Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1855-01-10
More of the Documents.

here are SO many gems" IN the congress
sonal speeches of Mr.. Wise that the chief EN-
barrassment which we feel in editing his von-
minous papers. is in making selections. Wecan-
not lay aside his briank effort on the subject Of
the defalcalons, from which we quoted largely
+ last week, without presenting ga few more" ex
tracts ''of the same sort'' His denunciation O
the Secretary of the Treasury, afterwards Judge
! Woodbury. Of the Supreme Courl, appointed by
hIr. Polk. and always burning and shining light
in The Democratic party, pervades the entire doc
ument before us. Referring to the deaulel
Boyd. who the Secretary permitted to resign
and ''to strut off with his hands full" the clear
less Tribune of the People" thus spoke:
"Such is his fate compared with that of Tobias
Watkins, to whom would beseech you again lc
90 and buy soap to clean yourselves These arc
the crying abuses, sir, the fragrant enormiries, the
damnabe outrages upon the public interests and
morals, upon my patience. which have so reused
my spirit ofttimes as to afford you and your party
grounds for representing me to be mad! Yes, sir,
J and appeal to every honest man if such mon
strous abuses are not enough to make the blood
bol-to frenzy! Would pure Secretary ever
have allowed Garesche to address him as he did
Woodburyl did not Garesche know that Wood
bury was himself corrupt, or would he, a subordl-
nate. have dared to address to him such reasons
for retaining in public trust such a taithess vii
lain7 Would CrowfDrd, or even Rush, have
been thus addressed? Would pure President
retain such Secretary. who could uDblushingly
repart such appeals to bis dishonesty in an official
communication?
''Why should not such Secretary be impeach-
ed 2 Impeach him, and | will go before that
humbled and disarmed Senate, and convict him
out Of his own mouth and the mouths of his own
minions. | will call no other witnesses will
dare the Constitutional Judges to acquit him-o-
verawed as hey are by an arrogant Executive,
they might acquit him in the face of these facts,
end in the face of the People, if they dare! Ts
read the Swartwout report, one would think
Woodbury. was astonished. astounded by detail
cations yet there are fifty cases of like character
with these of Linn. Harris. and Boyd"
Now we would enquire. en- PEASANT, if Lew
Woodbury. was the corrupt scoundrel Mr.. Wise
pronounced him to be, whether he was the right
sort Of a man to occupy seat on the bench OF the
Supreme Court? Where was Henry A. Wise
when Mr.. Polk appointed Woodbury. to that ex
allied station 4? viii it be believed that he was
sustaining the Administration of James X. Polk,
and endorsed, de .facto, the appointment o! Wood
hurry. At any rate. we never heard of his threat
ening an impeachment of the ''corrupt Secretary"
after he was clothed in the Judicial robes.
Another thing worthy of remark in this para
graph is, that Mr.. Polk and his party had once
good grounds for representing Mr.. Wise $50 be
mad,n so fierce and bitter were his assaults upon
Mr.. Polk and his party. And yet he afterwards
supported Mr.. Polk, and is even now at the head
of the Democratic party, marshaling their forces
against his former friends. A beautiful specimen
of consistency truly
But Mr.. Wise is not yet through with Secreta-
ry Woodbury. ''Sir," said he to Mr.. Polk,
elf party spirit, like fend, did not be(riend
and sustain this Secretary-pardon and white
wash his hideos deformitles and delinquencies-
blight all moral Sensibility here in this Hall and
at the White-house, he would be removed from
Office instantly, or be impeached. 60 where you
will-trace him any where, and you will find him
dull. stupid, incompetent, neglectu, faithess, and
corrupt. mince no terms-fear no responsible
ties. If he had the sensibties of man, he
would demand trial. Give me an honest jury,
and will, upon these papers, convict him."
In the concluding portion of this long and inter
estiag speech Mr.. Wise speaks in The following
complimentary terms of the Administration
"This is but an epitome of the history OF your
ourages upon the morals, the law, and liberty of
still glorious country, which you are degrading
to the bondage of a money po'cer. which you pro-
TESS 10 abhof-a country which you are running
by an absolute EGecufiUe, which you do profess to
worship! If the Fathers of the country could
now rise from their tombs and enter this their
Temple--'which should be called of all nations
the house of Liberty-what would they say 3
What was said to the money changers in the
Temple at Jerusalem-'BW yc haze made IL q
den Of thiecesp And, sir, what think you would
your chief priests and scribes say even, to them
What they have said to me: BY what authority
Goest thou these thngs?' But, sir. cannot say
of your priests and scribes as is said in Holy Writ
of the jewish They feared the peopier No,
sir, your arrogance has surpassed all fear, all
bounds of caution. 1.-THE People do not soon make
you fear them, you will be past the remedy of re-
form by their power"
But this speech from which we have hitherto
been selecting was not the only speech delivered
by Mr.. Wise in regard TO the defacations. On
Friday, December the 2Sth, he offered motion
in the House of Representatives, to print GOO
copies of certain documents in relation to the de-
iaul,ers, which gave rise to spicy debate. In
that debate Mr. Wise participated, of course; let
bo bod IN \Na IL
from the following paragraph that the present
leader OF the Democratic party in Virginia, at one
time considered the Wing party, far more honest
than the Democracy:
The gentleman from Maryland says that no
party in particular is to blame for these dealca-
lions, because deialcatious have happened under
all parties. VIII the gentleman be so good as to
tel us what party was to blame in the case of the
receiver, Linn? That man was guilty of NAL
versation the Secretary knew it, and threatened
him. then renominaied him for a new appoint
ment lie was confirmed; and, again proving in
default was warned again, and again, and again,
and, after all continued in office I'LL he finally fell
into the slough Of defalcation. Was no party to
blame for this? Or is it the villainous Wigs
that are to blame for thus rewarding public de
predatorI The gentleman, however, says that
some deiauters have been Wings and some Lo-
cofocos they have been men of all parties. an
swer, not under this administration. | ask the
gentleman to point out ONE. 1t has been said that
Swartwout was Conservative Be that as it
may, he was one Of the very greatest of all Gene
raj Jackson's favortes-he was his open, active,
calnorous advocate-and did more to effect his e.
lection to the Presidency than any other man in
the State of New York, ifnotin the United States;
and he was rewarded for it to his hearts content
Sir, the gentleman cannot show US solitary
Wing among all the deiaulting receivers at the
Western land offices. will show the gentle
man, if he will print this document, where one of