The Hancock Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Ohio) 1857-1870, 1869-02-26
WASHINGTON LETTER.
WAsHINGToN, ID. c.,
Feb. 20, 1869.
iIeAI'oHuSht VI tii' IL
GEN. GRANTS CRUELTY.

Correspondent Of the Jef1eronian.
GEN. GRANTS CRUELTY.
1t is hard foI the quiet, contented,
work. a-day reader to understand on
what an uncomfortable anxious seat
the unusual, perfect and persistent
reticence of the President elect in
reference to his Cabinent selections,
has placed, and kept for several
weeks, several hundred gentlemen en- OF
various of the country. Perhaps,
good reader, you do not at once see
how several hundred gentlemen can
feel such inumate concern about
seven places, ali told. Listen. 81
will tale unfold" &c. Those sew
eral hundred anxious gentlemen are
not all aspirants for the seven Cabi-
net positions. They are not all
seated upon the same row OF forms;
but on several successive rows. The
first row only is filled with the ex-
pectants of the Cabinet places, the
next being hangers on to their skirts.
The first row contains only about 20
times the number of gentlemen that
there is of Cabinet places. They
had all very reasonable expectations
of being called, before Grants incom-
municableness became known They
are all most deserving. Some have
distinguished themselves by patrio-
tically serving their country, in the
fattest offices they could get for the
greatest portion of their adult lives,
and have grown wealthy out OF them,
though dull, honest people cannot to
this day see how. Others are not so
distinguished, but have a. patriotic
desire to waste no more time ous of
the service oil their country. They
are rich but made their money out
side; and now if they may only add
the honors of high public oflice to
their financial success, they would
feel that the highest achievements of
humanity were theirs, and that the
measure of their disinterested am
bition and happiness was full
Others are speculative gentlemen,
who have long gambled in politics
ON the capital of others, generally,
theirown being rather small--always
going in for big stakes, but rarely
winning. They are especially eligi-
BILE for Cabinet positions, having
appointments under their
control and certain laws to admins
ter, for their ability to turn them all
to their own personal account. But
all in the first row are alike in one
They fulfill one Of Jack
sons cardinal requirsments-under-
stood to be no less Grant's-they
are capable - of enjoying public
places. They feel (like their relig
ious prototypes) it is good to be
there.
The next row of anxious seats in
the rear, and several next, are filed
with twenty times as many gentlemen
as the twenty-times seven chiefs OF
the anxious. These gentlemen are
.he selt-appointed right-hand men of
.he occupants of the first row. When
,he latter shall get into President
Grants Cabinet,they will kindly take
he Assistant Secretaryships and
Commissionerships. They number
,nly few hundred to every place
of their grade to be filed, in case
heir respective chiefs are selected.
And behind these are the numerous
.ows of forms, crowded with non.
iescript variety of persons, uniform
n one exalted virtue, however,
constant devotion to their
'riends-in prosperity, actual or
hoped for. These gentlemen are
upon the intermediate
'ormsmen for places running from
Chief Clerkships down to the self
of President Jackson's
applicant, who, after being told that
lie Foreign Ministries, Cabinet
places, Auditorships, DC, for which
le successfully applied, were all
illed, concluded with asking the
President if he hadn t any old clothes
lie could give him.
Think OF all these patriotic gentle
men waiting weeks on their hard
benches for Grant to make the sign 4
If his pleasure; and he won't do it.
The refinement of the cruelty of Gen. !
'rant's conduct toward them lies in
his silence portends.
they are very powerful at patience
nd long-suffering if they can only
lope to make it pay enough in the )
nd. But Grants independence for 4
ids the hope. They are terribly
fraid that as he has not sought the G
enefit OF the advice OF the first row, he
hay not have looked upon their quail q
ications, deserts, &c, in the right
ght, and that when his choice comes
D be made known, it will plainly Q
vidence their absence from his coun- e
lis, in a strange, wayward selection q
{ gentlemen who have done some 2
ling at some time in their lives, or ~
no give proof OF ability and dispo- d
tion to do something, with the op- q
ortunity, in earnest singleness of a
arpose fer their country. Tue in G
rest of so many hundreds in the
wen places, it will thus be seen,
omes by series of linkings OF hu-
anity, the less to the greater, after A
a foohion of fho lnpo opI obo.t =,