New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-02-08

NEW Ohh
where men Of great fortune are collected, as IL
may keep the idle from being much worse en-
| ployed. But here think they hurtful. They
| interfere with the business of the public. and
instead Of employing only the idle have tendency
| TO make men idle who should be better employed
| Indeed from these small BEGINNINGS | fear we
| shall follow on, cease till we have reached
the summit of court etiquette. and all the frlvo-
tiles, fOppcries and expense practiscd in European
Governments. l grieve TO think that many lndi-
| vduals among us are aiming at these objects
with increasing vigilance" He never can keep
his hands off the president long, and the
| following exempliGes his usual mode of speaking
| about him His pride obsinacy and folly are
equal to his vanity and although it is common
| observation that fools are the tools of knaves-
| and | am certain weak men often brought
| forward with such views-yet John Adams has
served to illustrate two points at least with me-
| viz. that a fool is the most unmanagcable of all
brutes and that lattery is the most nksome OF all
service
Speaking of the judiciary bill. which Of course
| he was fighting general principles. he calls IL
81 this vile bill"-a phrase often in his mouth
Again a cut at Adams: adams behaved with
studied nattenton. He was snuffling up his
nose kicking his heels or talking and staggering
with Otis the whole time was up Otis. secre-
tary Of the Senate, was another man against
whom Maclay continually eXclams as creature
of Adams as incapable in his office. as VILLAIN
and "rogueo etc. etc. The levee continually
cxasperates him. and once he says. apropos of 1t
Republicans are borne down by fashion and
fear of being charged with want of respect 10
General Washington. If there is treason in the
I hut In
General Washington were in heaven! We would
not then have him brought forward as the con-
slant cover to every unconstitutional and IRE
publican act" As to Hamilton this universal!
censor can scarcely contain his choer when 1t
becomes necessary to name the Secretary, and he
thinks no vituperative epthet too strong Tor
application to him. The journal indeed, so
abounds with this kind of language as TO CON
vey the impression that it was written in chronic
rage or that, if the spirit which informs 1t was
the normal state of the writer's mind he must
have been. as said Of Carlyle, gay Ill 10
live vii" 1t is amusing to observe the nave
manner in which he accuses everybody who differs
from him of folly or corruptncss and the simple
confidence with which he assumes that whatever
his views may he is necessarily right. The
corolary that whoever opposes those views IS
occasionally wrong is not enough for Maclay, how
that his opponents must be wicked as well as
mistaken The madmar believes that he alone is
sane and all the rest of the world lunatlc, ana
really there is not much distinction between TINS
position and that of Maclay.
The Senate, in which he served three sessions
of the Ist Congress, he refers TO as a nest OF
vpers," and, judging from his characterize l'h'
of most of the members individually, IT must have
contained remarkably profigate collection OF
ophidians. Once twice he speaks faVorapIF oil
a Senator but the reader has only 10 proceed WIN
the journal and he is certain 10 reach tiinc
when the mask falls of. and the once approved
member stands convicted of the most na@luoua
acts or purposes. Naturally the legislation a les
of vipers would prefer 10 handle woulH De W.,
and so il is found in Maclays ycraciouS, cahuIu
and temperate chronicle. The only wonder IS ina
the senate in which he had so many weird cA-
periences did not contribute more to penal st"tls
tics than to history, and that the American PEG
ple did not rise in their might and abolish the
dreadfully bad laws perpetrated by TINS U9nu Vi
miscreants. What pity, too, that WlInahl
Naclay did not write history of the United
states. knowing so many things which were
concealed from his contemporaries ana Their pos.
terity how he would have Illuminated the past.
We should have had from him por,,Tdlts OF III"
Fathers which would have made us all thoroughly
ashamed of those now yenera'ed pcrsonaees. we
should have seen the Government rising In cor
ruption violating the Constitution at every sep
and progressing steadily in treason, sTataPeuS ana
spols to the present DAY. We should nave caThcd
TO despis. our forcrunners and to dlSlrlst Our
peers and the prccedents furnished MS would nave
certainly ruined our morals in convincing us mat
honesty was not the best policy all assertions To
the contrary notwithstanding. but MaclaA Gon.
tented himself with slandcrng his contemporaries;
and though in his own time he was by no means
accorded high consideration the me!e lerocltN ana
promiscuity of his attacks have caused his Jour
nal" TO be withheld from publication as though
il had been the Memoirs Of an American lalcy-
rand. and il is now fourshed forth with the IN
timation that the time has at last come for re-
vising our views and impressions of the subjects
of the mans abuse.
The necessity for such review of history, how
ever is not apparent The American public IS
pood-humored and tolerant. 1t will accept Will
lam Maclay's Journal as curious ana not IN
interesting contribution to the literature OF the
morbid. and it will derive amusement from the
spectace of this bitter and calnmnlous writer,
who unsuspectingly drew his own hard-featured
nortrait while endeayoring TO liberate his mind OF
the malignity which weighed upon 1t. But 1t VIII
not consent to revise history on the "ipse dlXlt
of William Maclay any other CHRONIC snaref
and carper On the contrary, 1t VIII smile al the
ingenious suggestion, and having read this &c
centric rentleman's Journal" will content itself
with labelling him as type of the kind immor-
tolized by Hood a man who, when he retrcS TO
rest,
d" Lies like a hedgehog rolled up the wrong way,
Tormenting himself with his prickles.
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