The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1855-11-29

adviser-and confined himself to instructing
his subordinate how to conduct his case no ex-
ceptions could have been taken to his letters,
and they probably necer acould hare been pub
hshed. But he went much beyond this. I'm
putations upon the honor denias of the good
faith, OF the British Government are the staple
OF the correspondence, and the letters are writ
ten much more in the style of Secretary of
State seeking to open the eyes of diplomat to
the assumed bad faith of the Government near
which he is placed, than that of an Attorney
General to District Attorney en- the mode of
prosecuting an individual for violation of the
laws.
Mr.. Cushing couples himself with this Gov
ernment," tells his correspondent what this
Government " has done, and how the British
Government has responded-matters that the
Attorney General had nothing to do with, and
which had no bearing upon the mere legal con-
duct OF the case in hand, and then volunteers
most unwarrantable and insulting Interpretation
OF the language Of Lord Clarendon, which on
any fair Interpretation, such as one gentleman
would give to the words of another, meant that
the agents had been strictly enjoined not to do
anything toward enistng men that would be in
conflict with the laws of the Union. And this
gratuitous imputaton Of bad faith is the more
objectionable, because the Attorney General
conpanied by expressions of regret at the cir
cumstances complained of, and peremptory
prohibition of any further enlistments in any of
the North American provinces. We respect
fully submit that, under similar circumstances,
any friendly Government would naturally take
cognizance of such an uniustifable imputation
upon its honor and good faith, made by mem
Der of the Cabinet, writing as a member of the
Cabinet, and cOnsenting, if not originally in
tending, to have that imputation published to
the world.
1t is not, however, to this bearing of the SUBJ
ject that we designed to call attention, but to
one OF more practical importance and of more
domestic character. We refer to the growing
disposition of subordinates to usurp authority
and power. We see it everywhere-in corpora
tons, in the Judiciary, and even in the Federal
Administration. Mr.. Cushing is an illustration
of the latter In lieu of the President, he under
took the " crushing out" of political opponents
In the stead Of the Judges of the Supreme Court
of the United States he volunteered an opinion
upon one OF the gravest questions affecting the
Union; and next he seized upon a question I'M
deniably within the province of the President
and the Secretary of State alone, expatiates upon
it to a District Attorney, and had his views
and interpretations of it promulgated through
the country and to the world, as though it was
his province to decide &c cdttedr0 upon an issue
raised between the two Governments. At this
rate, the questions of the day will soon be, Have
we President among us ? Is there Secretary
of State? And if So who are they? Is the At
torney General one, and Mr.. Caleb Cushing the
other? And with increased impetus we shall
be driven to that undesirable state Of things, in
which the President will be a mere distributor
of patronage; and the most adventurous and
INSCRIPTIONS members of his Cabinet will be-
come the acting but irresponsible President.
We are of opinion that progress in that direc-
ton for the last few years has been rapid
enough and shall not be conserving parties TO
any acceleration of the speed.