Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1857-06-27
DISTRIBUTION OF PUBLIC PATRONAGE.

tlon have decided, in conformity with what is pro-
nounced the orthodox faith of the party spite of
Its numerous dissentients that the distribution of
the public lands or of their proceeds among the
several States is equally unconstitutional and i'm
poltc. 1t is deemed sufficient with some to deter
mine the lnadmissible character of such species
OF distribution when it is pronounced can old
wing measure, and therefore to be rejected by all
VINO seek to preserve unimpaired or unsuspected
the party consistency which forms SO indispensable
trait In the portraiture of every true Democrat.
lnveterate, however, as may be the Democratic
prejudice against distribution in this sphere of our
national politics, it is evident that there is another
species OF distribution In quite different sphere
to which none but very few of the party have
thus far Ventured to take any exception. We AL
Jude to the " distribution of the public Offices
question to which we have before adyerted. but
which is SO repeatedly thrust upon our unwilling
attention by the developments of our contemporary
politics and by the disclosures of the pubic press
that as faithful chronclers of the times we find
ourselves frequently called upon to animadvert on
its disagreeable manifestations.
For instance, we have lately seen in the columns
of the Administration press a tabular statement,
formally and deliberately drawn up, of the relative
value In dollars and cents of the public patronage
dispensed by Mr. BUCHANAN to citizens of the
States which voted for and those which voted
against him at the last election, from which exhibit
the startling fact is deduced that the Democrats re-
siding in Black Republican States" have actually
secured slightly larger share of the pecuniary
emoluments in the Presidents gift than has fallen
to the lot of Democrats more eligiby located in the
midst of communities where the services rendered
to the party proved more successful And it was
on Monday announced in the columns of one of our
Baltimore contemporaries, on the authority of
likely to be well informed of the mo-
tives of the ADMINISTRATION to which he is friendly,
from the State of Maine, was rendered
order to enable the President to give the
post of ConsuGeneral in Canada to another citizen
of that State to which the writer adds, as fitting
explanation of the theory on which public offices
are nowadays distributed and of which this case
is but passing illustration, that " Maine is one of
the States which has more Federal patronage than
toO0c0 oe DUE ~ Hef eOeH " See UeTe HOt Dtuche
Republican,"
1t is positively difficult to comment on state
ment like this The principle on which it proceeds
plainly antagonistic to the true theory on which
The public offices of the country should be filed
that confesses to an irresistible repugnance
against expressing any dissent from doctrine
contrary to the most elementary precepts of poti-
cal justice and propriety. We may, however, be
able to gauge the low standard of the political hab
tudes now deemed to be established in the high
places of the land when sentiment which it would
be humiliating to confute by formal argument is
yrayey stated as the basis of Administrative action
IN the dispensation of ofices-public trusts, which,
though constitutionally in the President gift do not
IN theory belong to him nor his party, and which were
designed to subserve the convenience, prosperity,
and welfare of the country, instead of being en-
ployed as makeweights in duly adjusting the equi-
ibrum of rival partisans clamoring for their share
n the emoluments of Office.
In the days of President WASHINGTON, when
fitness and capacity for the offices of Government
were made the requisites of Executive nomination
and appointment, it was sometimes difficult to find
suitable incumbents for positions of the highest
honor and trust But in our more favored Tor less
fastidous) age of progress and general enlighten-
ment it would seem that the country blessed with
a superabundance of patriots ready to serve it,
at home or abroad in every capacity from the least
to the greatest insomuch that applications for for
eign missions have become by their number, most
to the President. A fact like this
can be explained only on the supposition that the
highest diplomatic talents have recently received
most astonishing accession in our country, or, on
he other hand that the popular conception of what
IS meant by them has undergone most sensible
hypothetical proposition which we
10 not feel particularly called upon to discuss with
view of determining which of its members pre-
'ents to our mind the greater probability of truth.
We may expect, however, to witness this periodi-
,al scramble (the word has the merit of being de-
'crptye, if not cassicaD for official patronage SO
ong as the worse than feuda doctrine on which it is
founded maintains a hold upon the retainers of
party. As under the system of feudal tenure the
baron had his fautors and servitors, so under our
present system of public patronage the relations
between those who give and those who receive the
honors and emoluments of official place would seem
o be of character equally significant of protection
granted on the one hand and dependence confessed
Al 1. . L