The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-05-03
is what Valmaseda means.
MINISTER WASHBURNE.


MINISTER WASHBURNE.
From the ~ Y. World.
Mr.. Elihu B. Washburne Minister Plenipoten-
tiary to France by the appointment of President
Grant, sailed on Saturday from this port for
Paris to enter upon the duties of his mission.
If we were to judge by the place he holds in the
estimation of the President Mr.. Washburne
should occupy the first rank among American
statesmen. He is the first man upon whom
General Grant resolved to bestow high office;
he is the only man in respect to whose fitness
the President did not think it necessary to de-
liberate; he headed the list of the names first
sent to the Senate; and after being appointed TO
the highest office in the gift of the President, he
was assigned after his voluntary resignation, to
the foreign mission which requires more varied
accomplishments than any other post in the
diplomatic service. The natural inference would
be that the man on whom public honors are thus
layished must be our foremost statesman.
Unfortunately, neither the career of Mr.. Wash
burne nor the estimate put upon him by the
country supports the judgment of President
Grant Public opinion would not have assigned
him any office of great dignity; and even if his
talents were equal TO high position, the Secre-
taryship of State and the mission to France are
the two offices to which his capacity and train
ing are least adapted. Such abilities as Mr..
Washburne possesses are not OF the diplomatic
order. He is impetuous, passionate, brusque;
he is conspicuously destitute of literary and
social accomplishments: he must always make
mean figure in the society of cultivated men; he
knows nothing of foreign politics beyond what
he has picked up by the cursory perusal
of American newspapers. Even Gene
raj Grant, narrow, obtuse, and i'll
informed as he is, would never have made
n spontaneous selection of Mr.. Washburne
for either of the posts to which he appointed
him. These great positions were given to him
only because he requested them, and because
the President felt that he could deny no request
of man to whom he was under such deep per-
sonal obligations. After the election Washburne
int m
General Grant acceded. Just before the inaugu-
ration, Washburne, presuming still further upon
the Presidents gratitude, told him he would
like, for the honor and eClGt of the thing, to be
nominated to the Senate for Secretary of the
Treasury. (We are stating facts, and defy con-
tradiction.) General Grant replied to this inso-
lent request Certainly insolent although General
Grant may not have so considered 1t), that
can't be, for the incumbent" (meaning StewarD
sis fixed; but / can, if you wish, send your
name to the Senate for Secretary of State. /"
And he did, with the understanding that
Washburne was not to qualify but to be
| contented with the empty honor (We wish
| it to be understood that we are not narratng at
random, but reciting facts) 1t is not easy to
| conceive of anything more shameless and dis
| reputable than such traffic of vanity such an
ignoble prostitution of the highest office in the
| gift of the President to create q counterfeit
| reputation for small man. Such transaction
"a transaction so hollow, deceptive, and trick
ish-is disgraceful to both parties. 1t was as
4
pointment of this kind it was for Washburne
to violate the understanding, and undertake the
duties of the office. For what purpose Wash
burne held on to the Office in violation of his
pledge is not known. AS he asked at first for
| the Treasury, which has more valuable patron
age than any other Cabinet place, it may be
presumed that he intended to establish a
Washburne power by filling the public service
with his creatures-a suppOsition which is sup
ported by the fact that he actually undertook to
dispose Of all the most valuable patronage OF
the State Department. Gibbs was Washburne's
Yicegerent and factotum, and he got General
Grant to promise to make Gibbs Consul-General
at Paris. After Mr.. Fish had been appointed
and before his arrival in Washington Che was de-
tanned in New York u few days., Washburne
and Grant together arranged for large number
of diplomatic and consular appointments thus
attempting to foist upon Mr.. Fish the creatures
and tools of Washburne. Some of these were
so intOlerable that Secretary Fish would no
tolerate them, and their names were not sent tC
the Senate. Others were nominate !, including
Jones, Hudson, Pile, and mi ny consuls.
lhess undlgulneu II an Puvres are sufficient tC
stamp WashDurne as II low intrguer; a vulga
, demagogue and charlatan. There is nothing il
ms history and antecedents to rebut this theory
: OF ms character. He has been long in Congress
longer than any other member of the House
. DuJ ne has owed his constant reflections to th
cunning with wlieh he has catered t , the loca
interests of his district. He has never done onv
thhS crealtaOle or remarkable i'm a natona
y point OF view: but he has succee led n bleedin,
n inc treasury Iof pubnc buildings and other i'm
. proyements III the lutte town of Galena I,
= 1852, for eXamp G, Golena in the ryme north
u western corner of Illinois, was made a port q
= delivery ana part OF the collection district a
y New orleans, ana a surveyor of the new por
d was authorized Then, March 3, 1855 follow
e an appropriation by Congress of SI5, 900 for be
"a ginning a marine hospital (think of iGl !
Is Galena, which, by the subsequent expendimy
a of other sums, has come TO be n ior1
marble structure of the Corlnthian order
archite oture, as absurdly located as if it ba
been built in the Adlrondacs. Next comt '
August ls, 1856 an appropriation of $50 OO0 fC
We beginning a custom-house and post-of1ce i
as Galena, to be built of stone, with fre-prot
he floors, iron-beams, roof, shutter-sills etc II
is by lobbying through Congress appropriatior
rio for such local and unnecessary purposes thi
he Washbume has secured denominations and r.
in elections by his party. And while draining ii
Treasury for such purposes, he has affected
to be, pdr erooHenee, the champion of econom,
&C and has steadily resisted appropriations f'
he pational and needed objects, such as post-o