Arkansas true Democrat., 1859-03-30
APOsTROPHE.
From the N. 0. Delta. Tho New Postmaster General.

The whole country has great reason to be satisfied with the appointment of the successor to the late postmaster general
 Joseph Holt, who has been promoted from the commissioners of patents to this cabinet post, is well known throughout the valley of the Mississippi as one of the ableNt, most industrious and cultivated law yers anu politicians in this section of the Union. The fame of his great eoquence and towering abilities, as displayed in a remarkably brief and brilliant career at the bar of Mississippi, is preserved in that State as one of its traditional glores. As the nval and cotemporary of Poindexter, PrentiS,, Sharkey, Walker and other emi- nent lawyers, he was esteemed the leading man, ior tarnc argument, splendid rhetoric and intense laboiiousnesS Somewhat se- ciuded ln habits, stern and sedate in bear Ing, ta.te and thoughts, he never wasted hls powers in frivolous and unsatisfactory political struggles, or in any of the small controversies and occupations of the law yer and politician. He huSbandcd his great powers for great occasions, and always appeared great S N. Prentiss. than whom there were few better judges of true genius and oratory, used to say that he was the strongest debater he ever grappled with, and the most eloquent he ever heard.
 Suddenly, in the very zenith of hiss pro- tesSional fame, Holt retired from the bar of Mississippi with an ample fortune, and took up his residence in Louisville. III health and desire to gratify and cultivate an ardent love oG literary employment and pleasure, were assigned as the principal causes of this retirement. It was great loss to Mississippi, where, had he remain ed, he would have attained political pro- mlnence which has been since reached by far inferior men of his own party. Set ting in Louisville, he devoted himself to domestic and literary pursuits, and had al- most disappeared from the public gaze or knowledge, until the reign of know-noth- lnglsm began, when he emerged on the po- lltlcal arena, and gave q few striking proofs that his powers of oratorv and argument were still in full bloom and vigor. The love, however, of retired and studious lie, and strong distaste for the petty Sklrmlshing and small demagoguery which constitute so large part of our political contests, restrained his participation with Tn the narrow and restricted bounds of few telling, digniied but powerful orato- rlcal efforts, during the last presidential campaign
 On the organization of the bureaux, President Buchanan appointed Mir. Hotto the hrst m importance under the govern ment-that Of commissioner of patents.- It was thought at the time that d place in the cabinet would have been a more fitting recognition of his merits and talents. But he accepted this place, as one we'll adapted to hls studious habits and scientific tastes. and brought to it a higher cultivation, and ilrmer and more impartial character than any of ms predecessors for many years had displayed. The duties of the commissioner ot patents are chiefly judicial and Mir. Holt's mlnd IS eminently endowed with judicial capacities and virtues. His analvitical fac uities are strongly developed, his love of research and investigation ardent, and his sense ot justice lofty, firm and sagacious. ln the investigation and decision of intri- cate conflicts between rival patentees, he evlnced zeal in behalf of true merit, in the maintenance of the rights of ingenuity and skill, of the real discoverer against the designs and schemes of capitalists and spec uialors, who so often manage to take ad vantage ot the poverty of inventors, to ap propilat the benefit of their ideas-which must render his administration one that will always be looked back to as the bright est and most honorable chapter in the his tory of this bureau.
 The elevation of such a man to a cabinet post should be subject of congratulation to all classes of our people.
 MT. Holt is southern democrat of the state-rghts school. His accession to the cabinet will secure a statesman of. higher and larger views, of bolder and more en- ergetlc character, and of greater freedom from the smaller passions and maneuver- ings of politicians, than has yet filled cabinet post under the present administra- tion. Mir. Holt is, we believe, native of Kentucky, ,~son-in-law of Robert c. Wick life, postmaster general under President Tyler, and brother-in-law of the present Governor of Louisiana