The Portland daily press., 1871-12-28
Letter from Washington.
pErPpNcuNENr AND REFORM.

INFRINGEMENT AND REFORM.
Out of all the pother that has been created
some good is sure to come. The Senate Re
Committee is in the main an excel
lent one, and SO much has been said, that its
members will be more inclined to thorough work.
than might otherwise be the case That Com
mittee met yesterday, and examined the work
already referred to them. There are not less
than a dozen subjects, all of them requiring
time and effort enough to do any one of them
thoroughly, to occupy whole session. As
soon as possible after the recess, sub-Commit-
tee with Gov. Buckingham at its head, will
proceed to New York and make thoroughov-
erhauling of the Custom House there. The
general order of business and every other
branch of its administration will be looked in
to; and the administration is prepared in ad
vance to stand by the result There may be
wrongs connected with its management, but if
so, they are not greater than those that existed
before. That, is of course no excuse
or justification, but they go far to establish
the motives of Senator Fenton, for instance,
who has always had a very clear idea of the
workings of the Custom House ring, but has
somehow never managed to make any public
criticism while the machine was run in his in
terest, or at least not against it.
THE PRESIDENTS VIEWS.
During the whole of this squabble In the
Senate, the President was in no way party to
the policy pursued by some super-serviceable
friends. 1t was in accordance with the advice
of Henry Wilson, that the message transmit
| ting the Civil service report, endorsing the
same, and announcing an intention to put it in
| force on the ensuing New Year, was sent to
| Congress. It was well understood here, that
| the report was not quite completed, and would
| not in the ordinary course have been sent in be-
| fore the recess Under the direct wish of the
President, all the various propositions for in
| vestigatiops, were accepted by the Senate ma
jority. Most Of them were purely factions and
Davis inanity found extremely insolent and
| malicious expression in the string of slanderous
inquiries he proposed. The tone and form of
these resolutions were so disrespectful that his
own party associates We're glad to smother
| them. , 4gy
On Civil Service Reform the President has
certainly been consistent with himself and the
country. Messrs. Curtis and Cattell, of the
commission, have stated within the past few
days that they have found the President
ready throughout their Investigations to aid a
right solution of the questions entrusted to
| them, by every means in his power. Both gem
| tlenen, like their associates on the commission,
have been thoroughly convinced, from the be-
| ginning of obtaining harmonious initiative
from Congress- and believing that the constitu-
ton reposed the responsibility of appointment
/ on the Executive, they have urged the Presi-
dent to take the needed steps. The President
has showed himself always ready to do what
ever might be really necessary. A. question
of policy it Is admitted here that he has out
thanked his party foes, and spiked the guns Of
the opposition.
"THE LIBERAL REPUBLICANS"
There is said to be confusion worse confound-
ed' in the ranks of the Missouri Liberals
| as the Republican opposition there call them
selves. 1t is understood thai Schurz and Gratz
| Brown are not friendly the Senator being dis
contented at the latter's coquetting with the De-
mocracy and especially envious of the Govern
or's influence over the Germans, which we'll
informed men declare is more enduring than
that possessed among his own countrymen by
Gen. Schurz. Recently we heard of meeting
in st. Louis of the two State Committees and
the burying of the Ratchet Now we see a
spirited and even bitter manifesto from the
opposition or reform Republicans, issued, stimuli
taneously with the appearance here of its au-
thor, Col. Grosvenor Of the Free Trade League,
| and the Warwick of his party in Missouri. He
is the man whose policy divided the party, elect
ed Schurz, put Brown in the Governors chair,
and very nearly ruined the Missouri Democrat
| There is a number of revenue reformers, so.
called in the city. Besides Grosvenor, the
Chicago Tribune and New York Eyeniny Posi-
are represented by their managing editors, and
the Free Trade League by its Secretary, Mahlon
Sands, who is also reported to be the Parse,
of the World. David A. Wells, who would
like to be the Golden and has neither the ablli.
ty or magnetism therefor, is also ON hand
Last year they were going to do wonders but
touched by the Presidents common sense wit,
their weakness was shown and all they did was
impotent for either direct good or evil. This
year they are day after the fair, SO far as the
Executive is concerned, but if they will look
after Congress it might have good effect.
| SPFcTAToR