The evening Argus. [volume] (Rock Island, Ill.) 1861-1871, 1865-07-27
PRAIRIE POST OFFICES.
How Congressman Harding Consuits tine
Peoples Interests.

In many OF the Small cou .
mn change of post masfers mas 'ofmosiy o''
made undsr any administration. Inc mon
-ho have held the Offices have done 30 mele
!, . an accommodation to their neignoofs'
.ha faas of the Office never amounting 70
.no,ob IN buy pins and needles tor the lam
NV. Nor are the Offices OF any pohuoai 0on
ssousnce whatever. They are mere local
flair. at some farm house most con-
venient to the neighborhood to be supplied.
Take, for instance. the Pleasant Ridge posi-
Office, in this county. Ii was essaolisuou
uanv wars 400. Mt the house of James lay
lor, ESQ.,, simply because his locaIion was .
good one for the neighborhood. From US es-
adjustment no man of sense eyer thought OF
changing it, no matter who was president
But. last summer, we think, somebody was
afraid the rebellion would not DO put down
unless .Scotch Taylor" was removed, and
the "loyaln set themselves secretly at work
and procured his removal, greatly to the IN
convenience of the whole nsighborhood and
to the injury of the service.
Osher changes of similar character have
been made in the county, and, In every case
to the injury of the public and the post ONCE
sarv;ca But the latest and most absurd act
of tina. kind is the removal OF +. d. whitney,
ESQ. of Buffalo Prairie and the appointment
of a man named E d. Powers. Mr.. Whit
new. we believe, has held the office ever since
twas established. IAN the loyalty and all
the dssency' supposed to be s.. So.
and D.. Co.. recently came 70 the
conclusion that "ths government was not
safe unless Whitney was removed. The aid
of the "loyap wire-pullers in this city was
invoked and Congressman Harding induced
to make the change.
Perhaps some of our readers would like to
know how these things are accomplished so
quietly without any general request from the
people most interested. 1t is this The Gus
tom of the post Office department is. to con-
suit the member of congress In the district
where the post Office is located, provided the
congressman is of the same politics as the
post master general That custom has grown
into practically giving the congressman alb
soIute control of every post ofh,e In his dis
trict.-thus if one of his friends asks him to
remove some post master, petition with
million names on it, sent to the post master
general, would have no more influence In the
matter than if it had been sent floating down
the Mississippi on a single.
! The people of Buffalo Prairie can see this
practically illustrated in their case. The re-
publicans nearly all signed remonstrance
against the removal of the Office from Whit
ney's. No democrat was permitted to sign
the paper, for the reason that the two men
who wanted Whitney removed might say it
was democratic move. Every name on it,
we are told, was the name of republican,
and that it was a very large petition. In
addition to this, nearly all the post masters
in the lower end of the county, the mail car
rier, the post master in Muscat and 9th
ers, demonstrated against the change-but
they might as we'll have used their remon-
STRANGE to light their pipes with as to have
sent it to the post master general The chan
ces are that no one in the post Office depart
ment ever read it, and that it is now quietly
slumbering in one of the dusty pigeon holes
of that receptacle OF rubbish. Mr.. Harding's
ear had been secured for change, and the
post Office department don't know anybody
else in this district
It should be understood that Mr.. Whitney
took no part in these matters, nor did h
wish to keep the office. 1t has never been
any object to him to keep it, and he has only
done SO to accom- MEDIATE the people, his place
being the most central. He is, besides, one
of the old residents and substantial farmers
of the town, q man of the strictest integrity,
most highly respected by all who know him,
and has held the Office under all administra-
tions since it was established.
The man who is appointed has no perman-
ent home in the town. He is "a renter"
from David CIPHER. and lives two miles
away from the place whore it had been kept
bringing the Office two miles nearer Edging
ton post Office. The most of the business of
the Office was from the other side of Whit
ney's. and this change has taken the Office
two miles further away from those doing
business there. while Powers. the man ap-
pointed, is reported to US, by republican, to
have been a strong 'secesh sympathizer,"
since the war began-a changeabie sort of
man who is everything by turns and nothing
long, but generally the tool of somebody, as
he undoubtedly was in this case. Since he
took the Office he has made himself particu-
larly obnoxious by what the people down
there call his 'procam ations," aud by his
breaking up the old arrangements by which
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