The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1861-03-23
FROM OUR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT

WAsHISGroN, March 81, 1861.
vi the dense throng of applicants for Office in-
Testing the capital of the nation for more than a
month, 'the cry is, still they come!" Mr.. Presi-
! ident Lincoln is, as his friends declare worn down
and physically exhausted and finds mournfully that
he has emo bed Of roses to repose on" His Cabinet
officials better off. The called session of the
Senate will hardly be able to adjourn by Saturday
next, as proposed yesterday by a resolution sub
| mitted by Mr.. Hale.
1t is pretty generally understood that before the
adjournment the'Senate will discharge most of its
present Democratic officers and elect Republicans
in their stead.
The venerable Secretary, Mr.. Dickens, viii pro-
badly be retained as an assistant whilst his assist
ant, Col. Hickey, will probably be promoted to the
Secretaryship of the body.
Col. McNeir, the Sergeant alarms, and Col.
Nicholson, the principal Reading Clerk, will no
doubt have leave to retire. They have never been
very popular.
Mr.. Robert Beal the former Sergeant-a Arms
was displaced to make room for Col McNeir. He
is now candidate, strongly supported for restora-
tion.
Several of the clerks in the Secretarys office are
expected to give up their decidedly comfortable
and valuable places to Republican aspirants so
that the dominant party, for the time being, may
have the majority of the clerical force in the SEN
ate. If they do not like the change they will have
to thank for it. If secession had not de-
cimated the Senate, the clerks and officers of that
body might still hold on to their places.
General James Watson Webb, it seems declines
the mission to Turkey after ALL AS Republican
rewards are being parcelled out, the gallant Webb
should have been offered suitable mission.
The way Mr. Lincoln is giving appointments to
members of Congress is caution. What has be-
come OF the old sentiment and usage that no such
glittering inducements should be held out to men,
bers of Congress ?
The famous red republican Hessian and infidel
SchurZ. has at Ia oott he nnnip to por
tugal. If he should be confirmed, the Senate will
earn thereby an unenviable notorety.
Mr.. Lincoln has placed in his Cabinet four old line
Free-soil Democrats, and three old line Wings
turned Republicans His appointment of the Hon.
Caleb b. Smith was mistake, as is thought by
many persons-not because Mr.. Smith is not man
of superior ability, but because of his official an
tecedents.
He was one of the three Commissioners during
the Taylor administration, in 1S49, appointed as a
board to examine and settle claims against Mexico,
under the treaty between Mexico and the United
States. That board examined and allowed the no.
tOriously fraudulent Gardiner claim for some S425-
600; the Mears claim for Sl07 000 also fraudulent;
the Hargons claim for near half million of dollars
generally believed to be spurious; the Legget claim
for 100000, in addition to an award on the same
claim of Sl0S, 900 by former board in 1889; and
the Baldwin claim of some 100000, which was
proved to have been spurious, the caima mt having
after getting his money, stolen his papers and
vouchers from the State Department and DESTROYED
them.
The conduct of the board in allowing these
claims for which the relatives and favored pets of
two of the commissioners acted as agents and re-
Seived enormous fees, has stunk in the nostris of
the American people from that day ever since.
MIR. Lincoln was reminded of the facts in this
matter two months ago, as soon the newspapers
had given out the rumor that he intended to offer
Mr. Caleb b. Smith place in his Cabinet. He
was warned, in sincerity, not to make any such
mistakes in bis Cabinet appointments as were, un-
fortunately, made under the Taylor administra-
tion. He was fully apprised of the antecedents of
Mr.. Smith in the matter of the allowances cf
fraudulent and spurious claims of very large
amounts, by the ever-famous Mexican Board of
Commissioners. So he acted with his eyes and
understanding fully open when he appointed Mr..
Smith Secretary of the Interior DEPARTMENT.
Should any more such decisions be made by the
Interior Department as were made by the Com |
missiOners OF the Board of 1S49, on the claims |
against Mexico, | can only say, God help the !
country.
The national crisis will hardly be settled until
the Border States assemble together in convention
and form government for themselves, adopt the |
old Constitution with such amendments as are con-
tanned in the Guthrie proposition, and changing
the PRESIDENTIAL term to six years, with an eternal
bar to all Presidential reflections and then invite
all other States to come into such Union and for
ever stand by such Constitution
There will be call for an extra session of Con-
gress If the Administration can possibly carry on
the government without it, as called sessions are
dreaded fatal to the Administration that forced
to make such a call. PoroNAc