, 1868-02-25
TO the Editor Of the .st. Croix Avis"

" UC OCnLSo, ohuu WAlOLCtCi DltudblUu oil luQ
vidual fills, whether under Government or other
wise, it is certainly indispensable, for the proper
discharge of such duties, that he should have
the necessary requirements and qualifications,
to fill properly the situation, in which he should
be placed" | ask your correspondents pardon
for endeav0uring to correct a very common, but
pardonable error, in which he has fallen, when
he speaks of Unnecessary requirements and quail
ications'' being indispensable in persons filling
ituationS undcr Gorc1mmenk Of course the
qualification par excellence, that the party shall
be a Dane, cannot be dispensed with but as to
other qualifications, for instance ability, talent,
capacity, labOur or eXperience,-Why they are
by no means indispensable; for what says the
Danish adage? "Hvem Kongen giver Embede.
giver Gud Forstand til at bestyre Diet, og hvis
like, giver han ham en- dygtig ~Fuldmagtig!"-
which means in the vernacular 'Only get a
royal appointment-that's all p The weighty
truth of this purely danish axiom has been sufli-
GENTLY exempliied in these blessed colonies
witness the many second-rate candidah preferred
to FAT livings here, Zone of whom brought it SO
far even, as to get a Judgment, "pro mcliore in
f0rnata0ne' passed against him, for which rery
questionable distinction, probably, he now en-
joys a pension, to the detriment of the public's
~interest). Listen also to what Lawyer Arnesen
says in his open letter of 2Sth February 1852
to Mr.. Fenger, the then Minister of finance:
"Regarding the wanton manner in which offices
of the greatest Importance to the inhabitants,
have been filled again and again as if the only
point of moment was to have expedited a royal
appointment or, to obtain a good living for an
individual ION other accounts idle, / will not
express myself further on this OCCASION Yes,
Sir, preferred to livings, which those gentlemen
in their widest flights of ambition never could
DRAM of pniOVinp in their mOthnr- po1OtrV =.
where the highest order of requirements is now
a qualification required, to fill situations of a
like nature there. At all events, be your new
collector of customs whatever he may be, he
has already prepared for him cen dygtig Fuld-
megtig" in Mr.. I. L. Carly.
You must overlook, my dear Sir, that l am
so free-spoken, but as | consider myself about
three-quarter parts an American citizen having
voted in favor of the great, and glorious Ameri-
can nation, expressly by the pressing invitation
of the danish king,-the balance to make me
a full American citizen depends upon the latter
nation fulfilling its part of the contract, the
Danes having accomplished theirs, | have very
naturally adopted that peoples free, and easy
manner of expressing myself, without any arYi-
ere pensee, that a danish press law exists, which,
when it is found eXpedient, can be contOrted into
any shape to suit the Governments notions of
management. vi course L ADMIT, tnaC your
Government yet possesses the unenviable, and
hateful power of indicting me for supposed
'scorn against the Danes here from the mother
country = and that it can engage its doughty
champion, Lawyer Heilbuth to abuse me round
ly, as he has done you, to his hearts content
and who so fit for that kind of work, as that
learned gentleman, who appears to have made
the dictum: "calumriare audacter semper ali
quid h@ret, to his life maxim. | do, however,
by no means scorn the Danes from their mother
country but when one hears such nonsense ex-
pressed, as for instance: ''that certain situations,
fl in the Customs department here, are of such
a nature, that it could not be considered right
in principle. to appoint any one in them who was
born and brought up in the same place where
the situation is,"-which is simply shocking to
our reason, and an outrage on the plain under
standing, one naturally feels a just Indignation
and one cannot otherwise but conclude, that
there is a desire in certain quarters to bring the
natives back under the old arbitrary power,
which once existed; especially when one cannot
possibly doubt, that "Me principle'' as aforesaid,