Year: 1861

The position of President of the United States
is so high above the reach of ordinary ambition,
that if man who had never distinguished him.
self in the councils of the nation. were to an
nounce himself a candidate to fill 1t, the people
would regard him as beside himself; and yet,
what is it more than oppressive honor? There
are hereditary titles attached to it, which can
be transmitted, with an estate, to mans chill
dren; and unless those children are gifted or ed
ucated in an extraordinary degree, their want of
these qualities render them all the more con-
temptible from the prominence into which they
are thrust by accident


From the time the President first takes the
oath of Office and assumes its duties, his vexa-
tions and fatigues are almost of crushing weight.
If there were no international affairs to command
untiring watchfulness; no laws of Congress to be
perused and signed; no messages to write; no
cabinet to be conciliated no unusual contingen-
cies to arise during his term the labor of dis
posing of the numerous Offices, for which there
are tens Of thousands of importunate applica-
tions, are enough of themselves to crush the life
out of him. However happily he may have lived





taken in the society of friends and books at
home; these sweet enjoyments are at once for
hidden, and the heartless formalities of official
station interposed. Health becomes precarious-
peace is a thing entirely unknown.


Those good old men, Gems. Harrison and
Taylor were unequal to the labors of the Presi-
dental station. Death soon relieved them of
its cares. Mr.. Polk did not long survive his
honors; and it were much better for Mr..
Buchanan if he had died before ever stepping
foot across the threshold of the Presidential
mansion. If these men were harassed. perplexed
and three of them actually killed by the arduous
labors they had to perform, in times of profound
peace, and when the country was prosperous be-
yond all precedent, what must not be the pros
tration of body-the acute mental anxiety of Mr.
Lincoln, under the peculiar circumstances
rounding him-threatened with assassination
called upon to make an entire change in the
civil polity of the Government; to dispose of its
immense patronage; to reconstruct almost en-
tirely our diplomatic system to weed out traitors
from the army and navy; to put down rebellion
in eleven or twelve States of the Union and so
act, generally, in the vacation of Congress- as to
meet with its appreciation and support when it
assemblies, as true and faithful Executive
officer of this great and glorious Government
ought to do ?-what, we repeat, must be his feel
ings, emotions, passions and struggles, under
such an oppressive combination of human ills?


Who would be President? God forbid that
any horoscope of ours should ever have indicated
the passage of SO yawning gulf as that which
lies between our insignifcance of individuality
and the high position indicated. Give US, rather,
ga home in the valley we love-" enough bread
and potatoes to eat; a conscience at ease; sufh-
cient money to supply the conveniences of re-
spectacle life and stop the prosecutions of clam
orous debtors and any of our friends or
quaintances may mount the car which leads to
that kind of promotion. Our track debouches
into the grottoes of domestic felicity.