Daily national Democrat., 1859-04-13
The New Postmaster General.

The whole country has great reason TO De
satisfied with the appointment OF the success
sor to the late Postmaster General
Joseph Holt, who has been promoted from
the Commissioner of Patents to this cabinet
post, is well known throughout the valley
of the Mississippi as one of the ahlest, most
industrious and cultivated lawyers ana pom
ticians in this section of the Union. lhe tame
of his great eloquence and towering abilities
rs displayed in remarkably brief and bril-
liant career at the bar Of Mississippi Is pre-
served in that State as one of its traditional
glories As the rival and cotemporary OF
Poindexter, Prentiss, Sharkey, Walker, and
other eminent lawyers he was esteemed the
leading man, for terse argument, splendid
rhetoric and intense laboriousness. Some
what secluded in habits, stern and sedate IN
bearing, taste and thoughts, he never wasted
his powers in frivolous and unsatisfactory
political struggles, or in any of the small
controversies and occupations of the lawyer
and politician He husbanded his great
powers for great occasions, and always ap-
peared great. 5. ). Prentss, than whom
there were few better judges of true genius
and oratory, used to say that he was the
strongest dehater to grapple with, and the
most eloquent he ever heard.
Suddenly, in the very zenith of his profes-
sonal fame, Holt retired from the bar OF
Mississippi with an ample fortune, and took
up his residence in Louisville, Ill health and
desire to crafty and cultivate an ardent
love of literary employment and pleasure,
were assigned rs the principal cause of this
retirement. 1t was great loss to Mississippi.
where, had he remained, he would have at
fotpaA ,N,litionl t,rotuippnan which has
since been reached Gy far inferior men of his
own party. Settling in LOuisvi lie, he de-
voted himself to domestic and literary pur-
suits and had almost disappeared from the
public gaze or knowledge, until the reign of
Know Nothngism began, when he emerged
on the political arena, and gave few strik-
ing proofs that his powers of oratory and
argument were still in full bloom and vigor.
The love- however, of retired and studious
life and a strong dstaste for the petty skirm.
shng and small demagoguery which consti
tute so large part of our political contests,
restrained his participation within the mar
row and restricted bounds of a few telling,
dignihed but powerful oratorical efforts, du
ring the last Presidential campaign.
On the organization of the BureauX Presi
dent Buchanan appointed MIR. Holt to the
IlTsJ III llllpoTlllce uuutI lliS Wv
that of Commissioner of Patents 1t was
thought at the time that a place in the Cab
met would have ben more fitting recogni-
ton of his merits and talents But he ac
cepted this place, as one well adapted to his
studious habits and scientific tastes, and
brought to it higher cultivation, and a
firmer and more impartial character than
any of his predecessors for many years had
displayed The duties of the Commissioner
of Patents are chiefly judicial, and Mr.. Holt's
mind is eminently endowed with judicial ca
paeities and virtues. His analytical faculties
ara strongly developed, his love of research
and investigation ardent, and his sense of
justice lofty, firm and sagacious In the in
vestigation and decision of intricate conflicts
between rival patentees, he eviuced zeal in
behalf of true merit. in the maintainance of
the rights of ingenuity and skill, of the real
discoverer ag inst the designs and schemes
Of capitalists and spectators, who so often
manage to take advantage of the poverty of
inventors. to appropriate the benefit of their
IDEAS which must render his administration
one that will always be looked back to as the
brightest and most honorable chapter in the
history Of the bureau.
The elevation Of such n man to a cabinet |
,ost should be subject of congratulation to
ii classes of our peopie.-N o. Delta.