Daily Richmond Whig

Richmond Whig.

THURSDAY MORNING, APRIL 1, 1830.

Swartwout, the Collector of New York, has been confirmed, after, it is supposed, an arduous scrutiny and struggle. The opinion prevails that he was saved by Tariff and probably Opposition votes, having proved himself an active officer in enforcing Tariff regulations. One of the New York Senators, (Mr. Dudley) and possibly the other, were stated to be hostile. Believing that the President was as much concerned with Burr as Swartwout, it strikes us that if the one is sufficiently purified to wear the robes of the first magistracy, the other may be considered worthy of a Collectorship. The Camel, as Mr. Barton says, having been swallowed with "complacency," it were ridiculous to strain at the gnat.

But the Senate have read another rebuke to the President, in the rejection of Mr. J. P. Decatur as Collector of Portsmouth, and Mr. Cushman as U. States' Attorney for N. Hampshire. Decatur was the leader in the burning of Mr. Bartlett's effigy at the N. Hampshire Presidential election. That was no doubt an argument for rewarding him. What must be the character of appointments, which a Jackson majority refuse to confirm? What must be the fitness of the man for the Presidency, who is so ignorant of character, or so resolved to reward his tools at public expense, as to make nominations, which the most devoted of parties cannot reconcile it to their oaths and consciences to approve?

Could stronger evidence of unfitness be asked? Will any man pretend, that he has not furnished irrefragible proof of his incompetency, and justified all that was predicted of his incapacity? Happy would it be for his historical reputation, if the egregious impropriety of many of his appointments, could be successfully traced to sheer ignorance; but a thousand facts proclaim that his heart is more in fault than his head; and that acting upon the one principle, of rewarding the instruments of his unhappy success, he has used the Presidential Office as a private fund, and done wrong with his eyes open. See the letter from Washington.