The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-04-11
1.-THE ILLINOIS FARMER" ON THE
SITUATION.

THE GENERAL CONDITION OF AFFA1Rs AT
WASHINGTON HUMoRoUsLY REVIEWED.
That shrewd and quaint observer, "The
Illinois Farmer" has written the following
letter to the Iron Age
The mail has brought my Washington pa
pers, which give nae q clearer insight into
what the telegraph had reported about the
muss that some Senators had kicked up about
the removal of Mr.. Sumner from the chair
manship of the Committee on Foreign Affairs
"a place he has held for some years. That
MIR. Sumner has ability and is very industri-
ous no one doubts or questions, SO far as we
know, but that he has divine right, to the
exclusion of all others, to occupy the most
prominent position in the Senate, some of US
plain men are not so certain. / see that his
colleague, Mr.. Wilson, goes so far as to say
that this action of the Senate Will cause split
in the Republican party. guess not this
time. How do Mr.. Sumner and Mr. Wilson
reconcile this with their oft-repeated denun-
Citations of the Southern people rushing into
rebellion for no other reason than the cleo
ton of Mr.. Lincoln, in 1860, by majority of
the people of the United States? ''What is
sauce for goose is FOR gander."
Is Massachusetts, the whole of the United
States? Is it not enough that the Secretary
of the Treasury, and General Grants first
Attorney General, as well as the Minister to
England, should be taken from Massachu-
sets, while one of her Senators held the
third most important position in the Govern
ment. Must the great Republican party, to
which more than anything else the Govern
ment owes its existence, be broken up be-
cause the majority of the Senators have seen
fit to organize their committees to suit them
selves? Senators have vast and important
duties to perform, and we all know it has
been the practice ever since we have had a
Senate to apportion the various duties to cer-
tain of their own members for examination
and report to the full Senate, for the simple
reason that it is practically impossible to get
through with the public business in any other
way. If, in the selection of those commit
tees, any Senator sees fit to pout and make
fuss because he imagines he has been
slighted, my notion is he will have all the
growing to himself, for the great mass of our
people care no more who compose those COM
mittees than they do as to whom the Shah of
Persia shall select for his Grand Vizier. What
we all look at is the final action of Congress
and the President, as regards our public mat
ters. If what they do does not please us, we
then take it in hand, and elect q Congress and
President that will do what we think should
be done. We care not at all how they do it,
but we look sharp at what is done or left un-
done.
1t appears from the papers that Mr.. Sum-
Eer has been somewhat riled because General
Grant saw fit TO remove Mr.. Motley from the
Ministry to England, and from that moment
has gone around with chip on his shoulder
Gas school boys often do), daring some one to
knock it off; or, in other words, virtually say
ing to the President, ''Tll show you that you
can't snub my friend Motley with impunity."
Hence his opposition to the Presidents sug-
| gestion that Congress should take steps to
acquire the island of st. Domingo.
have nothing to say one way or the other
about the removal of Mr.. Motley. That he
is splendid historian, and has written the
clearest and most correct history of the
Dutchmen in Holland during their terrible
| struggle with Catholicism as represented by
| Philip Ii, of Spain, no one questions, but
| that in consequence thereof he is the man to
represent us in putting a new ring in Mr.
| John Bulls nose, does not follow by any
means. 1t is enough for me to know that
| General Grant, whom we elected to look after
| all such matters, didn't want him any
longer-paid him off and told him he'd hire
somebody else. Suppose Mr.. Sumner should
recommend some Massachusetts farmer to
me to act as my head farmer, and 1 should
employ him; and suppose 1 should find, after
having tried him, he was not the man wanted
at all, and that should discharge him, would
MIR. Sumner raise a row about it, and go
snorting around the country and saying,
I10 u JcdCA IuhJ d loS5Ou
when he got good chance, he would"
think there would be as much sense in the
latter case, as in the fuss he has made over
MIR. Motley.
1t appears that the first chip Mr.. Sumner
put on his shoulder, and strutted around
daring some one to knock it off, was his op
position to the Presidents proposal to Con
gress to take measures to acquire st. Domin
go, provided always the people of that island
were disposed to unite with us. Both houses
of Congress met him fairly and knocked hi
''chip" higher than kite, by authorizing tn,
President to appoint commissioners to gC
down and look the island over, talk with the
people about joining US, and come back ant
report to them all about it. So, if Mr.. Sum
ner is six feet and two inches high in his
stocking feet, forty-seven inches round the
chest, and said to be the most expert pugi
list in all New England, it seems Congress
wasn't afraid of him the least bit, but
knocked the chip off his shoulder before ht
had time to think even of throwing himself
into defensive position, much less to do it
SO, away few that chip, and now that the
Senate has heisted his 'Foreign Relation:
Chip, too, he must begin to see that he il
not quite so all-powerful as he has imagined
himself to be for some few years past. Tha
Mr.. Sumner has of late become so overbear
ing and dictatorial in his intercourse witt
other Senators as to be almost unbearable,
believe is not denied, even by some of hi