Washington sentinel. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1855, 1853-11-03
THE INAUGURAL versus TREASURY
CIRCULARS.
THE PRESIDENT versus THE SEC
A

CIRCULARS.
THE PRESIDENT versus III SEC.
RETARY.
We have been sometimes tainted for our OBJ
~iections to the recent circular of Mr.. Guthrie,
and charged with opposition to the Presidents
policy on that account. Mr.. Guthrie, himself,
sustains his policy upon the inaugural, and the
Baltimore platform, and attempts to give cur
rency to his unfortunate exposition, by claiming
that it sanctions and endorses the principles en-
bodied in these much admired standards of the
party.
We propose to show that this defence of the
secretary, is too thin a veil to hide the deformi.
ties of his Policy-and that he has taken a new
departure, which we must condemn and oppose.
ifw sanction and approve the inaugural ofthe
President.
The secretary announces, as the starting point
of his remarkably illogical production, a propo-
sition which no one denies, and which none
more warmly admit than Judge Bronson, that
the Baltimore platform and the policy intimated
in the inaugural are recognized by the admin.
~istration as an unit. Whether it was intended
that every person who accepted Office under it
should stand pledged to the same principles
and policy, is a matter which, while somewhat
more broadly than we have before seen, laying
down the principle Of party patronage, we are
not disposed to deny, since there is no question
that Bronson, Dickinson and others cordially
sustain them. "
But the next proposition is rather an extra.
ordinary step in the argument of the Secretary.
1t is, that "all democrats who joined in up
holding and carrying ont the same" 1.-THE prin.
oiples avowed as the platform of the party at
B%altimore) "were entitled to be recognised as
worthy ofthe confidence of the united party, and
consequently eligible to official station" Again,
he states the same remark thus 81 call your
attention to this subject, and to the fact that
the President and his cabinet, with entire unan-
Unity, recognise that portion of the party as
democrats, distinctly avowing and firmly main
tanning the principles Of the Baltimore plat
form, and entitled to be recognised by appoint
ment to official stations in your department.
ALLOW me to express the expectation that you
will so recognise them in the only way that will
carry conviction with it." He also speaks of
the other portion Of the party" feeling " that
they have not been fully recognised by YOU
&c.
Now, what means this not very graceful,
but quite Ineligible, string of diplomatic
phrases?
We educe these propositions from the Ian
guage of the secretary. That those who
united in the contest of 1852 in raising Gen.
Pierce to the presidency, upon the Baltimore
platform, were worthy Of, and eligible to office
that they were entitled to be SO recognised by
appointments to official station and that so
strong was their TITLE to a share in the dis
tribution of Office, as to call for an expectation
from the Secretary, that their recognition by
Judge Bronson should be so emphatic as to
carry conviction with it!
Now do the annals Of the government afford
a parallel to this series Of propositions? To
reduce the glorious struggle of 1852 to a
contest between sections for the spoils of off,
cial station!!-to declare a platform of princi-
pies to have been only the written terms of a
fair division of the spoils Ito degrade the pa
triotic motives Of the masses, who rushed to
our standard and its gallant bearer, by pro-
claiming the cement of our united party to have
been the cohesive power Of the public plum
der!!'-and this from q member O fthat admin
i~stration which owes its elevation to objects
higher than personal aggrandizement, achich
care direction and energy to the e~rertions of
those masses to whom General Pierce alone
acknowledged his obligations, but which his
secretary seems so reluctant or unwilling to APP
preciatei
We turn from the secretary to his chief,
whose noble language we have quoted in the
last sentence.
What says the inaugural upon this point ?
When the secretary asserts a title-d claim TO
office, on the part Of those whom he represents,
what is the answer Of Franklin Pierce? When
the former declares certain ~favorites as " enti.
tied TO De recognized by appointment to official
stations" listen TO the inaugural-"A CLAIM TO
OFFICE IS WHAT THE PEOPLE OF A REPUBLIC
SHOULD NEVER RECOGNIZE
When the secretary says that the President
and his cabinet recognize :" the other portion Of
the party as entitled to be SO recognized in ap.
pointments, and expresses the expectation that
they shall be SO recognized as to carry convic.
tion to them Of the Presidents acknowledg.
ments Of their title and claim; what response
does the new President give to this extraordi.
nary assertion?
occupancy can confer no prerogative, nor
lmportunate desire for Office any claim, the public
Interest imperatively demands that they be consid-
cred tc'th sole reference 10 the duties to Be, Performed.
" Having no implied engagements 10
!" 'afYy no reUards 10 best0,e, no resentments TO