The Kansas herald of freedom., 1858-02-13

pei every conservative journal and every
conservative man to assume the attitude
Of direct and determined opposition TO
such perEersion of the powers of the
Executive Office.
Simultaneously with the declaration of
the Presidents purpose comes correspon-
denee between Governor Walker and the
Administration, during the formers gov
erncrship of the Territory. called for by
resolution of the Senate From this cor
rssp6ndence, portions Of which we may
<pdDiish hereafter, it IS but too apparent.
that the territory Of Kansas has been
made party battle grouad by the Ad-
ministration, quite as much as by the Re-
publicans. In the various dispatches, po-
litical consequences are much more prom
inently considered and dwelt upon than
the intrinsic propriety of any course and
the legitimate objects of the Government.
We cannot better close these remarks than
BY the following extract from the National
hte2iseneer, condemnatory of this feature
in the correspondence
1t is with some little surprise and re-
gret that we find in the letters of Gov.
Walker to Nr. Secretary Cass, SO much
more stress apparently laid on the politi-
cal consequences than the intrinsic pro-
priety Of his course. To say nothing of
higher considerations, it is surely to be
deplored that the necessities of his situa-
ton were such as seemed to eonstrain him,
unwittingly we hope, to violate official
usage by converting his reports to the
Department of State into species of par
ty bulletins. The official and theoretical
relations between Kansas and the Federal
Government are surely not such as made
it incumbent on Gov. Walker to indulge
in representations as to the effect which
certain declarations of the President and
his Cabinet would have in swelling 'iour
vote in the approaching election"
'Our party tour friends, aour tick
et," our adversaries,. &c, are phrases to
which we are unaccustomed in the Ian
guage of official correspondence between
a subordinate functionary and head of
the Executive Government which is pre-
sumed, in theory at least, to be instituted
for the good of the people of the whole
country, and to know 'pro-slavery men,"
Gree State Democrats - Republican"
and "Abolitionists," )" only as citizens owing
a common allegiance to the republic. Of
fetal decorum. if nothing higher. demands
that partisan denominations should be
ignored in official documents, or if it be-
comes necessary to make allusion to them.
(and we admit it would have been diff
cult wholly to avoid it in the case of Kan.
sas and her bitter political feuds) the al
lusion should be made rather in the char
acter of the impartial umpire than that of
the jealous and interested confederate.
We could wish, therefore, that Gov.
Walker, in pursuing policy and making
recommendations with regard to Kansas,
which seem to US just and proper, had
also been a little more happy in the rea-
sons assigned for both, and that he had
carefully respected in word as well as in
act, the proprieties of his official station.
Perhaps, however, for any derelictions on
this score, we should find a sufficient
apology in the words with which he closes
one of his reports by saying: II am SO
necessarily occupied with official business
that have not time to prepare my dis
patches with that care and deliberation
by which they ought to be distinguished" !"