ceived as those of an impartial judge. We are firm In the conviction that among the greatest evils with which our beloved country is or can be afflicted is the hankering after office. It is a curse alike pernicious to the general and to individual welfare. Instances everywhere abound of men with good trades or with talent and abilities to insure success in any honest and independent calling, who have neglected their business in hopes of securing an office. They forsake the certain means of subsistence, if not independence, which their business offers for the uncertainly of office. A regular business is neglected or given up for two or three years’ enjoyment of office; the emolument of which is barely sufficient to afford a living. Suffering a constant tax on his time and purse, and the formation of idle, dissolute or unsettled habits, he soon finds himself turned out to make room for some new favourite. It has been truly asserted that “nothing so much unfits a man for the usual occupations of life as office. The habit of having a salary to depend upon, lakes away the common stimulus to exertion, and the idleness often attendant upon office, leads to a great many bad habits difficult to correct. Salary men generally spend all their salaries, and have but little to lay up for sickness or old age. A rich office-holder is generally a novelty, and a contented office-bolder is a greater novelty still.”
The Public welfare is no less endangered by this inordinate thirst for office, since experience has so frequently demonstrated the fact that measures of great national importance have been adopted or neglected solely with reference to their effects upon party. The paramount interests of the state or the country have been too often sacrificed in the unworthy scramble for office. In the declaration that “to the victors belong the spoils,” the monstrous principle has been avowed of “spoils and plunder;” as though the enlightened freemen of the country of Washington were called on to exercise the glorious right of suffrage not to preserve our free institution, not to promote the general welfare, not to maintain the prosperity which the country has so largely participated in, or to perpetuate the liberties with which we are blessed, not for objects so sacred as these, but for the unworthy and unhallowed purpose of plunder!! Though judicious changes in office may at times be proper and necessary, yet the idea of holding up the offices of the country as “rewards and spoils” for reckless partizans is a sentiment that should be reprobated by every true American.
SYNOPSIS,
Maine. Settled 1630, by English; 32,000 square miles; capital Augusta; General Election second Monday in September; Legislature meet first Wednesday in January; Voters must reside in the state three months before any election; sends Members of Congress, 8; Electors, 10.
New Hampshire. Settled 1623, by English; 9,500 square miles; capital Concord; General Election second Tuesday in March; Legislature meets on the first Wednesday in June; Voters require no other qualification than to be twenty-one years of age; sends Members of Congress, 6; Electors. 7.
Massachusetts. Settled 1620, by English; 7,500 square miles; capital Boston; General Election second Monday in November; Legislature meet first Wednesday in January; Voters, one year’s residence in the state, and have paid a state or county tax; sends Members of Congress, 12; Electors, 14.
Vermont. Settled 1749, by English: 10,200 square miles; capital Montpelier; General Election first Tuesday in September; Legislature meet second Thursday in October; Voters, to reside in the state one year; sends Members of Congress, 5; Electors, 7.
Rhode Island. Settled 1636, by English; 1,360 square miles; capital Providence; General Election for governor and senators in April; for representatives in April and August; Legislature meet first Wednesday in June and last Wednesday in October; Voters must be resident in the state three months, and have a freehold of 134 dollars; sends Members of Congress, 2; Electors, 4.
Connecticut. Settled 1633, by English; 4,760 square miles; capital New Haven; General Election first Monday in April; Legislature meet first Wednesday in May; Voters to hold a freehold of 7 dollars per annum, or have done Military duty, paid a state tax, and taken the prescribed oath; sends Members of Congress, 6; Electors, 8.
New York. Settled 1614, by Dutch; 46,000 square miles; capital Albany; General Election first Monday in Nov. 3 days; Legislature meet first Tuesday in January; Voters, citizens 21 years of age, inhabitants of state for last year, and resident of county for last six months; coloured men, a freehold of 230 dollars, paid taxes, and been a citizen three years; sends Members of Congress, 40; Electors, 42.
New Jersey. Settled 1624, by Danes; 8,300 square miles; capital Trenton; General Election, second Tuesday in October; Voters, to be citizens of the state one year, and worth fifty pounds proclamation money; sends Members of Congress, 6; Electors, 8.
Pennsylvania. Settled 1682, by English; 44,000 sq. miles; capital Harrisburg; Gen. Elec. 2d Tuesday in Oct.; Legislature meet 1st Tues. in Jan.; Voters, white, one year in state, 10 days where voting, and pay tax assessed 10 days before election, between 21 and 22 vote without tax; sends Mem. of Con., 28.; Electors, 30.
Delaware. Settled 1627, by Swedes and Fins; 2,100 square miles; capital Dover; General Election 2d Tuesday in October, or November; Legislature meet first Tuesday in January; Voters, the same qualifications required as in Pennsylvania; sends members of Congress, 1; Electors. 3.
Maryland. Settled 1634, by English; 14,000 square miles; capital Anapolis; General Election first Monday in October; Legislature meet first Monday in December; Voters, one year’s residence in the county where he shall offer to vote; sends Members of Congress, 8; Electors. 10.
Virginia. Settled 1607, by English; 64,000 square miles; capital Richmond; General Election in April; Legislature meet first Monday in December; Voters, freehold of value of 25 dollars, or been a housekeeper one year, or been assessed, amounts to almost universal suffrage; sends Members of Congress, 21; Electors, 23.
North Carolina. Settled 1650, by English; 48,000 square miles; capital Raleigh; General Election in August; Legislature meet second Monday in
