The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1856-03-23

HE Pslasacel Csnvsntaon systcuA-vvhat Has
at Dones
1t has raised up power between the consti-
tuition and the people utterly subversive of the
spirit Of the one and Of the rights of the other.
II has substituted the decisions of iutri guiEg
politicians in the place of the unbiased jsdg-
ment Of the nation.
It hes paralyzed and discouraged all high
disinterested public sentiment, making petty
management its chief qualification for political
preferment, and closing the door against pa
triotism, statesmanship and personal indepen-
dence.
1t has offered the highest rewards of the ma
ton to him who would most successfully con-
ceal his real opinions before the election, and
most shanelseay disregard them after.
1t has closed the executive Office against
true merit, and filed public places, At home
and abroad, with incompetent men, who re-
ceive their appointments as q reward Of part-
ian services.
1t has substantially transferred from the
President to Senators and members of Con
gress the whole appointing power, even drag
ging the national judiciary into the vortex OF
its usurpations and subjecting it to the de-
graded standard of its morals.
1t has generated responsibility and reck-
lessness in the national legislature, increased
our expenditures demoralized public agents,
squandered the public money, degraded the
government, and weakened the bonds Of the
federal Union.
1t has peneioned the press and raised up,
through its instrumentality, venal public
sentiment destructive alike of the integrity OF
the general administration and the harmony
and we'll being of the republic.
1t has given power to men without political
virtue or patriotism, who, failing to accom-
plish their own ambitious ends have
become traitors to their country, seek
ing it's overthrow, as punishment for their
imaginary grievances. For this purpose they
have sown the seeds of sectional bitter
ness, arrayed the North against the South,
and filled the nation with wranglings, conten-
lions and strifes.
1t has yearly thrown off masses of political
debris from various party organizations, and
these have been collected aud reformed into
cliques and cabals, even so far that it is doubt
full if there is honest public sentiment enough
to save the Union from disruption and an
archy.
It has raised up everywhere in the nation
combinations Of mercenary spectators and
sleight of hand political gamblers, who have
quartered themselves on the public treasur;
and fattened on the earnings of the people.
1t has legalized robbery by boldly proclaim
ipg that to the victors belong the spoils of
the vanquished'-a license which has been re-
ceived as warrant for every species of pecu-
lation and knayery, as is shown by the fright
full increase of the public burdens without any
corresponding necessity.
1t has annually augmented the expenditarce
Of the treasury from twenty to sixty millions
of dollars, without materially enlarging the
army or navy, leaving our seaboard defence
lees, our barbors in ruins, or commerce neg
lected, our frontiers devastated by Indian wars,
our postal service insufficient and insecure, our
interests abroad paralyzed, and our confidence
in the public administration impaired, if not
wholly lost. 1t has discredited the democratic
principles which lay at the foundation of the
republic, insomuch that large numbers seri-
ously deny the right of the people to govern
themselves, and seek to establish the relations
Of sovereign and subject between the States
and the Territories-a legitimate fruit of the
of conventions to control and bind
the masses in filling the public offices.
1t has constructed platforms and compro-
misses, withdrawing attention from the constita
ton, the only chart to be recognized in our Pc
litical navigation, until the wisest heads in the
country have become bewildered by the laby
rinths into which we have been drawn, creatin
such conflicting attractions that the SHY
compass will hardly traverse, and the stoutest
heart trembles with fear.
It hes sought the rejection of Texas and
California from the federal Union, throwiog
its whole power into the balance against those
projects, and was defeated only by the sponta
neous rising of the people and the rejection Of
Mr. Van Buren, and his associates in 1874.
1t has prevented the people of the United
States from adopting, at an earlier day, t.;
principles of free trade, and thus subjected the
great producing classes to an onerous tax for
many years, collected for the benefit Of spe-
cial branches of American industry.
1t has degraded our diplomatic service l.
reducing it to system Of compensation" .
bit of white stone here, and bit Of black
stone there'-a mere foom to carry off the
waste funds ofthe people rewards bestowed for
services rendered in the canvass and not for
duties performed by our representatives abroad
AN evil which pervades the whole public
administration.
1t has given special prominence and power
to political sgitators, fanatics and traitors,
and has built up temples of idolatry, in which
Niger WORSHIP has become frightful ele-
ment of disturbance and of political acc'sl
and religious Generalization.
II has converted o system of government