Martinsburg Gazette And Public Advertiser

From the New England Galaxy, of March 20.

The Time.—You hear, and see, and some of you, perhaps, readers, feel the great rustling, bustle, and agitation, occasioned among the ins and outs, by the accession of the new Administration. We see people gathering in groups at every corner with variety of aspects; some wearing hopeful countenances, some anxious and doubtful, and some merely curious; with fifty questions to one answer, and fifty idle rumours to one fact. The great questions are, who is going or gone out, and who is come or coming in. These are questions in which nineteen out of twenty, if not ninety nine of a hundred of you are, like ourselves, merely lookers-on, and auditors—political amateurs—being and expecting to be on the outside, so that we are, in a double sense on one side; without any other interest except that of curiosity; and free from all anxiety except anxiety about the news; not that we shall necessarily remain indifferent as to who is acting and what is doing; for, in due time, as men and measures begin to emerge from these political elements, now in some confusion, we shall no doubt have occasion to form and express opinions of men and things. But at present we may amuse ourselves with general reflections during the prelude and prologue to the new drama."

and, in the first place, this rush for places and general curiosity about Executive appointments to office, has a bad influence in one respect, as it instils the notion that all the patriotic eloquence we listen to, from time to time, about the country, the public, the Government, is inspired by ambition and love of personal aggrandizement, and that, in the career of politics, every thing depends not on any principles, good or bad, so much as upon personal combinations and attachments; for nobody can point out any political principles or measures upon which the community is divided. We cannot even guess at any material change in the policy of the Government. The whole contest in the community is about men who are themselves contending about office. And for the very reason that no principle, privilege, or right is at stake, it is one of the most corrupting contests by which a community can be disturbed.

The papers throughout the country have been filled with attacks upon Mr. Adams and Mr. Clay, charging them with corruption because Mr. Clay was active and efficient in procuring Mr. Adams's election; and yet these papers do not hesitate to claim of the President that his appointments to office must be made principally with reference to the activity and zeal of the applicant in supporting his election.

[Conn. Courier.