The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-12-31

IHe NoNeInmeuL appears Dy Inc PRESIDENT
Message and the accompanying Reports to be get
ting on with comfort to ITSELF and satisfactorily to
the Nation. These show nothing in its condition,
except the deficiencies in the treasury, about which
the country need give itself any present concern.
We are not, therefore, disposed to be critical and
are content to accept the facts and figures premi-
ses and conclusions Of these State papers, for the
most part, without question; but the rhetoric, we
are compelled to say, bewilders us completely.
Why each of these official documents could not its
Ground unvarnished tale deliver" without, as some
ofthemdo, interlarding their statements with tropes
and metaphors we know not, but had it pleased
the Secretaries to have written in more simple Eng
fish we would have been thankful It is a Ia
borious thing at the best to toll through the
essential matter of half dozen long Reports.
and the fancy flights, in which gentlemen
who are ambitious of fine writing are prone TO
indulge, by no means Tighten the work.
Editors are compelled daily to digest so
many tender, sentimental and pathetic paragraphs
that they soon lose whatever poetic sensi-
bllities they may have originally possessed.
We offer this as our apology for having failed to
appreciate some Of the more brilliant passages in
these Reports. We are dimly conscious as we
read them of the CICERoNIAN sweetness of the sem
tences but the force and beauty of the ideas we
md ourselves unable to comprehend Mr. THoNp-
SONS vivid and picturesque delineation of the In
dian who has concluded to quit scalping and 90
to farming, is wholly lost upon u.s. Let us again
present 1t to those of our readers who may have
heretofore overlooked it,
The internal struggle which the red man necassar;I
undergoes in adopting the resolution to throw awav t
blanket the scaping knife, and the implements OF the
chase and in lieu thereof to dress and devote
himself to pursuits which he has been taught consider
degrading is TERRIBLE and he energies from it victorious
he becomes new man"
We have endeavored TO form an ade-
quate conception of the figure of an In
dian in the spiritual condition that is here
so naturally described, but in vain. We are as
much in the dark about the "terrible" ''internal
struggle" by virtue of which the red man be-
comes new man, as the immortal Mr.. We'll
LER about his wife's views, when he remarked
shes got hold O. some invention for grown-up
people being born again, SAMMY-the new birth
II thinks they calls it," and we can only say,
with him, we ''should very much like 10 see that
'system in haction SAMMY"
to do justice TO the meodious peroration of Post
master HOLT He tells us: ....
1.-THE Posoffce Department, in its ceaseess labors per-
ades every channel of commerce and every of
human enterprise and while visiting as it does kindly
every freside, mngles with the throbbings of almost
every heart in the land. In the amplitude of its benef
cence it ministers to all Chimes and creeds and pursuits
with the same readiness and with equal fulpess Of
hdehty 1t is the delicate trump, through which
alike nations and families and isolated individuals wbis
per their joys and their SORROWS their vctons and
their sympathes, to all who listen for their coming
Naturally enough such institution has ever been and
still is cherished favorite with the American peope
The country has constantly manifested the intense
socitude for the preservation of its purity and the pros
perity of its administration and it cannot now be dis
gused that the guilty abuse of its minstraons and the
reckless waste OF its hardearned revenues connectnd
with the humiiaons TO which il has in be
exposed, have deeply and sadly impressed the public
mnd.n i
Having perused this quietly in our office.
and read it aloud, and recited it with what
oratorlcal fervor we could command, without
teing moved by its eloquence, we protest we are
mortified at the duIlness of our perceptions. In
trying to fancy 'tke Post-ofice Department.
visiting our "ireside' our imagination refuses to
pctpre anything but an envelope ornamented
with three cent stamp; and we plead an utter
inability to conceive how the mails "mingle with
1.-THE throbbings of almost every heart.r Striving
10 nrlng before the minds eye ''the delicate ear
trump" through which "nations and families
land isolated individuals whisper their joys and
their sorrows" nothing but the assure in
letter-box suggests itself. Our hearts rejoice that
the Department Sin the amplitude of its benefcence
ministers to all climes and creeds," until remem
boring that it refuses TO distribute The Tribune in
Virginia. we wonder whether we have caught the
true meaning of these phrases. 'Deeply and
sadly impressed" with the conviction that it is
solely our own fault if we are not refreshed bv
these clear draughts from ''the well of English
undecided" we concede that what strikes us as
mere verbiage and redundant twaddle is most ex-
cellent logic and the perfection of chaste and
graphic style. But it is waste of eloquent para
graphs TO insert them as our statesmen persist in
doing, in dispatches and official documents. and
we would suggest that they be reserved in future
for Congressional speeches