PAPERS OF MIRABEAU BuoNAPARTE LAMAR
11
No. 2198. EDITORIAL: ANONYMOUS
, [New&paper Clipping] [October? 1845] We shall certainly set up for prophets, even in our own country. We promised M[r] Tyler's cabinet that resist as they might the postage reform, Congress and the people would carry it over their heads, before the next administration were comfortably settled in their seats. Mr. Wickliffe, and his co-adjutors were respectable, well disposed men, but not over far-sighted, and when a genuine American came among them, they felt very much as a parcel of small dogs with a St. Bernard in their midst, may be supposed to feel. They could not understand the monster. He might be good natured and harmless, but then again, he might crush them with his great foot, or swallow them in a fit of ill- temper, if they came in his way. We do not accuse the present cabinet of any thing beyond a delicate, courtly, lady-like sort of non-committalism. We may be mistaken, but they do remind us amazingly of the dandy who saw the child drowning in a brook, and had to wait to take off his gloves, and put on his india- rubbers before he could go to the rescue. There is much to do, and the people will have it done, if they have to "change their help" (as thrifty housewifes say,) and get the other ·party to carry through the work. They want an entire reform in our military organization, and if Mr. Polk is too long in taking off his gloves, the people will try what other statesmen will do. He may rest assured that a second term of negatives and non-committalism will be rejected. The whole nation is sick of partyism. That a few hundred men should, under the name of party leaders, rule everything, and too often in utter disregard of the known wishes of the slighted millions; or that a press established for the benefit of this usurping minority should be supported by the public treasury, has been too long the case. The evil has wrought its own crisis: the government must deal more honestly by the press, and use a decent and impartial economy in creating and distributing its printing patronage, or it must be content to receive the cold treatment which a want of confidence in its business integrity must inspire. This, however, is but one trifling item of what the present admin- istration must do if it expects to sustain a respectable existence. It must re-organize the army and navy on republican common sense prin- ciples; it must stop the tremendous waste in military appropriation; it must speak with more openness and candor on our foreign relations, and it must be careful not to sacrifice a single ray of republicanism in Africa or Oregon. This is the popular resolve, and if Mr. Polk evades or abates one tittle of this it would be better for his fame never to have been President. ·
No. 2199. HAMILTON P. BEE TO LA:MAR
Washington on the Brazos November. 14. 1845
Gen. M. B LAMAR.
[Galveston? Texas]
DEAR Srn
I learned in conwrsation with l\fr. H. L. Upsher, who is compiling. a map of Nacogdoches County that he had discovered several vacant
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