Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-04-10
Washington Correspondence.
WASHINGTON, April 4, 1861.

| W 'ASAAAN"ANHi NPAA y AOOA'
APPOINTMENTS FOR FAMILY, AND NOT PoLIr-
ICAL, REASONS.
| Great indignation has been already ex-
pressed by the Republicans of the irrepress-
ibe stamp at the appointment of Breck-
inridge Democrat to the SUPPLEMENTARY of
the Mint at San Francisco, because he hap
pens to sustain family relation to Senator
Baker.
These indignant Republicans have been
still further exercised at the appointment by
the Attorney. General of his former partner,
q Mr.. Gibson, of St. Louis, as Solicitor of the
Court of Claims. He is said to be Demo-
crat, while the Assistant Solicitor appointed
by Bates is known to be a Southern Demo-
crat of the ultra school, which has strong
leanings to Secession.
Rather ahead of any of these appoint
ments, in point of unftness, is one which, it
is pretty loudly asserted, Judge Bates in
tends to make.
1t is that of District Attorney for this Dis.
trict. The person upon whom the decision
is said to have fallen is Gen. Edward @. Car
rington q lawyer, who has been practiciug
in the courts of this city for some time.
The General is a nephew and protege of
John B. Floyd, the conscientious" treasury
swindler, under the late dynasty. CARING
ton was directly patronized by Floyd, and
was, on account of his intimate relations
with the Secretary, largely employed by
men who had ''claims" against the treasury
to engineer through. Among other trans
actions in which he figured, may be men
toned the George Fisher claim. He was
the attorney for the claimants. Floyds act
in IepudiatiDg the report of the Auditor who
had investigated this claim and decided ad.
versely, was, it is pretty generally conceded,
influenced by the nearness of the Attorneys
relation to him.
Aside from the disability which this record
would imply in point of honest antecedents,
it will be the duty of the attorney appointed
by this Administration to prosecute the in
dictment pending against GODDARD Bailey in
the Criminal Court of this District for the
abstraction of the Indian bonds. Bailey is
also a relative of Floyd's, and no investiga-
ton into his conduct in this matter could be
made without an investigation into the
official conduct of Floyd. You will doubt
less see that there is an eminent fitness of
things in setting man to prosecute another
when the man proceeded against is his rela-
tive, and when, to make the prosecution
successful it is necessary to involve still
another relative
The reasons for this appointment do not
know, beyond the fact that the Attorney
General and Mr.. Darlington have very in
innate friendly relations. 1t is to be hoped
that this has not gone too far to be stopped
Though of that, | have some doubts. For a
day or two since, the President, upon the So
licitation of Judge Bates promised that he
Judge Bates) should make the appoint
ment.
The retention of Secessionists avowed,
and Secessionists ION the half shell" is bad
enough, considering the amount of talk the
Republicans have made about cleaning the
Augean stables" in which the Democratic
steIcoraceous accumulations had become so
offensive to the nose of an inceRsed country,
But 10 appoint them deliberately and afore-
thought, is little too steep.
ARE WE TO HAVE WAR?
Every. body to. day was asking the ques.
ton, and everybody was getting from every
body else the reply that, ''things look that
way"
The sudden and secret departures of mil
itaTy officers from this city; the activity at
the navy-Yards; the reticence of the Cabinet
upon the subject; the reports by telegraph
from Charleston and Pensacola; all these
point TO some action by the Government of
the United States. Then, again, there is a
moral atmosphere, so to speak, of war.
People feel that there is going to be war, but
can not tell you on what grounds they base
the feeling, other than that it is feeling.
Just as man will predict snow from the
peculiar chillness of the weather, do the war
wise predict war from the peculiar state of
the public mind.
The Republicans generally hail this indi-
cation OF war as good sign. One of the
symptoms of convalegcence is irritability
and desire to pitch in, and as the sick man
Of our Government begins to improve from
the fearful condition into which Buchanan's
practice placed him, he doubles up his fists
and threatens to breaks things. Nothing,
not even the taking of the $4,000, 900 al
ninety four cents, has produced so much
hope as the fighting tendency. 1t looks like
life and returning yigor.
Snubbed, abused, maltreated, and gener.
| ally hauled about as to his feathers, as our
American Eagle has been by the Confeder-
ates, and bearing is degradation as the
royal fowl has, with meekness far surpass-
| ing Jobs of blessed memory-it is refresh
| iDg, must say, to see the noble bird flap his
wings and whet his beak.
But badinsge aside, it is surely time our
| Government did something to show that It is
Government, and that our nation is a ma
ticn. If we are mob AID an anarchy, let
US know it. If we are nation, let US
know it.
Can there anywhere be found such cat
alogue of insults offered to a strong nation
with impunity, as We have borne Robbery
Of the Government money and arms, and
real estate; insults innumerable offered to the
national flag; shots fred into our national
| vessels; our soldiers sent away from forts
and stations as prisoners of war; and each
and all of these schemes aided and eneour-
aged, If not originated, by peIjured traitors,
who professed allegiance to the country they
endeaVored to destroy. These wrongs are
uuredreSsedi these insults unAYenged, !.