Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1856-05-28
WASHINGTON NEWS AND GOSSIP

The Other Election.-Two elections there
are to come of on Monday next in Washing.
ton. of one Of them something has been al
ready heard, and more is every way likely to
be-bets, banners, public meetings, speechi-
fcstiOns, and promises partaking Of the char
acter of pie-crust, Astounding from this until
Monday evening, when, We trust, darkness
will become visible under torchlights ard
transparsnciss Of a Magruder glare, and the
night be made hideous by cheers, yells, and
the clangor of artillery-for the Federal me-
tropolis is going to elect Mayor Butanothsr
election comes off in w sshington on that day,
unmarked, and, indeed. hardly remembered
by the many, although vital to the city's well
fare. On Monday, the Board of Public Works
of the State of Maryland meets in our City
Hall to elect President of the Chesapeake
and Ohio Canal
Our readers will remember that it is not now
for the first time that their attention has been
called to this subject in our columns, and We
are glad to see that public attention, at last
awakened to its importance, is beginning to
find tongue. For all see that the Canal has
not answered the purpose of its creation the
value 1t was to give to the counties of Mary
land and Virginia bordering along its entire
length the aid it should have brought to the
finances Of the State the minerals of western
Maryland which it was to have poured down
to the sea-board in golden stream nome of
these have been realized the Canal has
wanted management; it has needed head;
1t has been a shuttlecock, il the hands of the
politicians Of Maryland, the Wings of that
State using it for their own partizan purposes
when they held the power to do so,-the Dem.
ocrats following their example when the pow
CT reverted to their hands
1t Is not worth while to stop to inquire by
which party this suicidal policy was first in.
augursted, capability and qualification have
been for some years the least and last things
TO be regarded IN selecting management for
the Canal; but this was hardly one of the
purposes of its creation it was not dug. nor
instituted, nor paid for, merely to create an
asyl um for the decsyed politicians of Mary
land.
We make no war upon Canal Presidents,
present or past. If they found they could OBJ
tain an easy and lucrative post, il were asking
little too much Of human nature to EXPECT
them to abstain; nor upon any of those seek
ing TO obtain the Canal Presidency,-as COM
petent, probably more so, than many have been
who have filed it for years past They may
well see no reason why they too should not
prefer their claims;-nor upon politicians as
such, Providence, which makes nothing in
vain, having assigned them, too, their proper
places in the body polite. But we know some
able politicians who would have made verv
poor merchants; some brilliant ones who vsuld
have shone with a some what DINNER light if
II had been their fortune to preside over the
earthly destinies Of the Star newspaper Like
other men, they are good in their places, but
their place,-and the people Of the United
States cannot recognize the truth too soon.-is
not in command of the Coast Survey, nor on
the quarter deck of frigate going into action.
nor at the head of Canal Board. We maks
no war upon them, nor on any one; we war
against the system, which has ruined all who
put faith IN the canal, and would have ruined
the canal itself but for the zeal and efficiency
which have filed some Of the secondary most.
however crippled by want of powers; and to
which alone the canal owes the little Of life
which it retains at this day.
The canal has issued nearly two miII;o,s sc
dollars in the shape of preferred bonds, which
are held In very many hands scattered throupb
the counties Of Virginia and Maryland border.
Ing on the line Of the canal, in the District Of
Columbia, and elsewhere in the two State.
named. On these bonds the canal has been
unable Tor four years past to pay any interest,
and the suffering and sacrifices have been
great IN consequence. This is not the only,
nor indeed the largest, interest which is in
jeopardy the canal itself, and the States and
communities of Virginia, Msrylsnd. and the
district OF Columbia having stakes of a larger
mssnitude-but the interests Of the bondhol-
GERS are the more immediate and pressinu.
"na' they have found it necessary to do in
.nen own defence will be seen in tho sub.
joined article, which We cut from the Nat,ono,
IHteT'geneeT; and We are glad to perc.iv.
that the movement which their own inn
diate interest has counseled has yitaliz.d 81
given voice to the more general feeling vh;,h
prevails widely on this subject in the Stat .,
Maryland. The bondholders who are citizen.
Of Virginia have also spoken, some Of them
contemplating an appeal to the Legislature Of
their own State, which, having guaranteed q
portion Of the canal bonds, may we'll be sup.
posed to be not without interest in the good
management Of the canal.
The bOndhOldsrs, with Wits sharpeued b,
self-interest, have learned Of What n.a and
value party politics are likely to be in q Ca.
nal Board. They have marked their sense q,
this by selecting . gentleman for their cand,.
date who is-as 80 many Of our army officer.
nave chosen to be-of no politics at all. They
have sought for natural business capability,