Washington telegraph., 1856-04-09
From the New Orleans True Delta. |
Office Hunting.

There cannot be a doubt in the mind of
any reasonable man as to the mischievous
consequences which flow from the wild
hunt after Office, characteristic of the pre-
sent age, nor can any intelligent indi-
vidual fail to perceive that to this morbid
appetite for PUBLIC station by far the great
- Proportlon of the defects of our political
system are directly, if not exclusively, at
tributable
When foreign influence is deprecated
by the Know Nothing party, and America
for the Americans becomes the ferocious
slogan before and at an election by bands
of infuriated men, it is when interpreted.
simply, and only, an energetic protest
against that political and partizan pro-
scription which excludes from office be-
cause of some real or fancied difference
of opinion, large numbers of men who,
conscious of possessing claims to equal
rights and to as incontrovertible patriot
ism as the parties preferred, many of whom
In these latter days are a disgrace to the
Offices they fill, cannot tamely OF quies-
Gently brook the exclusion, or submit to
what they regard as an insupportable in
justice
The persons who feel this grievance, as
they conceive it to be, most severely, resent
it most keenly in bitter denunciations of
foreigners, are not entirely without justif-
cation, inasmuch as they, without justice,
allege that it is not the foreign birth of an
incumbent to Office of which they have so
much reason to complain, or which so great
ly provokes their hostility, as the fact that,
in nine instances out of ten, the adopted
citizens who obtain Governmental, State
or Municipal preferment, are as destitute
of reputable character as they are of in
tellectual capacity, and are indebted for
their success. rather to the potency of their
fists and lungs at election times, than to
any proper qualification for Office they can
boast.
We do not care to demonstrate the alb
solute correctness or inaccuracy of this
allegation, as the task would be invidious
in inception and unsatisfactory in result,
for we know many adopted citizens whose
services are but poorly reqUite3 by official
remuneration, and, take them altogether,
their personal regulations viii lose moth
ing by comparison with their associates of
native birth Nevertheless, the charge is
true that inferior or positively disgraceful
appointments to Office are habitually made,
and that here in Louisiana, in the demo-
cratic party especially, for the last ten
years, the worst recommendation man
could have for an appointment, was a
good character, capacity and sound prin-
ciples.
To succeed in obtaining his place the
aspirant had to sink his manhood, his
honor, and rely upon his personal devotion
to some brazen-faced, audacious, unprinci-
pied political gambler, whose money and
shameless effrontery, in community
where office-begging has become profess
sion, are considered indispensable to sue
cess. Indeed the moral sense of the pub
/ lie has been so shocked and outraged by
the appointment of notorious scoundrels
/ to high, important, and in ameasure most
( confidential and sacred public trusts, as to
have well nigh induced the belief that our
republican system is beginning to yield to
those evil influences which in all ages
have undermined and destroyed free gov
ernment for how, it is asked, can repub-
/ lican institutions be guarded and preserved
4 BY men without intelligence, integrity or
]
That such vile instruments may adj
vance men to Congress-to the dignity OF
Ministers at Foreign Courts Judicial
station-to the Vice-Presidency-aye, or
the Presidency itself-ve are not permit
ted to doubt; for, unfortunately, base,
bad men have, in politics, a deplorable po-
tency; and yet, it is almost impossible to
imagine a suitable remedy for the evil, or
how to frame laws that viii effectually
compel reformation. 4 return to the
system which prevailed under the early
Presidents, of retaining men in Office du-
ring good behavior, and having only tit
and proper persons appointed, would, per
haps, be advisable; but, whether this be
practicable, or would prove absolutely eff
icacious, if practicable, it is hard to say ;
yet it is clear something must be done, or
our republican system viii perish by the
avalanche of corruption, wickedness and
violence, which an Unsuitable thirst for Of
fee has set in irresistible motion against
it.