The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1855-08-23
THE REMOVAL OF GOVERNOR REEDER.
PITTSBURGH, Aug. IL, 1855.

| ITTSbokoH, aug IL, 1000.
To the Editor Of the National Era:
| Your editorial, in last Thursdays Era, emit
tied, =" Governor Reeder Removed" takes the
true view of the question it discusses; aud it is
the only article that l have anywhere seen, on
the subject, which my judgment wholly ap-
proves.
Governor Reeder has ever been friend of
the Slave Power; and it would be simply ridicu-
lous to make out of him, now, a martyr in the
cause of Freedom. The writer of this knows
him and his history. His conduct, in Kansas
has been the instructive result of his imbecility
and want of will. He belongs to the servile
order of grovelling, ward politicians, pursuing
Their little objects, with their narrow views, and
with their selfish ends, and incapable of any
thing else. Why may not the truth of the
matter be spoken out at once? Could an en-
larged, national, philanthropic idea, by any
possibility, find entrance into his Uranium, it
would crack it, most certainly. If the Admin
lStratlon erred in removing him, their greater
ana primary error was in appointing him. For,
unoer any circumstances, whatever may have
been his views on the one great all-absorbing
question, he was, in all respects, too weak for
such an office. His incompetency for wrestling
with the difficulties surrounding that appoint
ment was, from the first, notorious to all who
had ever properly known the man. And the
iamentable lndeterminateness and indecision of
his administration (if the confused chaos of
Kansas affairs can be said to have been admin
istered at ally must now, one would suppose,
be patent to tho whole country.
The decided exercise of power, however ap-
Piled, If 1t does not always command absolute
respect, at least never fails to secure it from
contempt. Readers conduct, barren utterly Of
any product of the former, seems to have
dad oh bar of h. otko
His object, from the beginning, so far as he
was capable of an object, was, first, the eclat
and consequence of the office; and, next, the
using of it for the purpose of speculation.
This is in the order of his instincts, aspirations,
and training, political, social, and moral-this,
from the school to which he belongs, by nature
and breeding.
Nothing can exhibit the feebleness and in
competency Of the Pierce Administration more
conspicuously than the appointment of such
man as Reeder to such place, under such cir
cumstances. He was too insignificant to know
how to be at once their tool and to serve his
own purpose-not too proud, or too honest.
How Insignificant must the Administration be,
not to have known this before his appointment.
God forbid that this insigni6cance should be
considered valid claim to the heros crown of
martyrdom. The country's sense of heroism
must have become sadly blunted, to mistake
men thus moulded, for heroes.
AS for his nominated successor, Dawson, it
is said that he will not accept. If he does, he
too will be found untitled for the emergency
Although he has more pretension, decision,
selfrespect, and much more collectedness of
manner, than Reeder, and is therefore external
ly more imposing, he has in reality, if any
thing, less intelligence and less of real intellect
and belongs to the same order of politicians.
Whoever is to be the Governor of Kansas,
whether Dawson or some one else, your present
correspondent joins with you heartily in the
hope that his course may be decided that what
ever he intends to do, he may do with WILL"
and that there may be no longer any halfway
or facing-both ways policy" in the present Kan
sas crisis. Yours, &C., KY.