The Columbian

EDITORS COLUMBIAN:-

You are well aware that a wide difference of opinion, politically, has always existed between us. You, for instance, always hold to the doctrine that 'powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution nor prohibited to it by the States,' as mentioned in the tenth amendment, are reserved for the action of the States, while we believed it to be at the decision of the people and their national representatives; you therefore believed Congress to have no right to exclude slavery from the Territories: we believed it had with our consent, as the majority of the people should have the right to decide on the common property of the nation. You believed that article 4th. section 2,-3. should be kept in good faith toward the slave States though they went out in rebellion: we believed ourselves not to be bound by that article in case they rebelled. You believed under our Constitutional connections, we had no right to deprive them of 'chattels' even though they were being used to gain their independence, and we thought just to the contrary, and though each one believes the other to be in error, yet we cannot accuse each other with hypocrisy, since we have always practiced those opinions. But those flopping over from one extreme to the other, then, coming back perhaps half way, then wriggling to one or the other extremes, owing to which one pays best—must always be considered double-faced and unreliable.

As a fair index for such an arrant knave on our side of the political line, Palemon John, formerly the Shickshinny milk and sugar Doctor, is a good specimen. Up to '56 he was operating in your party, having written political essays in 1854-55 for the Star of the North. In 1856 Simon Cameron offered to furnish him a press or loan him the money to buy one, it is said, if Palemon would go for Cameron, and he went, as we all knew, and was then on our side. From 1857 to 1861 he was very friendly to the Old Line Whigs, supporting Wm. G. Hurley for Congress, and proclaiming from time to time that the Republican party was, politically, about the same as the Whigs—this he said at that time because that party had built up his subscription list, and one of the main stays of that party; had loaned him five or six hundred dollars, (giving Palemon his own time to pay it in) so that he should not want, for he was quite poor.

After 1861. Cameron told him the time had come for him to commence abusing the Whigs if he would become truly great in the future, and secure the Post-Office at that time to be let, which of course he did by pointing out Wm. B. Reed as a traitor, but saying nothing better could be expected as he was an Old Line Whig, thus shamefully abusing some nine hundred of his subscribers from time to time, because it pleased Cameron who had been a Democrat up to 1855, opposing the Whigs, was now Secretary of War, and was ready to assist any one sufficiently small and mean to do his dirty work, and of course held the soul, body and breeches of Palemon (the first mentioned being quite small) somewhere between earth and heaven.

In the Spring of 1862, Palemon was inclined to be quite radical, giving Burnside right for not 'doing homage' to the slave-holders of North Carolina inside of his lines, who would not take the oath of allegiance. And he also justified Butler who was 'putting on the screws' at New Orleans; but, soon after, seeing Burnside suspended, and Reverdy Johnson, a Maryland slave-holder, looking after Butler, he changed his political step to suit the 'rosewater' tune of Post-Master Blair at Washington, who now had full control of Palemon through the power of the Post-Office: he therefore sanctions the action of the Cabinet in suspending Fremont, who was ordered to the valley to save the Capitol, which now being safe, the General must be lowered because he had liberated some slaves of rebels, officers of high standing in the Confederate service, although the 'rosewater' step almost annihilated the army of the Potomac, because it left the rebel General Jackson free to unite with Lee in turning 'Little Mac's' right wing under McCall, which brought on the other five days fight so destructive to our army.

In 1863-64 he was quite radical, declaring the rebel slave-holders to have forfeited all rights under the Constitution. But, in the summer of 1865, having wormed himself into the Assessorship somehow, he was quite conservative; for he gave warm support to the President, who was pardoning the high official rebels by the score and by the regiment, sending them home to become the Senators and Governors of their respective States, and continuing the same friendly greetings in the Spring of 1866. First, by way of letters written to his Excellency, the President, assuring him of a continued support, and next he defended Andrew for vetoing the Freedman's Bureau Bill and the Civil Rights Bill by saying that the President was not opposed to a bill of the first, and he had done nothing more than performed his high Constitutional privilege by vetoing the second. From this, it must be seen that he had left his friend Simon, and the thousand dollars to support the President who was retaining him in the fifteen hundred dollar salary; but Andy didn't want such precarious support and sent the name of Mr. Clark to the Senate for confirmation, which being done, Palemon says, through an editorial, that 'the breach between the President and Republican party is deep and wide.'

Had President Johnson continued him in the ASSESSORSHIP, Palemon would be to-day a good Conservative, we have no doubt, and if he could be made President of this nation by pursuing Johnson's 'policy,' no one in looking over his past scrambling for pelf, would for one instant doubt but that he would joyously accept the office.