Litchfield enquirer., 1878-01-10

or appointments, the latter had given great of l tense to Van Buren and his friends who haC l given him their support. In other words, Var
 Buren wanted the appointments to be madI according to the spells theory while Governo 1 Clinton did not see the matter inthat light. I ] is very certain, also. that while Jefferson
 merely exercised the official patronageto create
 an equilibrium of offices, Van Buren was but
 too ready to destroy that equilibrium, and die
 all in his power, or at least all that decency
 would allow, to establish that wretched system which rewards placemen, and which makes
 use of the entire machinery of government tc
 serve the party in power.
 But if anybody wants to go into the partic.
 ulars in this matter, he has only to look into l The Life and Times of, Martin Van Buren
 the Correspondence of his Friends, Family and
 Pupils, book whiek we swoAld not advis.
 people to read, for theFeason that Horace Wal
 pole repeats Gas the saying of his father) why but few men should kyer be ministers, for it
 kind. Mackenzie, th& author of the book, had
 held place in the New York custom-house, ! and with the knowledge and consent of the authorities, as he claimed, he took occasion to copy theletters of certain officials which eiaYic ed to come into his possession. s.Afterward, be- | ing moved to resign toescape being turned out ! of office, he claimed that he had "a duty to l perform in uncloaking the knaves who figure l in partin this correspondence, the authentic
 ity of which is conceded. Notwithstanding
 this plea of duty, however, there is little cause
 to disagree wsth a reviewer of the time who
 said ''the publication of the letters was piece
 of villainy, though the public are not called
 upon to forget knowledge however obtained, D
 while ''the book bids fair to become a political
 classic if it can outlive the odor of it's bap-
 tism." On this ground it may be proper to
 take fact or two, though the book is most
 unsavory, whether one regards the manner of it's publication, or it's exhibition of gross and all-contrOlling selfshnesS, an utter reckleSSneSs of the public good in comparison with the at- talnment of party spoil"
 Here then, we find Van Buren writing to the potmaster- general at Washington, in 1920, to have two or three subordinates removed in western New York for obstructing the mails, as he claimed, and so intimidate some seven hundred others Of course if there was any truth in this complaint the obstruction related to political documents by means of which if Van Buren's party triumphed, the postmasters understood perfectly we'll that they would lose their places. Then, again, when vice. president in 1884, we find him unwilling to write to the collector of the port of New York in behalf of 8 person who wanted place in the custom house, because, ''on that subject he had written 30 often without success that self respect had compelled him to desist." Now this same collector to whom Mr. Van Bu- ren had written so often, calls himself in one of his letters, ''an old trooper, who had got the bots, the fet-lock, hip joint, gravel halt, and founders, and tells one of his correspondents that his support must come from Martin Van Buren. This was at the beginning of Jackson's administration and we find the ''old trooper" oh oil in the general scramble for plunder remains to be proven, but rather guess shall" He also tells his correspondent that if he expects to get anything ill a certain quarter he must push like devil" The result was that this worthy pushed himself into the New York custom house, and accordngto Mackenzie, robbed the treasury out of $220, ,000, while the old trooper got a collectorship and embedded over $1, ,000,- 900. In consequence of this abuse of patronage unden Jackson and Van Buren, in order to se- cure reelection, Henry Clay thought reme- dial legislation should contemplate among oth- CT things provision to render person ineli- gible to the office of President of the United States after service of one term. This mis- erable shift, this shameful reflection on our uent Hayes to maKe UaU raw TOT IIiflrseir winch IS not provision of the legislature. Ana he has imposed this obligation upon him. seit because that which Webster said in 1885 mas been notoriously true ever since that time of ali iiitRf power ofgving office affects the fears out :" that, as a consetleR hopes of all who are ensues not of patriotic labors; not or -t;ti+en and severe tolls for the public good, not o1 nanliness, independence, and public spirit, but of complaisance, of indiscriminate support ot executive measures, of pliant subserVlence ana gross adulation. All throng and rush togeth- CT to the altar of man-worship and there they GFor HhQtI0O9 thick fumes of their incense turn their heads, and turn also the head of him who is the ob- iect of their idolatry."
 As to the state of things under the successor of the lamented Harrison, 'the history ot our Government wrote Senator Davis, ot Massa- chusetts, honest John, as they used to call him affords no such palpable example o1 the prostitution of executive patronage as un- der John Tyler" Tyler who had an eye to undertook to steer middle course between the Wings and Democrats, ana to gather about him conservative party which should give him it's support. What an apt pu- pil he was of Van Buren andJ Jackson; how he traded in bargain and corruption; and how he distributed patronage right and left, in order to strengthen his chances-are but too well On this point it may be proper to cite an example. It was the case of pollt- ical adventurer still living, and sporting in his green old age a coach and four, who having started out for Washington on borrowed, and still unpaid, funds. is received by the Presl- dent with open arms, is talked with about be- ing appointed appraiser of hardware, because he says, the pres!dent is determined to remove the appraisers and put Democrats in office. IS finally offered a consulship at $1, 300 year, mostly in feet, while the consulship at Rio Jan- eiro being vacant, and being worthe $G, OOO, he
 in ly takes up. however, with the consulshlp ot- fered, and with pecuniary result which made him sadder if not wiser man. Here, then, is typical office seeker, and typical patron; the one poppous, brazen, and ignorant tel- low who has no earthly consideration beyond his fees the other vain, ambitious man who has no earthly consideration except to strength en his party by adding another friend and sup porter to his official retinue. What an infinite degradation compared with the example of Washington? And now we think the reader cap understand why, as Dr. Cotton wrote Tn 1857, the. home and foreign service of our gov ernment had become the poorest in the world all from the innovation of General Jackson, while Henry Clay declared that the result of these principles would be to convert the nation into one perpetual theater for political gladla- tors. and that there would be one universal scramble for public offices.
 How matters have gone on since Tyler's time: how the atrocious doctrine of the spells
 has become identified with our entire system of municipal, state and national politics; how each change of administration hasbeen follow ed by system of removals and appointments
 which faisified every principle laid down and acted upon by our early presidents; what part
 this system played in bringing on the rebellion
 when multitudes of Southern ofice-holders
 surrendered forts and custom-houses while large
 numbers in the army and navy resigned, and
 as Mir. Lincoln said in his special message to
 Congress, proved false to the hand which had
 pampered them;" what has been the nature
 of Southern appointments since the war, as
 well as the capricious and arbitrary character
 of removals including as we are told, twenty
 three department secretaries; what the Obsta-
 cles to reform at the hands of Congress in
 which the very power which is to confirm nom-
 nations has taken upon itself to make them or
 defeat them according to partisan and selfish
 purposes what that shameful state of things
 which within the past eight years includes in
 it's list of corruption or suspicion more high of icials than in all our political history dowr 1 to the time of Jackson; what the scandal anC standing peril of the republic in view of the