The Buchanan County guardian. (Independence, Buchanan County, Iowa) 1858-1864, 1859-03-24
Correspondence of the Guardian.

My promise to communicate to you
anything l might meet with worthy of
note, has not been forgotten, Nor has it
been broken. The conditions of the
promise have not been met. l have not
written, hitherto, because l had nothing
to write. Perhaps, you will say, l might
still have kept silence for the same rea-
son. However, recent trip to New
York suggests topic or two, upon which
my long unused quill seems inclined TO
start off-at what gait, remains to be
seen.
Having spent the winter in very con-
siderable scclusion, immured by the
snowdrifts of Berkshire, rivalling its hills
in magnitude, l was quite ready for a
hasty flight when little extra sunshine,
in the last week of February, loosened
slightly the bonds of winter. So one fine
morning, l left the snow-clad hills be-
hind me, and in the evening found my
self at tea with one of my old friends in
the great metropolis.
New York is great city. The absen-
tee of some years, on revisiting it, can
not fail to be struck with its rapid growth.
And if, having dwelt in the "great and
growing West"-and it is both great and
growing-he has come to entertain the
notion so popular there, that that favored
section has monopolized all the progress
of the country. he will stand pretty
good chance to have that conceit taken
out Of him. In fact, in absolute increase
of population, New York, one Of the old
est cities of the continent, so far from
falling into the decline of old age, has
far outstripped the most thriving of those
newer cities far inland, whose marvel
lous statistics are boastfully recited with
any number of exclamation points. And
the future Of New York is great. If she
survive, as we think she will, the great
Southern movement for direct trade"
between some grass grown cities of the
South and all fore On ports, we are sure
that no other rivalry or opposition, or &C
cident, short of an earthquake, can pre-
vent her from becoming and remaining,
for several generations at least, in points
of population, business and wealth, the
great city of the Western continent.
| was in New York when the news was
received that one Of the representatives
of that city in Congress had deliberately
murdered man in the streets of Wash
ington, and in the broad daylight of
Sabbath. What for !? For seducing his
wife ? Not at all. Doubtless the muir
dered man was the paramount of Mrs.
Sickles, but Mr.. Sickles knew that long
before, and cared little Or nothing for it.
And why should he ? Did not he know,
and did not the world-of New York and
Neutrality-suspicious., that in whatever
punishment he might in1ct upon Key
for that, he indicated his own deserts at
the hands of others No, it was not the
fact of the wrong, but the public knoac-
ledge of it, that stirred him up to resent
it, 1t was simply because it had become
matter of notoriety, that he felt himself
impelled to take bloody revenge upon the
author of it. Had the victim been con-
tent to enjoy his adulterous successes in
silence, he might have lived to enjoy them
still. He doubtless fell sacrifice to a
vanity as foolish as it was criminal, which
actuated him to boast of his achieve
ments. And what will become of the
murderer The favorite of the Presi-
dent, taken by him from the purieus of
the brothel, the lower stratum of New
York Society, to grace his diplomatic
staff in the position next to himself, then
to England and since sent to
Congress by the influence of the same
man, now the chief dispenser Of the pat
ronage Of the government, to shed the
effulgence Of his genius upon the coun-
ellis of the nation, and the odor of his
virtue on the society of the Capital City,
where he expended the full amount Of
his Congressional pay for the single item
Of house rent, and lived in a style to COR
with no other visible means
Of support :" with a hacker who sticks
at nothing corrupt or degrading, not
g near the throne" but on it, what can be
expected but that, in few days, he will
walk forth, unwhipt of justice, to be well
coined. feted and toasted, and iionized
by his political friends, and his crime
nothing less than cold blooded and
premeditated murder--glossed over and
palliated as the frenzied outburst of a
deeply injured husband. And women,
yirluous women will be found, who will
Al Il