National Republican., 1882-12-13
Past and Present.

llOlu hluBWllCll, Ill lJlCh EMS . NTCdU ENnpC-
tatons, just escaped from prison, and demand
ing of little Pip some victuals, and a file with
which to remove tho chain and ball from his
leg, had undertaken to teach his terrified lis
tener the Lords prayer, it would not have
been more ludicrous than the lectures now be-
ing administered by hardened old democratic
sinners to the republicans on the subject of
the immortality of using patronage for poiti-
cal purposes. Said STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS in
the United States senate on the 18th of June,
1853, JAMES BUCHANAN, the last democratic
president, being then In power:
BY whom and by what means has this disor-
ganizing NOV ement been devised and attempted
to be executed
He was alluding to a boiling state conven-
tion in Illinois, in opposition to the regular
democratic party. He continued:
I regret to say that IL has been done under the
auspices of man who holds an appointment
under the federal government and who pretends
that he is carrying out the policy and wishes Of
the administration in his efforts to divide and
defeat the democratic party. Being the special
agent Of the Post Office department, and having
the general superintendence Of all the mails,
postmasters, and route agents in the state,
and free pass over all the railroad,
he has prostituted the trust confded in him, by
threatening all the postmasters and route-agents,
and Office holders of every description, with i'm
mediate removal from office If they did not bolt
the regular democratic nominations. l
have now in my possession several letters which
found their way into the newspapers, written by
the postmaster at Chicago to other postmasters in
the state, urging them to lie appointed delegates
ifpossible and if they failed to go TO the boilers
convention on their own account, without con-
stituency with a distinct intimation that If they
did not do so they would lose their Offices = =
Mr.. DOUGLAS being asked if he charged the
president with these things replied;
The meannesss, yea the infamy, of the act is too
monstrous to admit of belief. Yet 1t is undenia-
BILE that these things are being done daily in the
name, and profe ssedly by the authority, of the
administration. refusal to disavow the
authority, after full knowledge of the facts shall
have been brought home to the administration,
should, of course, be regarded and treated as an
approval and Endorsements ofthe act as having been
done by authority-( Cong. Globe, part 8, LIST SesS..
S5 Congress, p. 5055).
The administration of JAMES BUCHANAN re-
fused to disavow the authority, and it stands
branded as above to this day. The wit and
logic of the democratic writers and orators are
exhausted in replying to all this that they are
discussing 1882, and not 1858, and that repub-
lican delinquencies are not excused by citing
those of twenty-five years ago. They would
have it appear that the democratic leopard had
changed his spots. But the statement of Mr..
DOUGLAS was made during the decline and just
before the fall of the democratic empire. The
presidential power of appointment was used
to punish senator for refusing to aid in fore
ing slavery into the territory of Kansas, and
the offices were offered as rewards to those
who would aid in tearing down the demo-
cratic party of Illinois because it refused to
worship the ebony idol of slavery, to whose
priests the president was slave.
The senator prevailed. The offices were
thenceforward bestowed solely in exchange
for votes in the Charleston convention Of 1860.
single Office was broken into fragments
and the pieces divided between shameless and
hungry delegates. The only reason why no
democratic administration has INDUCED in
such practices since is because there has been
none, except by brevet, when ANDREW JOHN
SON pooled the offices with the democratic
assets in n desperate endeavor to defeat tho
republican party. Does any man suppose
that if the democrats could regain power they
would not grab the offices instanter as they
did in senate and house, and bleed them for
campaign money in the same way?
But all this is not an answer to the charges
that are made of the improper use of patron
age by republican administration. Not at
all. But there is an answer, and true one,
which will be burned into the forehead of the
democratic party. That answer is, that the
charges are false. Let the resolution of Mr..
BECK be adopted and an immediate investiga-
tion be had. The result will cover with con-
fusion the rampant demagogues who bluster
and rail against the President and the cabinet
on the strength of cheap and oft-denied cam
paign falsehood.