Washington sentinel. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1855, 1853-10-26
OCTOBER 26, 1853.
THE DISMISSAL OF JUDGE BRONSON.

lesleEuil we gave uiterance 10 tue iueiis
first suggested to us by Mr. Guthrie's letter dis
missing Greene c. Bronson from the collector
ship Of the port Of New York. But the subject
matter is Of such character as TO demand
further consideration and more extended com
ment, SO that justice may be done.
The whole New York matter ought TO have
been permitted to remain local quarrel. 1t
was the plain interest of the democratic party
that it should so remain. We have done oil
we could do to prevent and thwart the efforts
of those who have labored TO give it nationality.
In the very first number of the Sentinel-that
issued on the oath Of September-we stated that
we felt no disposition to become a party 70 the
contests Of rival State organizations; but that
we feared that the New York controversy would
assume degree Of national Importance which
would not permit US to remain silent with re
gard to it.
From that time to the present hour we have
done all we could properly do to prevent the
efforts which designing men have been making
to involve the great democratic party and the
great principles con6ded to its charge and
keeping with local divisions. But we have
failed in our undertaking. The questions pre-
scented by the present condition of New York
politics have been made national questions by
the efforts and intrigues Of men Of easy virtue
and loose principles. 1t is in this light, and in
this light alone, that We feel that Mr.. Guthrie
may rightfully demand justice at our hands.
although justice may be the last thing he would
wish to face.
In discharging the task which untoward cir
cumstances have forced upon us, we do not
mean that our position and purposes shall be
misunderstood or misrepresented. We will
protect ourselves from misinterpretation by
speaking plainly and boldly. Against misrep-
resentation we have no safe protection-noth-
ing better or more eficaeious than exposure
and denunciation--neither of which will ever
reach those whose minds have been poisoned.
Our enemies know this as well as we do; and
they have determined TO practice on that know
ledge.
But to return to our sheep, as the shep-
herdesses of Provence were wont to say
in times that have passed by. To return
to Mr. Guthrie and his present ludicrous
position before the country as we say now.
Mr.. Guthrie undertakes to place false issue
before the country - an issue which every
man of ordinary intelligence knows to be
false issue. He does not, in his last letter to
Judge Bronson, state the plain facts in plain
and unequivocal language. This error his fol-
lowers and satellites have made even still more
glaring and offensive 1t is not true that Judge
Bronson voluntarily and improperly interfered
in the local affairs of New York 1t is not
true that the last presidential contest involved
amnesty to traitors and malcontents. It is not
true that Mr.. Guthrie did not order Judge
Bronson to appoint freesoilers to office. 1t IS
not true that Mr.. Guthrie insisted On the dis.
missal of the New York collector because free
soilers had been appointed to Office in the Gus,
tomb ouse at New York.
Mr.. Guthries friends undertake, by unworthy
cunning and disreputabe prevarication, to make
1t appear that some if not all of these things
induced him to demand the dismissal of Judge
Bronson. The first letter of Greene c. Bron
son was written not to Mr.. Guthrie, but to the
freesoil managers that had posted him in the
public prints, as one of their leaders and sympa
thizers. That letter induced and caused Mr.
Guthrie to send his first missive to New York
and the time at which it was sent, and the man,
.ner and form of the words in which it was
couched. leave no room for doubt or mistake.
The efforts that Mr.. Guthrie has made to change
the yenue-to deny the purpose and intent OF
that letter, while acting up to it--proves that
he ia either tool in the hands of more cum
ming and designing man, or is fully impressed
with the knowledge that he has been seduced
into great and grievous blunder, which he has
not the upright and straightforward manliness
to admit and make amends for. 1t requires
more courage to confess an error than to tight
in a wrong cause; and in our short experience
we have more than once seen men willing to
face death because they had not the spirit to
face the truth.
Why did Mr.. Guthrie write to Judge Bron.
son? Why did he write on the third Of Octo-
Der? He wrote, and he wrote at the time he
going into the freesoil organization; and his
letter was intended to instruct the New York
collector to appoint regular Van Buren, free
sellers to Office. He had no other motive, no
other purpose; and no plea will avail him in
defence, but plea setting forth his own igno-
rance, stating that he knew not what he was
doing, but repeating ike parrot words that
had been put into his mouth. Itisa insult to
the publican outrage to popular intelligence
to pretend at this late day that the Treasury
department did not mean to take a part-an ac
tive part--in the New Y ork politics. The friends
of Mr.. Guthrie-those who sustain and sup
port him--the very organs through which
he speaks to the public are now announc
ing to the country that Judge Bronson was
removed because he espoused the cause O
nn.:oI n;cL;neon and nc the national demo