Daily national Democrat., 1858-08-29
The Manner In which It was Carried
ThrOuuh

we think, with great truth, that the Senate
Of the United States was, of all departments
Of that Government, the most corrupt. There
,0as time when no such truth could have
been spoken of our Government There wdS
time when Presidents of the United States
did not stoop from their high positions to
use the Federal power and patronage to car
ry through the National Legislature mea-
sures which were not approved of by the
moral sentiment Of the country. 1t was not
until of very late years, that Chief Magis
trate of this great Nation would descend to
the meanness of turning out of office good
men, who happened to differ with him in
regard 20 one solitary measure which was
properly the subject of Congressional legis-
laton, and matter for the unbiased repre-
sentatives of the people, with the fear OF
God before their eyes and a sense OF justice
to the country to decide. Men in those
days, and they are recent, were turned out
of office for the non-performance of their
official duties. or for the want Of capacity or
honesty in their official positions. The Pres
ident in those times would have been looked
upon as disgraced, if he had turned out of
office faithful public servant, for mere
difference of opinion honestly entertained,
unless indeed that officer stood in the way of
the exercise of the erecutiue measures of the
Alninistration-tha is measures which be
longed only to the President, himself, in his
capacity of Chief Magistrate, and by virtue
of his office, to carry out, and which he
could not carry out if his ministerial officers
were stubborn. But it remained for Mr..
! Buchanan to inaugurate the era of almost
universal political prescription and decapita-
ton From the highest offices down, the
sword of his vengeance was felt, and his
hounds were let loose upon thousands of old
and time houored and time worn soldiers in
the Democratic cause. lie stepped beyond
the boundaries of his prerogatives, as the
Executive Power of the Nation, and under
took to mould to his own capricous will the
Senatorial and Congressional Representatives
of the sovereign people He wished to unite
III hlo ONh iiulhSJ AZ lulll rs ~ was BOoolOlN
for him to do so, the Executive and the lie.
! gislative powers Of the country. Not con
tent with recommending to the considera.
tion Of Congress such action as in his iudg-
ment they ought to take, but Of the justice
and propriety of which they were the sole
Judges under the Constitution, he entered, in
effect, into the very halls of legislation, to
coerce, to importune or to bribe-Qor what
are promised offices or fat contracts under
the Government, but bribes 2 Ito coeree,
we say, importune and bribc the representa-
tiyes of the people into favoring policy
which their own judgments and the voice of
their constituents alike condemned. 1t is
idle to attempt to deny these charges 1t is
notorious in Washington, that men, who
were anti Lecompton in the outset, were sud
dealy and marvelously converted into siren
uous advocates of the Administration policy
The men can be pointed out, and the manner
of their purchase revealed. Those who could
not be bought were begged and implored,
personally, by the President-shame upon
his hoary head Ito "strain a point" and
their own conscienees, in order to give his
iniquitous schemes against the rights of the
people the benefit of their countenance and
| the weight of their votes. We state, now,
things which have appeared, time and again,
in many of the leading Democratic papers
of the Atlantic States, some of which have
. ! -. 6, l.,,t III;
ed, and Others not contradicted at all, be
cause the brand of conviction is too deep
upon the brows of the guilty to admit of
contradiction, or because those who have
been importuned into doing, as q favor to
the President, what they would never have
done otherwise have been willing to ac
knowledge the influence under which they
acted Everybody will recollect the letter
Of Senator Henderson, of Texas, written
when he knew that he was in the grasp of
Death, in which he declared that he was so
importuned by the President to vote for the
English Bill, that he actually left his seat
and did not vote at all, because he could
not conscientiously vote for the Bill No
less supporter of the President than Mr..
Keitt, OF South Carolina, declared that it
was IAN Administration purchase and not an
Administration triumph" The Pennsylvania
papers have stated boldly, and it has not been
denied, that Mr. Dewart of the House freely
said that he could not resist the continued
and urgent entreaties of the President"
Mr. Reilly was a man entirely above any
, sordid motives-of course, he would never
sell himself; nevertheless, a brother of his re-
ceived at the hands of a grateful President
the fattest Federal office in his district. This
was, of course, all right enough, but people
will think. Mr.. ALL was another incorrupti.
bic Representative, and sudden convert OF
Lecomptonism People were little sur
prised, too, to see his brother obtain, all at
once, about that time, paying contract for
furnishing horses for the Utah war Burns
of Ohio, publicly stated, with that effronte
ry which belongs to some politicians, that he
got t'co good offices for his change of ground
on the subject. The evidence which ha:
been published in the Atlantic papers against
Mr. English, the author of the Conference
Bill, is so powerful and conclusive as to fix
upon him suspicion which almost amounts
to certainty, that he shifted his ground on
the Kansas question for a very great reward
not money, for our modern patriots, of the
refined school, do not manage matters in tha,
way-but something which is legitimate all