end
in their own disappointment.
The key to all this is found in the fact that the
Administration having dealt most literally by the
faithful in Kentucky heretofore, it was taken for
granted that her Democrats, anxious TO serve their
country, were to have but one more fat place be-
tween them, as it were. So the struggle for that
has been animated beyond description. With the
exception OF Colonel NJ, NO other veteran wac pre-
sented from that State, unless Colonel " Free Tom
Moore" presented himself, from an nvetcrate habit
he has. Thus. all the many previous Kentucky
appointments were made from her young Democ-
racy-young in years, and consequently in
vice in the Democratic cause, if not &c Young
Americans" TO the extent of making dire war on
all the members Of their party, out of we'll az in
the limits of their State who had earned the partys
confidence and favor by lifetime of Democrat tic
duty performed Their success brought upon the
President an avalanche of applications from young
Kentuck ans for all sorts of paces-from full mis-
sions down to the latest consulships.
This motley collection embraced more than one
young gentleman of very fair promise indeed.
But it is not unjust to them to write that on the
whole, they were much like Jeremiah's figs-the
good being every good, the bad too bad to give
the pigs" They drummed men hardly ever
a hoEo hat
of that Young Americanish confidence in them
selves which fancies that all the world conceives
their peculiar pin to be worth far more than the
experience, judgment. and reliability which natu-
rally result from ripe years spent in public life
The President and Cabinet, however, proved to be
insensible to the force of their grandiloquent
arguments to demonstrate the propriety of giving
all the Kentucky veterans the goby. They real.
lied that, for the governorship of New Mexico,
if they would avoid troubles with Mexico
proper, gentleman must be selected who may be
relied on invariably to think twice before acting
or speaking in any contingency of Importance,
who has had experience far west of the settlements
and whose attributes such as to render it GER
tain that association with him would favorably
impress the Mexican and civilized Indian popula.
ton of the Territory towards the Government,
people and institutions Of the United States.
They saw, too, that they could not do a more dan.
gerous thing than to send out in that capacity,
some gentleman filled with the belief that he ha g
but to "cut rusties' there time or two, to be.
come the most famous man in all America. So,
to compass the desirable ends we'll as to avoid the
dreaded possibilities, Colonel Meriwether was Sc
lected. The clever old gentleman will doubtless
manage matters in that quarter in hum drum
way; yet he will get Va into no trouble there,
that's certain, for which the Lord be thanked in
advance. Our young Kentucky friends have
buoyant spirits, and the world before them, bidding
fair, most of them, to be able to present weigh.
tier claims to preferment at each succeeding
division of the loaves and fishes for twenty years
to come. So it ia to be hoped that they will
phlosophically pocket the loss of their time since
the fourth Of March last, pay their hotel bllls and
return to the work of manfully striving prevent
in after years. a record like that of Colonel Meri-
weather on which to ask Office.
At length the accounting officers OF the Treasury
able to estimate what is to be about the aggre-
gate of the cost of the law granting extra pay to
all those in the naval service Of the United States
who served on the Pacific station during the Next
can war. When the measure was frat proposed,
with the usual hourishes over the duty of being
liberal to the defenders of our country's flag, and
all that sort OF thing, 1t was protested that $780,
900 would cover every possible claim to arise under
il. But public spirited members objected to grant
ing such favors to those officers and men only
who had served on shore in California; contendng
that those remaining on shipboa I'd were equally
gallant, &c, sc. So, to get votes enough to car
ry the bill through, it was amended SO al to in
cIude all who had only crused off California in
those times, living off the Government, when the
latter-not themselves-had to pay for much of
their living the enormous prices of California, as
well as those who, being shore, were more or
less compelled to pay these prices out of their in
dividual pockets. To the latter ths law simply
rendered meagre justice. In extending it to the
former, honorable members of Congress bled the
Treasury to the tune of some two millions seven
hundred thousand dollars in order to make ca ptal
for themselves with their respective constituent
cies-the aggregate of the claims of those who
were not compelled to spend dollar extra by
being employed on the Pacific side, amounting to
about that enormous sum above and beyond the
three hundred thousand required to accord to all
who ,cere mulct there in heavy extra expenses, as
above explained. A useful lesson concerning
humbug legislation and humbug Legislators may
be drawn from the facts which here narrate
Lieutenant Whipple, of the Typographical En-.
gineers, is to command the Pacific Railroad Sur
veying Expedition next to be sent forth, startip G
probably from Fort Smith, Arkansas. Lieutenant
Williamson, of the same corps, will follow
him with similar expedition, though it has not
been determined from what particular point his
party will strike for the far West. On the Pa
cidc eide, Lieutenant Gunnison, also of the To-
biographical Engneers-who by the by served with
Captain Salisbury on that gentleman's Salt Lake
expedition-will Command the first party going
forth. He will run line from San Francisco,
probably by Benecia, down the San Joaquin val
ley, and through Walkers Pass to the Colorado Of
California; coming no further east than that river
So it will be perceived that the War Department
il bending its energies to be enabled to present
Congress soon as possible with flood of light
relative to the practicabity of the proposed road
and the relative merits of all possible routes.
The local (Washington) hive was in another
terrible ferment yesterday, over rumor that Mr..
Francis j. Brooks, who had the temerity to bet
SCOTS election, had actually been appointed by
Lieutenant Meigs to the general (subordinate)
superintendence of the work on "the extension of
the CAPITOL" at $4,000 per annum. So grave an
offence against the received doc trine of the day,
was of course sufficient to cause the hive to
1t turns out, however, that this ia mistake, Mr..
Brooks being merely retained on the work at his
old SO 80 per diem salary. He ia now employed
a. the "time. keeper" for the hands working on
the building directly for the Government by days