Republican Herald

SENATOR KNIGHT.

'Sir, I have said that these memorialists were of all classes of working business men, but there is one class of the community, who have not joined in this memorial—the office-holders and those who share the spoils—they feel no burthen on them, and do not ask for relief.'—Senator Knight's Speech.

The above is the extraordinary declaration of Senator Knight on presenting to the Senate the Providence Manifesto, against the Constitutional authorities of the Government and the liberties of the people. In servile imitation of his superiors he attempted to make a speech on presenting that singular and injudicious document, and availed himself of the opportunity of fixing a stigma upon a portion of his fellow citizens, because they did not sign their names to it. 'The office holders and those who share the spoils,' exclaims our Senator, feel no pressure, and 'do not ask for relief'!!! Extraordinary declaration!. Senator Knight talks about office holders and those who share the spoils. It is inconceivable! It is past comprehension, how this man dare venture upon such ground. Who is Nehemiah R. Knight? that he claims to hold those in office in such sovereign contempt? One would imagine he was a very 'Cincinnatus'!! We should suppose he never held an office in his whole life. We should judge he contemned office as he would a pestilence. Suppose we should recur to his own history, we ask in what period of his life should we find him not in office and 'sharing the spoils'? To what is he indebted to the prosperity which now surrounds him? Is it not to office, and nothing but office? Almost from his cradle to the present moment, he has been the pampered favorite of office. In times gone by, when the changes of parties portended a change of men, and indicated to him the danger of a political revolution, we shall find him clinging to office with all the pertinacity of a Shylock to his gold! Aye—in times gone by, when the whole country was agitated by a similar action against the government of the country as now disgraces the Senate, and were plotting the disunion of the federal compact, we shall find our Hon. Senator, evincing premonitory symptoms of secession from his professed republicanism, and on the very eve of joining the enemies of his government, and of aiding and assisting those who endeavored to bring it into disrepute and thwart its salutary operations.

What was it that then saved him from an apostasy from his professed republican principles, which must have been as ungrateful in him then, as his present apostasy from his friends is now, disreputable? Office! office! His appointment as Clerk of the District Court of this District, dissipated, for a while, all his premonitory symptoms of revolt from the republican party, and so long as he snugly enjoyed its 'spoils,' the patriotism of Senator Knight remained untarnished with apostatised ingratitude, though it were often and repeatedly suspected.

If we come down to later periods of his life, when his friends again stepped forward and promoted him to his present situation, we shall find in him another exemplification of his ruling passion, and see him casting off one office, which afforded but little 'spoil,' and seizing upon another, whose 'spoils' were more enticing! This is but a faint outline of our Hon. Senator, who now thinks it disgraceful to hold an office, and who tauntingly insults his fellow citizens in the Senate, with the declaration that the office holders and spoil sharers feel no pressure, and do not ask for relief.