Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1857-04-10
Observation-Disclosures SSIP

toned enough not to confine, in our minds eye, |
the definition of the public man" to the indi-
vidual known only in connection with poliueai
Affairs, from those Of the caucss in the steamin 70
dingy back snuggery Of the Village tesIroon' 70
the management of the Ne&on's eaairs' as
member of a House of Congress. We fsgard
all men who have, in any w, mad neir mark
on the history of th6jr TIM tn AsOtlea with
the well being or tie progress Of the country
literary. scientific, or industrial as we'll as po-
litical-as being, alphabetically, public men. As |
much as our country owes to statesmen Of all |
times, it owes equally as much to its inventors,
its orieinators of great industrial enterprises
and its social, literary and moral benefactors,
whose names we might string out through col.
umns on columns Of the Star T
! While the political public man, being schooled
from his occupation to deal advantageously with
officials, is competent to struggle successfully
against the terrible disadvantages of the " Cir
cunlocution Office" the public man of any
other description Is the last one in the world
to stand up successfully against its energy-de-
pressing customs, methods and modes We
never yet knew a man Of industrial genius and
remarkable capacity to involve himself in bust
ness engagements with Government-one who
must necessarily rely alone upon his legitimate
resources to work him through eventually with
out extransous aid--without plying him from
the bottom Of our soul. Not that we conceive that
public (Government functionaries would inten-
tionally injure him. But the world over, they
have way of transacting business which, were
it essayed in dealings between man and man,
would result in heavy damages at law against
the party thus injuring the other. Dickens
has immortalized the Circumlocution Office of
old England-that is, her executive depart
ments. We are faster people than the English
in all our attributes. Yet he who has important
business to transact with Government function
| aries in this country-we do not mean political
business-fnds from the moment he sets about
| it until it may be concluded, that he is at the
mercy of the Circumlocution Office.
| The difference is one of degree only; not of
fact or principle. An account, such as would
be settled between mercantile houses in ten
minutes, can rarely be settled before bureau of
any department of any government in less than,
| say, month A, in Office, settles the law
| points involved in it, and B unsettles them for
| the time being; as though bent only on creating
delay. receives satisfactory proof of the facts
involved and renders judgment on them; to
which ID demurs, and insists that the proof
must be made over again, to him, though he
might find it in half the time to be thus con-
sumed, in the papers 90 neatly folded and lay
ing on his desk, and 20 carefully bound with
that interminable emblem Of official hesitation
and embarrassment to those dealing with gov
ernments in business way-red tape. Er
! We were forcibly reminded of all such mat
tiers yesterday while dining ct Wizards, on
seeing, half dozen tables of, the fifteen years
ago merry and ever buoyant eountenance Of
E. + Collins; now that Of a cars-worn middle
aged man, showing, while it had lost little Of it
remarkable intelligence and energy of express.
sion, indisputable evidence in its nervous EN-.
phasis, thoughtfulness and sternness, that he
too, has been caught in the meshes of the Cir
cumlocution Office. r.r
We have known him almost since We have
known anybody. We first knew him as a devil
may-care young merchant ship officer, noted
for professional skill and daring. Then n
q Workmanship commander and Commercial
adventurer, famous for successful private bust
ness enterprises, until he became the man o
mark in his walk in the great city of New
York, pointed out to all strangers as being il
himself, as il were, the embodiment Of -Ameri
----"r ~apurIry uuu stgacity.
Then, again, We knew him as the protector O
plan for satisfying the world that SO far a
material progress il concerned, the Unite,
states are necessarily without a rival on til
globe England had initiated and spent mil
hons OF pounds sterling on a system of oces,
steamer navigation, designed to give her tn
control OF all that was valuable in the world,
commerce and he, in turn, conceived the ide,
oil ut once snatching from her, for his own couu
try, that, commercially, SO priceless prestige
MS government entered into his views. and n
nrst backed the expenditure of his hard an,
; iairiy-earned means in that. enterprise, witt
alaerity and liberality
We next knew him az the most lannon's man !,
connection with its Industrial reputation A
the great protector who had, in yery brief sea
son, realized for bis country, if not yet for him
sef, all the dreams of his sleepless nights ant
oVertasked days Then it was that we ais,
knew INN as the man who was beset with tn,
oemands OF hungry, jealous and specious leeeh
Is OF all degrees, each claiming to share the pre-
sunied profits Of his success, as q qu,d Dro on,
for abstaining from bringing their influence I,
bear to strip him of them
We knew him still later as the man who dared
to brave all the pack declaring that he asked
hotning but his due in Law and justice, anG
would trus' his cause to the principle of right.
1t was not long after that ere We knew him a,
the individual whose cause ives booted ont o
the halls Of Congress, apparently as though il
was mat OF notorious freebooter or highway
man We knew we'll tho domestic affection.
which 1t had pleased Providence to shower upop
him, and we wondered that human nature had
IN 1t the stuff that enabled him to bear up un.
| der them, when there was added thereto such
treatment as he received ut the hands of bis
country's Legislature after such services as he
had rendered to its future.
On seeing him in this city at such season,
VISIONS OF the horrors of the :" Circumlocution
omce rise up in dread array before our
mind s-eye; for We cannot conceive what can
possibly induce him ever to re-enter Washing
fun Inas