Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1858-02-23

TBE PRESIDENTS ABUsE OF PATRoNAGE-SUs-
PIcIoN OF BRIBERr-A RDBUKE FROM a BIZ.
cuANAN ORGAN.-The Freeman's Journal, (Ca-
tholic Administration Organ contained, the
other day, the following article under the head
of Executive Usurpaion:"
1t is easier to change the name than the ma
ture of dangerous power The students of
English parliamentary history know the strug-
giles of people for their liberty against the
pretenSions of what was called the "Royal Pre-
rOgatve." But can any instance be found in
which Plantagenet, Tudor, or Stuart, attempted
so extreme an act of encroHchment upon the
rights of the Commonwealth, as our citizen
President Mr. James Buchanan, Is said, by the
friends of the LecOmpton fraud, to be medita-
ting in reference to the people aud the institu-
tons of the United States. What is the practi-
cal difference between Royal PrerOgative"
claimed by the weak and tyrannical Stuarts,
and the Executive influence so impudently
Haunted in our faces by the advocates of the
fraudulent Constitution of the LecomPtonitess
The only difference Is, that this Executive intlu
ence" is viler in its nature, more demoralizing,
and more potent, than the Royal Prerogative'
which lives in the excavation of lreemen. We
have been told, day by day, by the servants
and seekers of the government pelf, that some
ten millions of dollars of patronage" are to be
employed in buying the votes, or the absence
the people, to secure the passage OF an act
deadly to the interests of the country, and to
fundamental principle of our institutions. A
gentleman lately from Washington, pursuing
his inquiries in the city OF New York, has
shown us a startling schedule, which, when
completed, he says he purposes publishing,
showing advantages of personal, family and
partisan patronage certain Coegressmen hold
by favor OF the Federal Executive, and which
can be withdrawn in day, were any of them
to fall from grace. If the gentleman makes
sure of each Of his facts, So 10 do injustice
to no one, his document will deserve to be pub
liShed in every free press in the country. Such
mcthodical publication meeting these rcpreSen-
tatiyeS hereafter in the homes of their conStitu-
entS, will be more effective and more trust
worthy, than any investigation of corruption
committees in Congress. If this schedule APP
proaches correctness, some congressman, con-
Sidering what they are at home, have gotten a
good price for themselves; but others, by what
we have heretofore esteemed them, have sold
themselves exceedingly cheap.
We predicate this remark on the assertion of
Lecompton papers and LccomptOn advocates,
that the patronage so closely held back by the
Executive, and so OStentatiously paraded as still
TO be distributed. is intended to influence votes
us to the right of the people of Kansas to make
their own constitution of government. Unless
this hrag of the LecOmptoniStS is as false as it
is infamous, we have only to say that we recog-
nize the propriety and timelneSs of the propO-
Sition of Mr.. Hoard in the House of RepreSen
tativeS, to appoint committee TO inquire into
the charges of an attempt by the Executive to
influence and corrupt Congressman, by making
the giving or Withholding of this accurSed Ex-
ecutive patronage" dependent on the sustaining
or opposing of the LecOmptOn Swinde.''