National Degeneration!
What a consummate band of scamps wield the destinies of this nation. From President to Treasurer, and Collector, and official Sexton, all is black-mail, fornication, ballot-stuffing, and unblushing robbery. Who can respect a President, who will permit such a villain as James Gordon Bennett to be a guest at his table, and dictate his domestic and foreign appointments, and demand the publication of the “List of Letters” in his chameleon and most infamous Journal, to the exclusion of the New York Sun, which has the highest city circulation, and which should publish the Letters according to the Acts of Congress. Did not Bennett first support George Law, and then Fremont, down to the last hour of the election? And did he not traduce Buchanan, as no other man in America? And why does Buchanan kiss the rod that strove to smite him? And why does he permit him to visit the White House, as his most distinguished guest? Is it because he fears he will expose the motive of his intimate relations with Daniel E. Sickles, and give some curious reminiscences of Fanny White’s notorious tour in Europe, while Dan was his Private Secretary and flying Minister to Spain? Ostensibly, it was Buchanan’s fear of Bennett’s hostility to his Kansas views, but in reality, it was his dread of Bennett’s disclosure of hellish domestic events, during Fanny White’s European pilgrimage, that induced Buchanan to proffer Bennett the freedom of the White House, and that forced him to unite Bennett and Sickles in perpetual friendship. I can show where Bennett squints at Dan and Fan and Buck in the Herald, which shook the White House to its deep foundation. Two famous harlots long kept Daniel E. Sickles and Emanuel B. Hart, and the latter lives with a woman now, on the principles of Turkish Free Love. Fanny White kept Sickles until he went to board with a dancing master, whose wife he soon allures from the bed of her husband, and drives him from his own house. He then seduces their daughter, a mere child, who became six month’s pregnant. He now fears the law, and gets Bishop Hughes to marry him to the lovely and youthful creature of his seduction. He then introduces Mayor Ambrose C. Kingsland to his wife’s mother, with whom Kingsland has sexual intercourse. He then asks Mayor Kingsland to give him a certificate, that he had been married six months before, to cover the pregnancy of his wife. Kingsland hesitates, when Dan threatens to expose his sexual intercourse with his wife’s mother. Kingsland becomes alarmed and gives Dan the marriage certificate, and all is tranquil. When Dan became James Buchanan’s Private Secretary, at the Court of St. James, Fanny White visited London, and was very intimate with Buchanan, and Dan gave her passports all over Europe, as Mrs. James Gordon Bennett. Bennett ascertained this, and hence the long and bitter quarrel between Dan and Bennett. Dan got the Hon. John Wheeler to give Fanny White letters of introduction to certain parties at Niagara Falls, as Mrs. James Gordon Bennett. Fanny White now lives in New York, and Dan is still friendly with her, although she is kept by another. Emanuel B. Hart was long kept by Eliza Pratt, who got tired of him, and discarded him. He subsequently took a notorious wanton, named Louise Wallace, from a house of ill-fame, and lives with her now, and introduces her into the first circles of society. Sickles is now a member of Congress, and the most influential man under Buchanan in the White House, and Hart was appointed by Buchanan, Surveyor of the Port of New York, which is considered next in importance to the office of Collector. And yet there are no earthquakes. And the people tamely submit to this monstrous degradation. And these revelations may lead to a scuffle of death between Sickles, Hart, and myself. But if I were sure that my brains were to be strewn upon the pavement, I would disclose to the American people, that their public servants are thieves, and fornicators, and ballot-stuffers, and black-mailers. Public men who will keep vile women, or (what is infinitely more degrading,) be kept and fed and clothed by concubines, like Hart and Sickles, should be exposed and loathed by all virtuous minds. And Buchanan should be more despised than Hart and Sickles, for his known intimacy with them for years, and with Fanny White, and for his appointment of Hart as Surveyor, and for chopping off the heads of a hundred worthy officials, at the instigation of such a notorious rake, and thief, and ballot-stuffer as Daniel E. Sickles. Buchanan fears Sickles, Hart, Bennett, and Fanny White! God of Heaven! How the national morals have degenerated during the present century. At a recent dinner at the White House sat the President, Bennett, Russell, Hart and Sickles. The President sat beside Mrs. Dan Sickles—Bennett sat next to Mrs. Judge Russell—Russell sat alone—Emanuel B. Hart sat next to his Mistress, and Sickles next to Fanny White. What a mournful sacrilege! Violated shades of Washington! Jefferson! and Jackson! O Vernon! and Monticello! and the Hermitage! may thy hallowed verdure be forever green and fragrant. And paralysed be the monsters who trample thy mounds, and blight thy pretty violets. And is there an American, or a naturalized foreigner whose cheeks do not crimson at a bacchanal like this, in the sacred atmosphere of great Washington’s mausoleum? What! Shall a gang like this be permitted to desecrate the halls and seats once occupied by the most illustrious patriots that ever graced the earth? O, Father of Heaven! Do not abandon the honest Americans, nor the patriot pilgrims to these happy shores, who still are grateful for Thy protection of their immortal Fathers, and who will strive to elect men to wield their destinies, who cherish Thee, and will legislate for the honor and welfare and glory of their beloved country. Do not desert them, O God! is the fervent prayer of millions of noble Americans, and of all naturalized foreigners, who truly love Thee, and the free and sunny land of their adoption.
