The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1873-08-05
The Immortal PIatt Skinned.
from the New York Tribune.

i
Enter Platt.-Ah, ha! The debate draws
to a close. At length PIatt steps into the
arena-Platt of Virginia, James s., Jr., for
merly, and not very formerly, either, Of Yer
mont. \ good deal has been said, t;rst and
last, about the great stroke OF craftsmanship
of the last Congress, by which each men,
Der was enabled to convey (the wise it call)
4. 900 before he stole-away. A sober
minded people, unfamiliar with marine phe-
nomena, stood aghast as the tentacles of the
great devi-tish went out and clutched clam
miy the national treasury.
The fact is Plat himself had not taken a
hand in it. Platt has a judicial mind and
81, 900 of the money, the conditions for dis
interested and unbiased Judgment. And we
waited for Plat. Plat is a man who, from
having lecible autograph, may be properly
accounted the boon Of Providence to the
human race; to which it is proper to add
that his farm is the Thanking privilege. and
his residence Petersburg, Virginia. Besides
being u member OF Congress, Platt Is Secre'
tary or some such thing of the Republican
National Committee. In that capacity he
flung abroad his cheerful autograph all
try with information and the paper mills
L l.
Jr., written by himself, or clerk, OF some
seen and felt in the remotest hamlet Of
our wide extended land, and it always coy
cred information Of the most thrilling and
interesting character. In the words of nm
eminent postmaster, Ito man in the country
" disslinulated SO much information as
James Il. Plat, Jr. His name was house
!, bol lott
him. He was such constant correspond
ent that everybody grew fond of him, unless
it might be perhaps the post-office people be.
fore the civil service was reformed. Platt
was success. Not that he figured much in
COngress-how could he when his time was
so occupied with the diffusion of political
information but he was success as q
committeeman and secretary, and the way
he kept q clerical force busy forging his
frank on public documents was q refresh.
ment and delight to the Christian statesmen
whose able utterances and beautiful thoughts
were in this way flung over a benighted
land.
Thinking of this, Of course everybody has
been saying for weeks and months "why
doesn't Platt just unsling his intellect and
settle this back-pay dispute:" But Plat
waited. The occasion was not yet ripe. 1t
was not till last Thursday that he gathered
himself up, shook the wild tangles: Of his
fIsty hair, and, bursting into the arena with
the war-whoop of one who has got his
money and proposes to hold on to it, an
nounced his purpose to grapple with the
subject. 1t was at Lynchburg, 1T conYen-
ton: the weather it was hot, the Conyen-
ton was in its second day, and the discus
sion ran upon what the party believed in, o.
proposed to say that it believed in. Alalord
was the name of the colored delegate who,
iaboring under the insane delusion that
stealing was theft, hurled into the Conven-
ton resolution mildly disappearing the
back-pay business. 1t created, we are told,
much confusion and excitement Judge Shu.
maker tossed the resolution on his horns
with fierce denunciation, and the friends OF
the Administration generally assisted. And
then entered Platt. AS he was one Of the
"so.caIled salary-stealers' he said it was
proper that he should say something on this
resolution. He could hardly have chosen a
more felicitous opening. No one in the Con-
vention, white or black, could deny its force
or pertnency. He had voted for the salary
bill six times, he said, and should do the
same again under similar circumstances.
Platt is 4 man not easily intimidated. ,Cour-
ageols to fault, he is the sort of man whom
not even the fear OF contagion would deter
from handling the soiled currency Of the
Il