Volcano weekly ledger., 1856-07-05
Office Seekers.

who steal the livery of Heaven to serve
the Devil in" This is true of the hypocrite
In whatever station of life he may be found !;
but if there is any particular class deserving
of distinction in this respect, the legion of
sordid ofIice-seekers and bloated pap-suckers
that infest the land will carry off the palm
with the odds to come-and-go upon. They
are dead weight upon the body polite
they are the pests of society, the fomenters
of political and sectional strife, the vultures
that feed upon the carcass of diseased gov
eminent, the stink-pots that scatter dire dis
ease and dangerous contagion among the peo-
plo They are evolves in sleeps clothing"
preaching meekness and honesty, but practi-
cling deception and daring villainy. On their
lips are the words and professions of all that
but their hearts are black with craven selfish
ness, and their very souls callous with the
embers of burned and banished conscience
With their tongues they are proclaiming
sound doctrine to the people, but with their
hands they are vigorously at work in the
fiesh-pots. They preach well, and with
zeal that would do honor to better cause;
but they feed and fatten upon the public
purse, and chuckle to themselves that they
are smart" and the people fools" They
ore prohgate of profession, but sparing OF
performance. They are professedly honest
and sef-sacrfcing, but really selfish and
cormorants. They are dressed in the out
side robes of purity, but they clothe them
selves in livery not their own that they may
the better deceive and the more readily ac-
complish their ends.
Some may be disposed to regard this Ian
guage as too severe to be applied to the Office
seeker and the pap-sucker; but the sad history
of California, if carefully considered, will be
found to warrant all that good English can
be made to express An honorable ambition
for elevated position, whether political or
otherwise, is commendable; the man who de-
votes his time, his talents, and his energy to
the honest service of his country, is patriot,
and entitled to the admiration and gratitude
of the people; and Notwithstanding the oft
repeated "saw" that Republics are I'M
grateful, " it is seldom indeed that the faithful
public servant fails to receive princely re-
ward-the gratitude and even devotion of a
great and free people. But the profess
sonal office-seeker; the man who lays out"
to make subsistence and amass fortune by
constant drafts upon the public treasury; the
wretch who hangs about the fesh-pots like
a dead-head about rum-mill; the miserable
nonentity whose only chance of making a
living is Office, and who without it would
not raise to the dignity of respectable ven
der of peanuts on public occasions these
creatures-and they are to be found in greater
or less numbers all over the State-could
scarcely be spoken Of too harshly.
1t is enough to make the heart of an hon
est man bleed to cast his eye back, and con
template the past in California. We woult
not be sweeping in the declaration; but TO
the fact that we have always had some gooC
men in Office, the ship of state would hav
been totally wrecked long ere this; but doe
any man ask proof that California has SUI
fered from the depredations of inveterate an
never-tiring oAice-seekers, whose only aim wa
to put money in their pockets? Why, thes
blood-suckers have swarmed from before tn
adoption of the constitution to the presen
day like the locusts in Egypt, or like tn
grasshoppers that have more than once a
tackled and destroyed every vestige of veg,
tation in portions of our own beautiful an
fertile valleys. Does any man ask proof 2
If he will not consult the past, let him the
look at the present-behold the State in O
nproar with revolution and civil war threa
ening us at every pointl
The worst is rapidly coming to the wors
and there is but one way to avoid utter rui
An ele,, tion is approaching people mu
choke off political cormorants and prof
sional politicians If there ever was til
when Cincinnat.rs should be called from
n,ough il is now. Good men can be fou
among the people-good men Tor all the o