Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1858-09-30
WREADING- leATTER on Every PACE
sTHE PRoscarpT1yR TESDEScIEs OF PowER.-

taken from Forney's Press We reproduce it
because it is interesting, and it is interesting
notsimply because it tells how that Mr.. Bnchan-
an has taken it into his head that he has no use
or pleasure in the presence of heretics or back
slders, at his festal board. 1t is of very little
concern, or ought to be, 10 Forney's man or any
body else, who the President invites to discuss
either choice cut of steak with him, or even to
take glass of Enoch South's Washington
county whisky. It's all very natural, on the
part of the "Old Chief as Bill Montgomery
calls him, to cater to that selfish instinct of our
nature, which -prompts'both men and birds Of
feather to flock together. If ruler, having
filled the entire niche of his ambition by secur-
ing a seat that makes him ex.ofticio immortal,
and has no care or curiosity as to his exact
standing for all the attributes of full manhood
in the eye of his age and country, why then he
does well enough to reason as the man in the
parable did, who had 'tmuch goods laid up for
many days" The genius of history has, how
ever, delighted to linger around the characters
of some men, who, endowed with vigorous per-
ceptons and great beyond the common standard,
have esteemed It much more important to gath.
or about them those ayOwedly hostile, than to
sit compIacent midst a filthy mascot fattering
cormorants Eating and drinking with toadies
may be very soothing to the nerves of poor,
weak old man, prematurely, be.dotaged by the
knaveries and squabbles Of factious placement
But allowing all this as harmless enough and
proper enough in man of Mr.. Buchanan's cast
of mind, it is quite another affair when his
watch dog Organs at Washington commence
baying the doors of the private refugees of soci-
al life. Because some orthodox democrat, Of
ficially beholden to the administration for some.
thousands per year, secs fit to issue cards ofin-
vitation to some backslider or dissenter from the
faith, it appears that the White House soups
are instructed to issue awarning that such do
ings are notallowable in the ''close communion"
creed of the administration. That the revenues
of Office must not be allowed to tickle the palate
or swell the dlaphragms of any one outside the
pale of the faithful. This is about on par with
the gist of poem on our fourth page to.6ny.-5
Those of our readers who. have perused Allison's
history of the closing scenes of the last and the
opening scenes of this century in Europe, will
remember how frequently he steps aside from
the general thread of facts, to phiOsophize and
up the step-by-steps, the l,ere,alittles and
there,a-littles by mems ofwhich the French re-
volution was precipitated. He delights to show
how that calamity might have been avoided in
this, that and the other place-bya little show of
conciatiOn-bya littleexhibit of comprehensive
statesmanship-by the least symptoms of mag
namity. But he is always obliged to lament the
folly, the abandon, the intolerance which stead
lastly came upwards There was no oneto save
the state. OF course our day and generation
affords no parallel for the times preceding and
following the era of S'93Y in France, save so far
as display of the same style of craftsmanship
may suggest similitude between the one and
the other. Tho same principle is operating now
TO overthrow the administration of Mr.. Buchan-
ans, as obtained against the Bonrbons. So far
as the organic law Of the land will permit him,
he wields the rod of despotism. The only diff
ference between him and the last Louises of
France, is, that they were by prescription abb
solute, while he is by written law restrained
There is no more liberation inside the pale Of
Buchanan's political organization than there
was inside that of Louis XIV. Not bit more.
Aman cannot take issue with the policy Of the
administration and live, unless he lives by his
own inherent vitality in the hearts of the peo-
ple-our court of appeal. When Douglas de-
crleo the Recommendations oil the Executive last
winter, he was stricken with the full weight of
the clenched fist of more than seventy millions
Of patronage, and from that day to this he has
been fOllowedup, sleeplessly, by the strong arm
of power. We have seen his former right hand
man, the Post Master at Chicago, mysteriousIy
turning against him to save his place, and
bringing the patronage of the Chicago Office to
bear in favor of the circulation of an Anti
Douglas organ in that city. We have seen the
Post Master at Cleveland, o., because he either
would not or could not go Lecompton Topped off.
Likewise at Columbus, o., andin hundreds of
other instances. We do not exaggerate when
we say that the influence of the administration
has been most demoFalizing; upon the dignity. of
private and public Independence
Butin all this we.take the present administration
only as a familiar and prominent example of the
prOscriptive tendency of all power. When once
power, either in reality or in its own estimation
is securely seated beyond the reach of speedy
ejectment or overthrow, We have no faith
in it. We have faith in the inherent i'm
partially of no party or set of men who ever