Saint Paul weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1858-1859, 1858-08-28

ism was frequently obscured by his tyrannous
disposition and whose strong se'fwill was
often msled by skillful batteries poured into
his ears by the secret cabal of able but UNI
scrupulous men who surrounded him land who,
from his early defects of education and def
cheney Of Statesman like training, were a
necessity unto him for the proper discharge
of the high duties of his position; whO by
the very indispensibility of their services and
and through the oily flattery of their tongues
to very considerable extent succeeded in
peryerting his administration into mere
engine of fortune-making and place making
for themselves and partzans who thus OBJ
tanned the sanction of General Jacks ms
powerful name to the atrocious frcc-bOoting
doctrine that "to the victors belong the
spoils," and that the main e-rcquisites for
official appointments, were extreme partizan-
ship, the ability to command and influence
votes or to knock down and drag out at the
polls; while the old Jetfersonian standards OF
qualficatic n, as he honest is he capable?
is he faithful to the Constitution were
made of secondary consequence or became
entirely obsolete.
! The Administration of MARTIN VAN buren,
that succeeded, was but the rule Of the same
men continued the motto that calls fair IN
politics. became therein elevated into De-
mocratic axiom along with that of " to the
vctors belong the spoils"
Such men as ISAIAH RYNDERs, the ruffianly
Captain of the New York Empire Club OF
>houder-hitters, thieves and black legs, and
NED MCGOWAN, afterwards of California,
ecame influential chiefs in the Democratic
ranks and the process Of decentralization
went rapidly on In 1910 the pecuniary dis
tresses of the people, with disgust some
what at the magcianike trickery of the
Administration, and the unwise character OF
some of its measures, excited tremendous
popular convulson which in ITSELF was not
free from some demoralizing influences, but
which threw out VAN buren, and the Demo
cracy and put in his place the good General
! HARRISON, who however, one brief month
saw consigned to his tomb amidst the regrets
of millions when all the high hopes excited
by his election for r turn of The government
to a better and nobler policy, were totally
Frustrated by the shameless bidding of JOHN
Tyler, his successor, for the support of the
Democracy in a contest for re-clection-the
office of the nation being used and disposed
Of by him in the grossest manner with the
avowed purpose of buying men and influence
10 contribute to the realization of his ambi-
ton.
Still another step in the downward road
was reached when by an unHashng fraud on
the people of Pennsylvania that "PoLK was
better Tariff man than Clay and by
hosting the lying banner in that State in
favor of Polk, DALLAS, and the Tariff of
~" Though the first measure OF both these
men, on their induction into office, was to
procure the repeal Of that very tariff and
by the outrageous Placquemine frauds of
JOHN SLIDELL in Louisiana, the gallant HAIR
ny CLAY was defeated, aad Polk and Dali
Las were chosen for four years to dispense to
tie Democracy the "spoils of victory
Once again the people made an effort to
inaugurate Il better state of things and by
another almost convusive throe, placed the
true and honest-hearted General TAYLOR in
the Presidential chair. But again death
snatched from them the hoped-for beneficial
results of their triumph and FILLMORE sue
ceeding him, we bcheld renewed the impure
spectacle of the national posts of duty dis
tributed with the view of forwarding FRESH
dental aspirations for reelection, and the
interests and honor of the country a. the
mercy of men chosen to the position they
held principally for their subserviency to
power, mainly for their ability to pack q Ma
tional Convention in behalf of their chief.
To him PIERCE was successor, in whose
term Of the Presidency it is notorious that
office begging became still further reduced to
science and a vocation so much so that
many thought the climax of degradation in
that Way was then reached; but the first
year of BUcHANANs Administration has
already disabused them of this delusiOn, and
has showed that a Democratic Administra-
ton could reach still lower deeps of traffick-
ing in the hopes and weakness of human
nature" at the expense of principle and of
the national purse.
But why should we of Minnesota COM
| L.. e ~ A
corruption when our Senator in Congress
openly sold the principles upon which he was
elected, for the sake of welding the power
and patronage of the Administration in Min
nesOta when men here amongst us, in conse-
qucnce Of his welding that patronage, bow
down and worship him and when faction
of Moccasinites control our State afI,irs,
upon the basis of the dishonest principles
and PRACTICES of the Indian Trade ? when
our elections are carried by fraud, and our
Governors and Congressman are chosen by
forged election returns and the public treas
ury is robbed with as cool hand as "poor
Indian would be cheated
Let the People of Minnesota first pull the
beam out of their own eye and then thew
can see the clearer in gong to work to purify
the nation "Sweep clean before thv own
door
THE New York city papers of 18th come
to us filled with accounts of the rejoicings
over the success of the Atlantic Cable, to the