The weekly Placer herald., 1854-05-20
From the Washington Union.
The Administration i'm Califor-
mia.

TdHCISCO, OF the ISL March, comments
with much severity upon the proceedings
of portion of the Democrats at dinner
recently given ostensibly for the purpose
of complimenting Gen. Wool and Ex-
Governor Foote, in that city. The s.ric-
lures of the Times are provoked by the
fact that meeting-a festival-had for
the avowed purpose of doing honor to two
distinguished gentlemen, was converted
into an occasion for making violent on
slaughter upon the present administration,
and of advancing the aspirations Of par
ticular candidate for the Unitnd States
Senate. A writer in that paper speaks
of the demonstration as exhibiting 'sno-
thing but vituperation and denunciations
against the Democratic President of the
United States" He proceeds to COM
ment as follows:
"What were the denunciations of the
President founded upon? What has that
functionary done to merit them? Do these
denunciations, these abuses of better men
than themselves; these men who set
themselves up as the pure, uncontaminat-
ed democracy; these men whose rule
would RUN any parry; who, be it deeply
regretted, cannot see themselves as others
see them, (for that would impel self
denuncation;) do these men, ask, base
their denunciations, with which they have
rendered the midnight air hideous, upon
any conduct of the President violative of
the principles of the Democratic party
or the Baltimore platform? No, they
dare not; for every act Of the President,
since his Inauguration, would stamp their
assertion with base and malignant false
hood. Is there one word, one letter of
the Democratic platform the President
has violated or desecrated? This cable
of disappointed office-seekers cannot par
ticularize one. Why, then, should our
Small men sometimes attempt to make
much of themselves by abusing greater
men.
"Our merchants-aye, our citizens gen.
erally-have expressed great surprise at
such proceedings; and, indeed, the meet
ing has excited almost universal indigna-
ton amongst respectable citizens.
"Our foreign-born citizens, to whom
the President has been endeared by his
bold and just protection of their rights in
the kosta affair, have looked with mingled
amazement and Indignation at the pro-
ceedings. And well may they-not
thoroughly understanding the secret
character of the assembly,"
The Times closes an article full of in
dignant comments with the following
strong language:
"Let the voice of those constituents
continue to be heard as it has already been
uttered from the hills and the valleys, and
laf por,nit fo on
politicians to brand the name of traitor
upon the Democracy of our State. The
high duties we-owe to the Union, to our
selves, and to those who are to succeed us
in the State, the justice which demands
of the public servant adherence to the
pledges he made when a candidate, and
the respect we owe to the constitution and
laws of our beloved State-all call upon
us to stand up for the rights and to teach
the deserter, the apostate, and the traitor
that an abused trust is understood by the
masses of the people to be the height of
human turptude."
From these Indications it would seem
that much excitement and much dissension
exists amongst the Democracy in Califor
MIA. This will be learned with deep re-
gret by every Democrat. We had hoped
that the lessons taught in some Of the
Atlantic States would at least have fore
warned onr friends on the Pacific against
similar disasters there. 1t seems, how
ever, that faction is doing its work in
California, as it has done it everywhere
when Democrats have allowed personal
ambition and personal dsappointments
to interfere with their party fealty and
party organizations. 1t has been the lot of
President Pierce to encounter an unprece-
dented amount of hostility arising from
the disappontments of personal ambition.
He has planted himself firmly upon the
Baltimore platform; and, in the faithful
discharge of his duty to his country and
his party, he has bravely defied the as
saults of faction, and trusted for his vim
dicaton to the unbiased judgment of the
patriotic masses. The denunciatons of
malcontents in California will be as impo-
potent in influencing his settled policy as
they have been in other States. They
may result in dividing and defeating our
party in California, as they have done in
New York, but the President will be ulti-
mately sustained in triumph by the voice
of the Democratic masses.
We have no reason to believe for
momenttha Gen. Wool sympathlzed with
the proceedings so severely condemned
by the Times; nor do we suppose that
such movement would be likely to ad-
vance the prospects of any candidate for
Senator in a State in which devotion to