The Portland daily press., 1868-02-22
Letter from Washington.

Letter from Washington.
WASHINGTON, D. c., Feb. 10, 1868.
To the Editor ofthe Press:
The action of the Senate to day in exclu-
ding from seat in that body
MR. THOMAS OF MARYLAND,
is indicative of the manner IN which the
"iron-clad oath" is to be henceforth admins
tered. The remarkable facility with which
the leading rebels can take oaths in the morn
ing to be violated before night is so well
known, that Congress, out ola pious regard
for their moral welfare and to prevent their
mourning 1.-THE pains aud penalties of perjury"
in addition to their sin Of treason, has wisely
concluded not to allow the oath to be admins
tered when it is satisfactorily known that it
cannot be honestly taken. Mr. Thomas whose
case has after a long and exhaustive debate
just been decided, is in private life very es-
unable gentleman, but like the majority of
politicians south of Mason & Dixon's line was
to some extent in sympathy with the rebel
lion and as it appears in the testimony, gave
1t q certain amount of aid and comfort. He
was elected Governor of his State in 1S47, and
in 1860 was appointed by Mr.. Buchanan, COM
mSSiOhCl vi VIC atcht OAuCo. w ucu dOH-
ell Cobb resigned his commission as Secretary
of the Treasury Mr.. Thomas was appointed to
his place, but when the question of reenforc-
ing Fort Sumter arose in the Cabinet, Mr..
Thomas opposed it; and finding himself at va
rance with the President on that and other
matters connected with the rebellion he
straightway resigned his ofice-giving his
reasons for so dolng-and was succeeded by
General Dix. During the war he remained
at his home at Maryland, taking no active
part in public affairs; but the worst feature of
the case is tn 1t he allowed his son to go into
the rebel army AMI even gave him money to
enable him to do SO. Whether Maryland,
which is now completely in the hands of the
rebels, will send q less Objectionable man as
his successor, is very doubtful; but until 10y
al man is chosen there will be one vacant Sc at
| in the Senate 'if it takes all summer to fight
| it out"
GEN. SHERMAN AND THE BREvET GENERALsHp
The President seems to be particularly un-
fortunate in his attempts to tamper with the
chieftain of the war. For some unaccountable
reason, nearly all of them have a habit of
looking upon Congress as the law-making
POWOl dhO iCpACSCAtddNC VI tuC pCOpiC anu
the assurances of A. j. to the contrary not
| withstanding, do persist in the idea that "the
late onpleasantness'' in fact amounted to a
war" in which the rebels were pretty thor
| oughly thrashed. They furthermore have an
| idea that the voice of the loyal people ought to
some extent 10 be heard in regard to confer
| ring upon these same rebels the power to
| plunge the nation into another hayward sis
ter" experiment.; and hence they give the
President an infinite amount Of trouble and
solicitude. Sheridan and Sickles offended
and off went their heads; Pope was tainted
with the heresy, and was deposed, only to give
place to Meade who is even more intractable
than Pope. But Sherman was the model of
| subordination, and the Presidents "chiefest
trust" Now he has +" gone back" on Andy in
his hour of political tribulation, and perempto-
| rily refuses to become a tool for the disgrace
and overthrow of General Grant. That there
| is no law justifying the elevation of any SOL
der to the rank of brevet-general" is we'll
known, and have authority for stating that
| General Sherman has written letter in
| which he absolutely refuses to become party
| to any such transaction, and will resign his
commission rather than assume command of
the new Military Department which has been
created for the sole purpose of annoying Gen
eral Grant. The Senate Military Committee
had the case before them yesterday, at the in
stance of his brother, Senator Sherman, and
| agreed to report against comforting the rank
on General Sherman, but to acknowledge his
gallant services in an appropriate manner"
RELIC OF THE PAST.
| On Monday last Mr.. O'Nein of Penn sylvia
MIA offered resolution in the House directing
the Treasurer of the United States "to open
certain wooden box marked Jewels &C., !"
locked with paddock and tied in various d.
rections with red tape, and bearing the wax
seal of the Patent Office at every crossing Of
the tape The box has been for many years
deposited in the vault of the Treasury Depart
ment 1t is about foot square and contains
among other articles, a large lump of gold
formed of several gold snuff boxes, sword scab-
bards, Sc, which were stolen from the Patent
Office, by one Sinister, alias "Tom Hand, }" and
subsequently recovered from the thief. Under
the law, no government officials can retain
any present received from a foreign power,
and these articles had been turned over to the
government at different times by naval officers
and placed in the Pateut Office on exhibition,
where they were stolen by this fellow Shuster
The box has been in the Treasury vaults for
nearly thirty years AMI has now been brought
to the attention of Congress by the presenta-
ton OF a claim for gold snuff box presented
by the Gar OF Russia to a Mr.. Harris many
years ago. s. ,9r
RECONSTRUCTION IN VIRGINIA.