Martinsburg Gazette And Public Advertiser

LETTERS.

My old friend:

The good work of reform goes on well, although it is a pretty tough business. It requires hearts of iron, and nerves of steel. Public opinion was not entirely prepared for it. Then there was so much private distress occasioned by turning out so many, that the public sympathy was very near being excited in their favor. The General has relaxed a little the vigor of the law. He must humor the spirit of the times in order more effectually to accomplish the great work. Be assured we shall not relent while a man remains, on whom the salutary principle can operate. We have done very well for the first nine months; to proscription to be efficient must be thorough, radical and searching. We made a great mistake in the beginning, in deference to the scruples of the President. We ought to have cut the Gordian knot at once; the higher the example the better. McLean, the Postmaster ought to have been dismissed; he had not been very faithful to Mr. Adams, and he could not expect much sympathy from that quarter; he took one of our most valuable gifts, without having rendered the slightest service to the party; then we gained nothing by him: he was dissatisfied, and has been a bird of evil omen ever since. We have, you observe, already got possession of all the principal offices; the heads of Departments, Ministers to foreign countries, Collectors, Postmasters, &c &c. The changes are going on rapidly. The Post Office Department alone is thirty thousand strong. While we have punished our enemies, we have rewarded our friends. We selected the ablest men from Congress, and among them those who had spent most time and money during the election. They have received a full equivalent for their service. Besides this, we have rewarded more than forty Editors of newspapers--surely the laborer is worthy of his hire! They still retain a control over their papers, and thus we have a powerful talisman, and by a strong array of talent, wield the press and direct public opinion. With the popularity of the President, the patronage of his office, the power of the press, and the discipline of party, we can look down opposition; and do what we please. Never was a party bound together by stronger ties of interest. The President is the source of all power; the centre round which the partisans and their satellites revolve; he diffuses light and heat through the whole system.

We have fully established the principle of proscription, but we were not able to carry it into effect at once. Several officers have been retained until ours learn their duty; it is a work of time.

It appears to me to disclose a new and beautiful theory of Government which has never been conceived, in ancient or modern times. It gives the President all power, while it preserves all the forms of a balanced government. He exercises that power by influence, which all Governments must have, and which they are obliged to obtain by corrupt means, or by prerogative. It has all the advantages of monarchy, without the odium or the evils. A man of prerogative stands alone; but here the President is sustained by the force and spirit of a party, whose known rule of discipline is submission and obedience, by a numerous press, which applauds all that he does or says: by all the zeal of public officers, the hopes of expectants, and by both Houses of Congress, elected under solemn pledges to support him, and who are known and designated as his men. All things are done by the forms of law, and the People believe it is they who are acting through him; and we must encourage the delusion. In eight years he will accomplish his mission; he will then cement his power, and perpetuate himself. A finger already points to the man who is to succeed to the party; and they will rally around him, as the faithful do around the banner of the Prophet.

I have grown very wise, and, therefore, very grave: but I like to follow out all the great results of this glorious revolution, and this second reformation. You know old Mr. Jones, the first Clerk in the Treasury; he had been here ever since you first came to Congress. Poor old fellow! he was turned out; but he was soon relieved from his distress; he died in three months after, and only lost a quarter's salary. And old Mr. Nourse, too. These old Revolutionary men never die, and never resign. There ought to be an act of limitation to office, as well as to their claims; it is time they should withdraw, and give up the offices to those who fought in the last war, and to those who won the victory in the past election. In turning him out, however, the President very kindly admonished him of his age--advised him to make up his accounts for the next world, and to prepare for the next great change that awaited him--not of administration--but from time to eternity, and to be ready for the final judgment.

Our feelings were put to the test, in a noted case in Maine; but our principles triumphed. We had to turn out a Collector--an officer who fought during the whole Revolution, received two wounds, had a large family, was poor--(I wonder they did not make fortunes in the Revolution,) and had, moreover, been 27 years in office; an old republican, of the Jeffersonian school, and recommended by two-thirds of the ship-owners of the place. If we had hesitated, all was lost; we appointed a Scotsman, who had been useful; he belonged to a little knot of fellows in that State, who had been very active, and had mutually recommended each other. The Senate did not hesitate a moment. Adieu.