The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1859-02-26


4 vernang Glasses.
We published yesterday some choice speci.
mems of tho disclosures made by the Special
Committee of the House OF Representatives ap.
pointed to inquire into certain alleged corup
tions in the spoils aud plumber jobs Of various
navy yards. These disclosures are indeed
astounding, and indicate the most extensive
ramifcations of bribery, compromising and cor
ruption. They are the ripened fruits Of years Of
steady growth, and they indicate very compre-
hensive field to Mr.. Buchanan for the pruning
knife Of rotation, retrenchment and reform
Several other committees Of Investigation
have. been at work for some time at Wash
ington, ferreting out various official delin-
quenoies in different departments Of the federal
government; two or three legislative invcsti-
eating committees, we believe, are at work at
boards that we have had from time to time in
reference to the spoils and plumber Of this Cor
poration, is legion. With every change In every
department Of our city government some great
nest Of official rogueries Is discovered, and from
one Legislature to another, and at each succeed
ing session of Congress, committees Of inquiry
into matters of public spoliation are becoming
more and moro the order of the day. In truth,
during the last fifteen years or more, Official
honesty, morality, integrity and patriotism have
go far been superseded in our federal, State and
municipal affairs, by all the baser elements of
official corruption, as to suggest most forcibly
the important question whether our republican
ex,cto &c sJo1vy 10
to collapse as deplOrable failure.
During the first period of the republican
which its affairs were administered by our great,
pure, patriotic Revolutionary fathers, the no.
blest race of men which the world has ever pro-
duced-our governmental affairs were conducted
with the most remarkable devotion to the pub
Lie interests, and with the most beneG.
cent consequences in behalf of our popu-
lar institutions, at home and abroad.
During the second great epoch of the confede-
racy under the federal constitution, beginning
with the last war with England, our public
servants, Of high and low degree, were only in
feror, in their general morality and integrity to
those Of the Revolutionary generation. Indeed,
upon those points Of integrity and patriotism,
such men as Clay, Calhoun and Macon may,
without presumption, be placed in the same
schedule with such as Hamilton, Jefferson aud
Madison.
The same may be said of Mr.. Buchanan
contemporary and peer of Clay, Calhoun, and
that class of American statesmen. Trained in
that school, and in those lofty principles of per-
sonal government which were the general rule
of that day, Mr.. Buchanan, throughout his long
and eventful public life, has maintained intact
that integrity and purity of character which
leave him at this day more fitting representa-
tive of the Revolutionary epoch than, perhaps,
any other official agent of the American people.
Unfortunately, however, for smooth admins
tration of the government according to the an
cient regime, when Mr.. Buchanan entered upon
the Presidency, he was confronted ct the very
outset with unprecedented embarrassments,
the legacies Of his last two or three or four or
FIVE predecessors, and the consequences of those
demoralizing official corruptions, which, since
the administration of Van Buren,, have sprung
up on every side, and multiplied like poisonous
weeds in rank SOIL IL
These are the evils against which Mr.. Buchanan
has had to contend. He has labored faithfully
to right the ship Of State, and to stop her leak
ages. But with spoliation and plumber as the
prevailing maxims Of all our political parties, and
Of our managing politicians Of all sections and
all classes, in and out Of place. the President of
the United States has but limited sphere of
resistance. The truth is, that during the last
mr. fxraO ~ a Ia bo,,
high minded, refined and educated men, in all
our governmental affairs, federal and local. have
been bullied out Of place by the lowest and
basest vagabond race Of political adventurers,
hucksters and public robbers. Men of intellect,
education, good morals refinement aud reliable
honesty have thus been driven into the walks of
literature and the learned professions, or to
mercantile, manufacturing or agricultural pur-
suits, while ignorant vagabonds, INSCRIPTIONS
demagogues and reckless ruffians dictate our
laws, tax us, rob us, and destroy our property
and our lives, with comparative impunity -.
What does all this portend? Can these things
be suffered to go on without drifting us into
more serious troubless Are they not hurrying
our popular institutions into public contempt,
the worlds reproach, and to the abyss of revo-
luton and anarchy? And from revolution and
anarchy will there be any other alternative than
q military despot, or two or three or half
dozen independent military despotisms? The
great body Of the intelligent and solid American
people have permitted these party demoralizations
and official corruptions to go on unchecked
long enough-perhaps too long now to
be arrested. But something may even now
be done In behalf Of law, order and official
honesty, In sustaining the administration of Mr.
Buchanan for the present. and in active move
mcnts for 1860, in opposition to all the rotten
parties, party and party caucus managers of the
day. Otherwise, this malignant poison of official