Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1870-04-16
LETTER FROM WASHINGTON.
Speeches in the nate.--ThurmOnd and
Macdonald Reign Of Carpet Baggers---
Men of the Olden Time and kew--Whisky
and the Rings -Senter, and Fate Of Ten
nesSee
WAsHINaToN, Tuesday.

/ ThufmOnQ maue Speech IN thS
Senate this morning. He followed
| Macdonald, of Arkansas, who read
| his piece. There was marked dit-
ference in the style of the two men,
though, for aught know, Macdon-
| AIDS NAV have been the more elaDO-
rate and able production. Thurmond,
everybody heard as l did; Macdon-
ald's audience was very small. In
fact. people began to fill vacant spaces
in the Senate Chamber as soon as
Thurmond's stentOrian voice echoed
along fnterminable corridors and arch
ways and galleries of the Capitol.
The whole Senate, except Sumner,
gave attention while ThurmOnd un-
folded the wrongs and knaveries OF
railway rings addicted for years past
To the absorption of the public do
main. Four single roads have appro-
priated an area of country equal TO
that of seven such States as Ohio. The
story told was very simple one. The
land given pays the whole cost of the
road: the lands of the company
secured by mortgages on these lands
are suffered to remain unpaid; the
road is sold, and the bOndhOlderS, OF
the same ring that issued them, be-
come the purchasers. They thus own
a highway across States and Terrific
ries which cost less than nothing. In
other words, the United States builds
magnificent public highways at the
cost of vast domains, and then pays a
ring of speculOtors to own both the
land and the road. l am told that
Thurmond's speech signifies moth
ing. The policy of the Government
and the course of Radical legislation
run in fixed grooves, from which they
cannot be diverted by any system OF
logic or appeal Of statesmanship. 1t
is proper to say that Senator Mac
donald was warmly congratulated by
Senators near him when he closed his
speech.
TERRIBLE WORK OF TIME.
There are few faces in the Senate or
House familiar to one accustomed 10
look down from the galleries ten years
ago. Wilson and Sumner are the
only Senators, besides salisbury, VINO
have survived moral and political rev.
olutiOng of the past decade. If gar
rulous Davis were here in the
former age, he surely was not
as administrative as in these
davs of mediocrity. One hundred
wears AGO British history, literature,
art and OratoTy, such as the world had
hardly known before, won the admi- |
ration of mankind, and made our IAN |
guage the stateliest, grandest and
most beautiful vehicle in which hu-
man thought ever wandered over the
globe. Then, too, American states
manship and justice and lofty, |
honor and unsullied purity constitu-
ted in the creation and conduct OF the
Federal Union, a matchless model for
those who governed mankind. The
century that has elapsed, constitutes
a charnel house in which lie the bones
of buried greatness. In 1850 there
lived not one great American. All,
all. were dead. One after another,
imitators of the great and good, and
of the brave and generous, have
Dassed away, until littleness and mar
row salfishness arc .enthrOned where
oodlIke maiestyEt the person of
Webster OF Clay 6S Calhoun once
welded the sceptar of supreme intel
leetual dominion. heard Ihur-
mOnd's speech. He Is a Vlgor-
Gus thinker, Is wanting IN
elOquence end taste, Is the IN
tellectual superior Of Sumner,
the scholarly fOp who boasts OF son0-
rous dictiOn and Of DemOsthe2ean
art. Dick Yates sat near Sumner
this morning. His hands trembled
and he wore an anxious, nervous
look. as if the duties of the hour were
irksome TO the IT degree. Yates has
an excellent fs61' full OF intelligence
and winning Us was that OF jim
Green. to whose GrEt speech in the
Senate of the United States listened
many years ago. Green's maLy ca
cellent qualities won too many
friends. and his majestic intellect too
much admiration. Wine and women,
descended, a very avalanche OF ca
lamitias. and Green went down to rise
no more. Mfn0ugal ercg0 uttered the
most faultless little outburst OF siItpie
eIoauence that eyer fell from the lips
of an American SenatOrj Dick Yates,
whom a State priced ana pom
Ored above all her children,
and Jim Green, the maudlin
debauchee, all tell the same story ana
excite the sympathies as well as the
reprObatiOn of mankind. whisky
has poured down a fiery flood through
ceaseless ages, and mankind, III end
less funeral procession, have quaned
and iladdened. If the age in which
we live gave birth TO greatness, the
helpless child would be strangled and
lost in the baptismal font Of whisky.
RECONSTRUCTION.
Governor Benter told me yesterday
that he would appear before the Re
construction Committee this morning.
| His Exeellency, l fear, has fallen be-
tween tWO stools. In securing ottice
ne lost his stock in trade as a pOliti-
clan. and though hs has more ability
than most OF bis associates, he has
given a deathbiOW to Luck, to which
he has been greatly indebted for his
triumphs. Whether to 60 over bFaVely
and bodily 10 Bill Stokes and May
nard, or maintain q position OF decent
conservatism, is aQueStion liz reference
10 which Governor Senter may pGt
have defined his course, Fletcher has
.ore force of character, intellect and
strono,ar .t-e will than any of these people.
Ha n Is who shakes Senter and has
driven him back ward, it Is alleged,
into the embraces Of Sadlcallsm; II
Seuter did not detest Bill Stokes there
would be little doubt Is 70 the late OF
Tennessee. Even now the opinion
obtains that the new State cOnstitu-
tion viii be amended. and the code
created by the last Legislature de-
cIared imperative. OF this matter !
can give more trustworthy infOrma-
ton tomorrow.
Santer has written letter TO Grant,
the contents of which are unknown.
He is supposed to request the Presl-
dent 90 furnish United States troops
that Fletcher may not be frightened
out of his wits on Tennessee railway
trains. Fletcher's last big scare is the
grand basis for the proposed transior-
| nation and AfricaniZatiOn of our un-
! happy State government. There will
| follow an end of immigration; Black
Shaw will again lord it over the
county treasury; public burdens VIII
| be multiplied, and knavery will run
riot, rendered only more ravenous by
the recent forced suspension OF sys-
TENS of robbery.
| MEMPHIS MEN AND MATTERS.
NeSsrs. Eldridge, Meyers, and Rev
enue Collector Patterson, are the only
representatives OF Memphis whom /