The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-01-23

means of knowing the precise number.
take il for granted, however, that the
statement of the Senator is correct. He
has doubtless informed himself upon
that subject. 1 had formed my opin-
ion in relation to it from what was
transpiring around me-.
Allow me to say to the Senator to-
day that there is but one single civil of
ficer appointed by the President of the
United States from West Virginia left
in office this day who is in accord with
the policy OF Congress, or who is not in
accord with the policy of the President
of the United States, and he is a consul
abroad. Every officer in the revenue
department in West Virginia has been
removed but one, and he has changed
his opinion from what we there term
loyalty into favor of the policy of the
President of the United States. And
there are but four men holding office
to-day among presidential appointees,
in West Virginia, who have not been
removed by the President ofthe United
States during the last year. There has
been universal removal; almost all
officers have been swept away. If,
then, the remarks OF the Senator from
Pennsylvania be true, that there ought
at least to be fair division, ask him,
upon his own principles, whether there
has not been an abuse of the execu-
itvie power so far as West Virginia is
concerned?
The Senator on that occasion further
remarked, as follows:
"Ithink may say know something about
how these removals we're made. have no
difficulty in standing here in my place and
saying that all the removals that l know TO
have been made by the President were OF
men who had no respect not only Tor TIE
Chief Magistrate OF the nation, not only for
tni,dl tns nauon itSeIf' but thought for them.
within the last year great deal OF exceed
ingly offensive, gross unwaEranted language
has been made use of toward the President of
the United States. am satisfied that there
is not an honorable Senator mere who would
not say that where an office holder, for whose
conduct the President was responsible, was
guilty of that kind of improper Language and
want Of respect TOR his superior officer he
should be removed"
My experience in West Virginia and
my observations there have taught me
that the President has been actuated
by no such motives. If / am to look
to his acts and to the antecedents of his
appointees, L must say that he seems
to have taken special pains to select
from the many respectable gentlemen
who have thought it their duty to sup
port his view of the administration of
the Government, those very gentlemen
who have been loudeSt and grossest
and foulest in their abuse of the Presi-
dent of the United States.
am not going now to bring into the
.
a private character, where the parties
who have been guilty of uttering this
language cannot have an opportunity
OF defending themselves; but 1 will Sc
lect u gentleman who has been ap-
pointed TO one of the most important
and entirely the most lucrative office in
the State of West Virginia, who has
spread his views at large, who is the
editor of paper, and in his own paper
has published to the world his views of
the President of the United States, and
/ will avail myself of this opportunity
to show to the Senator from Pennsyl-
vania that the President of the United
States in selecting men to office has
been actuated by no such motives as
| those to which he refers. 1 shall read
extracts from the paper of the gentle
man to whom I allude, n gentleman
appointed to the most lucrative office
in the State of Yves: Virginia, and here
they are.
Mr.. Cowan-What is his name, and
what is his office?
Mr.. Willey-His name is Long, and
he is postmaster of the city of Wheel
ing, and is the editor of n paper pub
lished in Wheeling called the Register.
He is a gentleman who had, as l have
understood, some experience in a Ger
tain institution in Wheeling known by
the name of the Atheneum during the
war. In his paper of the 18th of March,
1865, he published as follows:
ait is said that Mr.. Thaddeus Stevens. the
Republican leader OF the House of Repre-
sentatives, declared that If the House had
been in session he would have moved for the
impeachment of johnson. But Johnson is
comparatively guiltless. The party leaders
who nominated him and who advocated his
election, knowing his habits and his charac-
ter, are the parties who ought 10 be impeach-
ed before the august tribunal Of the American
pSople- a gent lstAliIl WIleu soOeE never De
comes a thorough rnfIlan when in his cups.
Johnson drunk is but johnson sober with the
mask on; at heart a DOaSttul, low-bred, time
OF power. Those who brought disgrace upon
the nation by placing him in the position
not Johnson-must be held responsible be-
fore the world"
Again, in the same paper, on the I4th
of March, 1865, he said:
ANDY illustrates in the quality Of his brain
and its briliaucy, as lit up by the alcoholic
and unadulteTated statesman he is, and how
strangely the machinery of popular govern
ment may be worked when drunken man
is chosen second engineer"
have a good deal t'more of the same
Sort" but 1 confess that 1 have been
disgusted in reading thus much.
Mr.. johnson Permit me to ask
when that appointment was made.
Mr.. Willey-The appointment was
made sometime in August last, 1 think.
Mr.. .Johnson-Has il been confirmed
Mr.. wilIey-Not confirmed.
Mr.. Cowan-what is the date of the
paper from which the honorable Sena-
tor has read?
Mr.. wiLey-In giving the extracts
Mr.. Cowan-I beg pardon but did
not hear them.
Mr.. willey-I read the extracts from
the Wheeling Register of March Is,
1865, and March IA, 1865. Rather than
read further from il in the Senate, for
confess a loathing and disgust to doing
so, Twill hand to the honorable Senator,
if he desires it, a great deal "more OF
the same sort" F." which have here.
Mr.. Cowan-No, that is enough.
Mr.. Willey-NOw, sir. this man ut
tering this language applies for this po-
sition and the President of the United
States appoints him to it. l appeal,
therefore, to the Senator from Pennsyl-
vania to say whether he Is altogether
right when he urges that the President
has been influenced in making his ap-
pointments by a desire to thrust from
office men who have been gross in their
language of abuse toward the Presi-
dent of the United States.
do not pretend to say that there is
any truth in all these remarks which l
have read from this paper. Its editor
occasionally pays his respects to an in
dividual much more humble than the
I President of the United States, aud in
terms and assertions of alleged facts
which know to be wholly untrue. 1
am far from wishing to be understood
as saying that these vile charges against
the President are true. 1 only mention
them in reply to the suggestion of the
Senator from Pennsylvania yesterday,
| that the President ought to turn from
Office men who indulge in gross abuse
I of his person or of his administration
and to show him that he has rather ex-