Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1870-08-10
WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENTS.
a Ride TO WashingtOn-The Congressional
Executive Committee Zion. X. II. Butler.
From our Own Correspondence

ltrom our Own Correspondent
WAsHGNGToN, August Sd, 1870.
After thirty hours ride from Knoxville,
found myself i'm this city on Sunday
evening, and have since been engaged in
"seeing the elephant and gathering such
information of public interest us has fallen
in my way. fhe crops between Knoxville
and Washington are looking well, though
considerably better in East Tennessee than
in Virginia. In portions of the latter state
the corn is slightly twisted by the dry
weather, though not yet seriously damaged.
BY the way, | could not help remarliing
the old, worn-out look of Virginia, in COM
parison with Tennessee. The towns have
an old and dingy appearance, and tracts of
land Ofivast extent seem to have been Gull
tivated until worn out, and thrown into
commons and given over to the thousands
of scrubby, disagreeable looking bushes,
suggestive of poverty-stricSen people and
barren lands, that are seen on every hand.
The people however, as general thing,
prer.ness, and p5etter appearance than does
the sSt42eny in which they live. Lynch
burg D, 02hcientness of appearance almost
comes t.btto my idea of Damascus or Jeru-
salem, 6 d vet it may be reckoned n town
of the nineteenth century, peopled 10y
Americans, and in easy reach of that pro-
gressive spirit of energy which has built
cities ten or twenty times greater, since the
day Lynchburg was three-quarters of a
century old But | shall leave it for those
who desire to know, TO determine why
Lynchburg, centrally located, as it Is, with
railroads reaching to all points of the coun-
try, is not a larger and better looking city.
-g THE CITY. -lr.
Those acquainted with Washington life,
pronounce this season of dizziness, which
is doubtless true, and easily accounted for
in the absence of Congress, of the Presi
dent, and of most of the Heads of Depart
ment, together with the thousands that
come or go ms Congress meets or adjourns.
Nevertheless to one coming from the
Smaller cities of the South, everything
wears a busting, lively appearance. WASH
ington. as anything other than the capital
of the United States, would, in all proba-
bility, be a city of very little consequence
nothing more than a kind of suburb, or
town adjacent, to Baltimore. Moreover,
i'm that event, it would hardly be able 70
establish a claim, as the largest and most
ente rprsinC of Baltimores dependent
towns Its present growth and dimensions
the elegance and grandeur of its public
buildings and the private buildings and
enterprises whose existence are q conSe-
ouence of its being the capital of the Uni
ted States, afford a fine illustration of the
power of our government The hundred
or more thousand people who have been
gathered into a great city, with scarcely
another incentive than the transaction of
the ordinary government business, could
power, on the American continent, with
out the assistance of manufacturing and
commercial advantages. That the govern
ment should build city merely as head
quarters for the transaction of its ordinary
business, is peaceable demonstration of
its power as satisfactory to true Americans
as were the war-like ones on the battle
fields of the rebellion.
THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
Having leisure this morning, | visited
the rooms of the Republican Congression-
al Committee. The campaign is not yet
fairly opened, and nothing of very. great
interest is transpiring at political head
quarters The work of distributing and
preparing for distribution, campaign docu-
ments of various kinds, is being quietly
carried forward. Through this agency the
people will doubtless be thoroughly in
formed as TO the true issues before the
country and the attitude of the opposing
parties, before they are called upon to vote.
Shrewd Republicans cOncede to the Demo-
Gratis gain of fifteen or twenty representa-
tives in the next Congress, while the DEM
ocrats, who now vote slXty-three IN the
House, affect to be sanguine OF voting a
hundred or more after the 4th of March,
next. 1t is feared by men well posted in
Ohio politics, that the Republicans will
lose some members in that state. AS this
is an "off year." anything better than the
loss of some representative is hardly posi-
bic, nut II Is not AT All pTObdDlt lildI llit
Democratic strength in the next House
will be as much as one hundred votes.
r. II. BUTLER.
Serious charges awaiting an explanation
from Mr.. Butler, and of which you have
doubtless heard something ere this, are
now resting against his good name, in the
Pension office. a soldiers widow, living
at Horse Creek North Carolina, for whom
he is attorney, has been defrauded of hei
pension, and the proofs, so far ELECTED
throw the weight of the whole fraudulent
transaction upon his shoulders. Whether
he will be able to explain the matter in 9
satisfactory manner, remains to be seen
The present look of things renders eXpla'
nation in this single case, next to impossi-
BILE; and have reliable information to the
effect that this is by no means the only
transaction of Questionable character, in
connection with the pension office, in
which Mr.. Butleris implicated. Other de-
velopments will doubtless be made in due
time.
The general feeling here, so far as ! hav,
been able to inform myself is strongly
against the nomination of Mr., Butler, fol
reelection to the position he now holds
They feel that the party cannot afford tC
carry his record through the coming cam
paign and that il should not even if il
10. q, xro,ill not on " ba "a -pupaf