The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-06-16

The Washington correspondent Of the Phila-
delphia Inquirer draws the following graphic
picture of sham Democratic misrule in this city.
1t IS true to the letter:
WAsHINGToS, June 8, 1859.
The municipal election takes place in this
city tomorrow, but there being no Mayor to
elect, aud the Opposition, having been trodden
under the iron heel of power for the last four
years, cannot be induced to make an effort to
carry the city, or even some of the wards, which
they might carry if they would, and the cor
ruptionists will therefore have everything their
way
1t is difficult for persons not familiar with af
fairs here to conceive the sad condition the
Opposition are in and | can liken it to nothing
more appropriately than the condition of the
Italians under the Austrians. True, individuals
not arbitrarily arrested and logged here by
bratal tyrants in uniform, but they have been
shot down without cause or proyocatiOn, in the
streets, or hunted and prosecuted everywhere
Iheir private business injured themselves point
ed out 10 others as Know Nothings, or Black
Republicans, in order that their stalls in the
market, and their shops on the streets, may be
Stunned by the 'Anti-Know Nothings " and
the parasites of power.
There is many clerk in the Departments
who Is with The Opposition at heart, but who
dare not he seen in company with the leading
men opposed to the Administration, nor be
known TO trade with any other than Democratic
or "Anti-know Nothing" dealers, and he
knows that he is closely watched by some of
those who hope to curry favor by telling tales
upon others.
Of course, men thus situated, at the mercy
Of thS merciless and liable to be thrown ont
of employment at any time, without moments
warning. live in n state of continual apprehen-
SIGN, and under the deadening influence of fear.
And even men of business here, merchants,
shopmen, and mechanics, are oppressed by the
same feeling. They dare not speak out what
they think, lest they shall be injured in their
business they think it impolitic to attend an
Opposition meeting. or allow their names to
appear on committees, or to be placed on a
ticket, 8 because" they say" we shall be mark
ed 10y those in power, and injured in our bust
ness And this language is uttered and
heard in the political metropolis of this great
Model Republic! !" When boy, used to
read, my cheeks burning with indignation, ac-
counts Of the doings OF such tyrants and mon
sters AS 1iberius, Nero, Caligula, Caraealla,
and others, and wonder, in the simplicity of
ignorance, why the people submitted TO such
Eyranny-why they did not rise at once, and
put their oppressors to death; but | can now
see how gradually tyranny can grow up, and
twInc ITS iron cords around the limbs of a
whole community, until they become powerless !;
and how one portion may become the willing
instruments in the hands of tyrants, to Cypress
and grind to powder the other portion.
The Government here is the great employer,
The OvershadOwing money power, just as a
mammoth manufacturing company is, some
times, in village; their smile can give life
and subsistence, their frown and hostility can
crush all not Independent of them. But not
only have the Opposition the Government ar
rayed against them, but all the banks and
moneyed men, and last, though by no means
beast, the Gas Company, which latter always
find it necessary just before an election, to lay
large amount OF gas-pipes in certain wards
where the Opposition might, unless voters were
cOlonized IN the ward, carry it; and this is
now beingSdoae by that company in some wards,
with a view 70 carry every one.
Several men, who sought nominations from
the Opposition, have been frightened into dec
Gnations so that in some of the wards there
will be nO Opposition candidates, and none for
some II the Offices voted for by the whole city
Of course, the Administration papers will
claim the result here as great triumph and
gain but whatever triumph there may be, will
be tha' vi poor and oppression over the weak
and oppressed.