The Placer herald., 1857-01-17
AUBURN, JANUARY II, 1857.
The State Journal and james o'neiN.

to answer for; we shall be fouting, we cannot
hold."-TOuchsfone.
In our last issue, after stating the vote in
the Democratic Caucus on the first ballot
for the long term in the U. S. Senate, we
made the following COMMENT
"If James O'Neil has his carpet bag with him,
we can assure him that his speedy migration to
the Territory of President Walker, would be agree
able intelligence to the constituency he has so
basely deceived"
This, under all the circumstances, was the
mildest remark we could make, and as one
kick is as much as gentleman usually be-
slows upon a cur, we did not purpose revert
ing to the subject again in connection with
the conduct Of the Han. james o'neiH.
The State Journal of the 10Th inst, how
ever, undertakes to defend the course of this
member from Placer, and at the same time
to give to the Herald, what The editor (the
funny bug,) terms, "the benefit of a first rate
notice."
The Journal is widely known in California.
1t has a notoriety for toad eating and pap
hunting, to say nothing of out and out lying,
that renders it impotent as a party press,
but which acts as an antidote to the poison of
its foul saliva with those who have been read
ers Of it for any length of time. AS the pub
lie at large is composed in part of persons
who may not have been long residents of the
State, justice to this community and to our
selves, demands that we should state the
facts of the case, and leave the mooted ques-
tions for their unbiased judgment.
The Journal says that we are disposed to
censure and condemn the highly honorable
and patriotic y course which the Hon. james
oneiU, saw proper to pursue in the Senate
rial contest for the long term" Sagacous
man, he came near the mark And further,
the Journal is mot disposed to enter into a
war of words with this influential and i'm
portant organ" 0he reader must know that
although there is truth in this allusion to our
standing, yet that this Journal man, meaneth
it tironically) "but justice to the gentleman de-
nounced, authorises our alluding to its dis
position to assail the character and traduce
the motives of one who in the recent contest
in Placer county added so much to the VIC
tory we achieved despite the efforts of the
journal mentioned"
Now let us see how much the Hon! james
o'aeiU added to the victory, "in the recent
contest" The first time he came before the
people for Office was in 1853, and he then
ran behind his party ticket l4l votes His
conduct during the session of '54 was not
such as to render him popular as we shall
point out, and as matter of course, he was
obliged to beg his way into the nominating
Convention of 1856. When the votes were
counted out, he is found to be $50 behind
the rest of the Assemblymen, and $40 votes
behind the electoral ticket of his party The
truth is this modern Colossus, always required
the hardest and most unremitting boosting
to keep his head above water.
Then how much of this victory did "we,"
of the State Journal "ach,eye" During the
canvass, it was our fortune to meet in debate
at Ilinoistown, in this county, a couple of
gentlemen of the Black Republican school of
politics, and in the discussion, these gentle
men quoted in support of their position, long
extracts from the Democratic! State Journal
of 1854. We ewere appealed to, as to whether
it was good authority upon the Kansas Ne
braska question, and were forced in shame
to repudiate the democracy of the Journal of
that year, as the people did the candidates
which it then supported. 1t is but just to
the gentleman, who as we understand it, is
now the editor, was not then in that office,
but was engaged as the writer for the San
joaquin Republican, and was heart and soul
opposed to the movements of Mr.. Broderick
and his friends, fighting them might and main.
The tardy and grudging support the paper
gave to the Democratic State nominees, of
1856, is fact too recent and notorious to
need further than this alusion at this time
So far as our observation has gone during
"the recent contest" it was source of uni
versal regret among the Democrats of this
county, that there was not an organ of the
party, published at the Capitol, worthy of
their support. Among those who expressed
a desire for "a decent leading journal" of
that description, the editor may class his
protoge, the Hon! james o'neiN. That this
estimation of the journal prevailed here, is
shown by tie fact, that although this county
went 800 democratic in November, yet there
were fewer copies of that paper in circulation
here than the Union, California american,
or Times.