The Charlotte Journal

From the Louisville Journal.

THE LATE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.

Not long ago, a Locofoco committee, of Boston, addressed a letter of congratulation to Mr. Woodbury, upon his retirement from office. We have not seen the ex-Secretary's reply, but the Madisonian says:

"Mr. Woodbury stated, in his reply to the committee, that 'Government (the late Administration) has gone through some expensive wars, defrayed large current expenditures, executed numerous great public works, extinguished Indian titles to many millions of acres of land, paid off, instead of having created, a permanent debt," &c.

"Gone through some expensive wars!"

Well, we do wonder what that means.

We are curious to know what wars, besides the "Florida war," so called, Mr. Van Buren's administration ever had upon its hands. "Gone through some expensive wars!" Surely the ex-Secretary cannot mean the war upon the Bank, the war upon the currency, and the war upon the national prosperity. "Gone through some expensive wars!" The presumption is, that the ex-Secretary's fancy made half a dozen wars out of the Florida Indian hunt. He no doubt, imagined that the hunt after each separate Indian squad was a separate war; so there was, in the ex-Secretary's fancy, the war with Sam Jones, the war with Wildcat, the war with Jumper, the war with Bowlegs, and the war with Tiger-tail.

"Gone through some expensive wars!"

Why, Mr. Van Buren's Administration did not even go through the Florida Indian hunt, but left it to be closed by the Whig Administration. "Gone through some expensive wars!" Why, Mr. Van Buren himself has not the effrontery to dignify the miserable Indian hunt with the name of a war, but officially informed Congress, in every annual message, that the United States were at peace with the whole world.

"Gone through some expensive wars!"

Out upon the ex-Secretary for a thrice sodden ass.

"Defrayed large current expenditures!"

It is true that the late Administration's current expenditures were large, for that Administration was disgracefully extravagant and profligate. It is not true, however, that the current expenditures were defrayed: they were bequeathed to the amount of millions, in the form of Treasury notes and unliquidated balances, as a legacy of debt to be defrayed by future administrations.

"Executed numerous great public works!"

Pshaw! The great National road, which had for years been making regular progress, came to a dead halt under the last administration, and the valuable implements necessary for carrying it on were sacrificed at public auction for a few dollars to pay the means of thickening the pap of the office holders. And who does not know that, while the Administration, by its vacillating and pusillanimous course, was doing every thing that could be done to embroil the nation in a war with Great Britain, it left the "great public works," necessary to the country's defence in time of war, to fall into utter decay and ruin! What other administration was ever so inattentive to the country's great public works?

Paid off, instead of having created, permanent debt."

Well, that really transcends all we ever before heard or dreamed of impudence. "Paid off, instead of having created, a permanent debt!" President Jackson boasted, on retiring from the Chief Magistracy, that he left the country free from debt, and the whole Locofoco party has been boasting ever since that he did leave it free from debt. Now we do want to know by what miraculous process Mr. Van Buren's administration contrived to pay off a national debt, if there was no debt when that administration went into power.

"Paid off, instead of having created, a permanent debt!" The ex-Secretary by the use of this phrase, seems to admit the undeniable fact that the Van Buren administration did create a debt, but his boast is, that it did not create "a permanent debt." We fully agree that the debt, which the Locofoco administration created, and which went on increasing up to the very close of the existence of that administration, is by no means likely to be "permanent." if, however, it is not destined to be permanent, the only reason is, that the present Whig administration will be enabled to liquidate it by the practice of that rigid economy, which now, for the first time in twelve years, is coming into fashion. If the Locofocos had continued in power, the debt would have been as "permanent" as the everlasting hills.

When is Mr. Woodbury's next epistolary effort to be forthcoming?