The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1853-03-24

TEE ADMINISTRATION AND The NEW YoRx AP
roNrxHSrs.-The delay in the appointment Of
Collector, Postmaster, o sub-Treamrer,
Navy Agent &C., for this great city, looks omi-
nous. It may all be well enough for the hotel
keepers at Washington. that the various candi-
dates and their squads of wire-workers should
there be detained, in state Of painful anxiety,
from one weeks end to another; but their case
reminds us of the frogs in the fable-"this may
be sport to you but it is death to u.s." And
then the suspense-what an awful thing it is to
be detained in such q condition of suspense, as
well as expense! These considerations must have
suggested themselves to the cabinet two or
three weeks ago; but still the appointments are
held back. Can there be such thing as con-
spracy between the cabinet and the hotel keep
ers to detain our Office seekers at Washington
Hardly possible.
suspense-are deep seated, serious perplexing,
and extraordinary. The appointment of VIM. L.
Marcy to the first post in the cabinet-the candi-
date of the softshells the ally Of the Van Burens,
the deserter from the hunkers, and the special
and implacable enemy of Daniel S. Dickinson--is
the first difficulty. 1t makes large concession
of the local Offices of New York, city and State,
to the hard shells, a sine qua non to the demo-
cratic harmony. And there lies the next diff
Guilty; for the soft shells unquestionably hold
large controlling majority Of the party in this
State. and are clamorous for all the standing
dishes, entrees, and cold meats, to the entire
exclusion Of the hard shells. Naturally enough,
however, the hard shells are not disposed to
submit to such a monopoly. They point to
Marcy, to Van Buren, and the Buffalo platform,
to the defeat of General Cass, and claim an
hereditary right to the spoils. Above all, they
claim the Collector-they must have the Collec-
tor, or they threaten rebellion. And that is
the third difficulty, and the greatest of oil.
Who can be appointed Collector without excl
ting rebellion?
This is a problem Of the highest Importance
the very highest-no mistake about it. Only
look at it. If we have rebellion among the
New York democracy, we may expect another
split; and split here may work out split in
the cabinet-a split in Congress, and a split all
over the country. And what, then, becomes Of
democratic progress, expansion, and : manifest
destiny ~ We ask what becomes of them?
Nay. we go further. What becomes of the
Union and the constitution, if, by an unwise Sc
lection Of the Collector, ub-Treasurer Postmas-
ter Navy Agent &C., Of New York. the demo-
cratic party should be rent in twain. With all
the North chuck full Of Uncle Toms Cabin ram
pant abolitionism, it needs only a rupture in
the rank and file of the unterrifed demo-
horse of Seward and his Greek allies and mer-
cenaries into the very citadel of the Union.
Here, then. we see the patriotism which has
been guiding the cabinet in their delay with
our New York appointments. The harmony Of
the democratic party-the Union, the constitu-
ton, the perpetuity of the blessed institutions
cemented together by the blood Of our fathers,
are involved in these comfortable sops Of the
spoils. Roast turkeys and stewed oysters lie at
the very foundation Of the democratic platform
What we should like to know, what are political
charlottesville is democracy, what is the
party. the administration. and what are soft
shells or hard shells, without the oysters. the
turkeys, the roast beef and the plum pudding,
tho appropriated spoils, and the pickings and
stealngs of the treasury! They are nothing
Patriotism may be chameleon, but it can't
live on air. Even Jenny Lind,-the angcl-was
partial to bacon and cabbage The gist of the
matter. then is, that to the victors belong the
spoils'-that they must be judicio1sly divided
or there will be a row-that political parties
are kept together by the cohesive power of
the public plunder;" and hence the solution of
the delay, and the difficulties of our New York
appointments. And when we further consider
that the selection of inveterate hard shell for
Collector, or an impracticable soft she'll, may
break up the party, and thus put stop to the
progressive spirit Of the age, and bring into
jeopardy the harmony of the Union, we can only
applaud the deliberate caution which. in this
respect. has characterized the administration.
In view Of all these considerations, then, we can
well afford to be patient, and wait a little long
er. And if the funds, meantime, of our various
applicants at Washington should run short, is
there no relief in the coal hole Of Tammany
Hall The mountain is rumbing. Let us look
sharp and keep cool.
THE IsTHMrs OF DARIEN SHIP CANAL-We
published recently some interesting facts illus
tratiyc of the entire feasibility of shin canal of