"No question of that, as money makes both beauty and distinction in this part of the world, and it's not a dollar that will buy you. COLONEL Silky? I don't remember the name—which of OUR editors is he?"
{Cooper is ridiculing the habit of newspaper editors of seeking popularity by serving in the militia and thus receiving the title of "Colonel"}
"I don't think he is an editor at all. At least, I never heard he was employed about any publication, and, to own the truth, he does not appear to me to be particularly qualified for such a duty, either by native capacity, or, its substitute, education."
"Oh! that makes no great difference—half the corps is exactly in the same predicament. I'fegs! if we waited for colonels, or editors either, in this country, until we got such as were qualified, we should get no news, and be altogether without politics, and the militia would soon be in an awful state."
{I'fegs! = an obsolete, essentially meaningless exclamation, like "I swear!", deriving from "In faith!"}
"This is very extraordinary! So you do not wait, but take them as they come. And what state is your militia actually in?"
"Awful! It is what my boss, the judge, sometimes calls a 'statu quo.'"
{'statu quo' = in the same state as always (Latin)}
"And the newspapers—and the news—and the politics?"
"Why, they are NOT in 'statu quo'—but in a 'semper eadem'—I beg pardon, do you understand Latin?"