Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1855-06-21
WASHINGTON VIEWS AID GOSSIP.

complaint by the National Intsiliesnesr Of
the removal Of Mr. Perry az Secretary of Ls-
CATION at Mairid-for what? Not for ,critine
a letter to the President of the United States,
making very serious charges against Mr.. Soule,
the late Minister at Madrid, but because that
letter, containing important developments in
relation to pending negotiations with Spain,
was, contrary to all prsc sGent, at the writer's
request, g'Usn to the public through the col.
unns Of inappropriate National Intslti-
gs"esr Of this city. Not merely so, but, as
has been confidently asserted, given to tho
public fully week 6cfoye the original letter
t0as recetced by the President. And not or,,y
did the printing Of this letter give unprscs-
dentsd publicity to the Progress and condition
Of Important pending negotiations between
me t"s nations, which in this, as in all other
Governments, is considered matter Of conf
dence, and in the keeping of the Executive,
and here not even under the control of Con-
gross, whose requests for the publication of
papers connected with pending matters are FIRE.
quentiy declined by the Pr sident, but it also
II not in express terms, by necessary impli,a-
ton, conveyed sharp reproof and censure of
the Administration tcE the appointment and
continuance in ofice of person who was very
distastetul to the writer of the letter.
But who is to blame in this matter-who
las been guilty of what the Iatsiitgs, Ger ad-
mits to be an "indiscretion," which has led
to the dismissal of Mr.. Perry? Certainly not
solely Dir. Perry himself There was no harm
in his letter to the President, for he would not
have sent it to the Iateitigeneer for publica.
ton. The only " indiscretion" of Mr. was
in sending copy to the editor of that paper.
Mr. Perry was out of the country smarting,
as is to be supposed and as was very natural,
under the taunts and reproaches Of the dis
comfted Minister, and for those two sufficient
reasons lot in condition, perhaps, perfectly
to appreciate the very wide departure from
diplomatic usage, as we'll as political proprie-
ty, Of the publication. Not SO with the editor
Of the Intsliigsncsr, the Nestor of the Wing
press, and now, as heretofore, the slgacious
Mentor of the Wing party. He was here upon
the ground, fully acquainted, from an edito
rial experience of thirty or forty years, with
the uniform practice of the Government, &C.
tuated by no personal feeling, and, it must be
supposed, perfectly aware, to use a mild ex
preston, of the gross breach Of decorum in
volved in the publication. The editor, in
truth, held Mr.. PerrY's official life in his
hand. He chose to sacrifice him. Was it an
9 indEcretion" merely, or was it purpossly
done with the risk of what has happened fully
IN view? We DO not know that he is the per-
sonal, but he is the political friend of MI P,
for both are anti-AdministratiOn. Tho editor
should have recollee ed what an old diplomat
once said about bundsrs, which, in diplomacy,
are Synonymous with indiscretions Nj Per
rvs inCi:cretion," as the editor mildly calls
il, was simply inchoate while the paper was
withheld from the public. Its publication, j!
the consequence, 80 far as NJ. Perry waC con
cerned, converted an ineipient indiscretion
into full blown Hundey
The probabilities are that Mr. Perry, who
has 6een kept in Office by Democratic ad
for more than two years, would
not have been disturbed by his political oppo.
nents. He chose to Put his official life in the
hands of political friend; AID we can only
account fox the course of that friend upon the
superstition that he was aware Mr.. P. courted
the fate he has met. If he did not, he will
know who to blame. If no did, his end has
been answered; and il is not for The editor to
characterize as an indiscretion" what Mr..
Perry himself may consider as an act of
adroitnsss, sIsWering the double purpose Of
indicating himself from the aspe rsions of
Mr.. Soule, and of accomplishing n political
martyrdom, emitting him in due time TO the
canonisation and Qualification of Wing
saint
There Is one other way of accounting for
the publication, in the IntsLtigencer, CT Mr..
PERI g letter, before it reached tho President,
to the benefit of which its editor, as q political
friend of Ar. Perry, is entitled. The " dis
erection" which he admits 10 have been wanting
in Mr. P, he may himself have possessed in
perfection. That il to say, he may have had
the conviction that the publication of such a
letter from a Secretary Of Legation, no
matter to whom addressed, whether it be
called an indi.cretion" or by some severer
name, would cost the offending Secretary his
place; and sill, with the belief that such
consummation was the fsr thest from Mr. Per
ry's thoughts, instead " covering and pro.
testing him Eith the agis Of his wisdom and
experience, and Of doing for him what he
would have been likely to do for one similarly
situated, connected with him by the tics of
kindred, he seems to have been willing to
precipitats his fate, and, it would seem, for
no better reason than to widen breach be-
tween two Government ofhoials, and poin.
shaft at political opponent. --...r.
We have thus presented three several ways
OF accounting for what appears to rs the A" in
discretion" of the editor of the IntsLitgsnesr
in giving publicity to Mr. Psrry's letter to
the President. So far as the editor lie con-