New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-05-11
TIRED or IT."
protest.

That was a rather remarkable statement by
a member of the Cabinet who was inquired
of the other day concerning the political stu
alton in Arkansas He said he did not know
ANYTHING about it, and that tho Adminstra-
ton was sick and tired of the whole business.
He wished they would settle it somehow
among themselves without bothering the Pres
ident with it. Under tho circumstances.
L" tired of it" is rather Il good thing 1t
is so adequate an expression OF feeling
over condition of civil war. So
vivid and powerful. 1t so wreaks the
whole thought of tho Administration upon
expression. Tired Of itw Well, yes, that
conveys the idea precisely. The mild-man-
nered gentleman who, in his account of his
capture by pirates in the Gulf, said that they
stripped him naked to the waist, dashed him
to the rigging, and fogged him on the bare
back till he was "perfectly disgusted," taxed
the resources of the language somewhat but
this Cabinet officer has exhausted them. He
has covered in the very brevity of his re-
mark the utter WEAKNESS of the Administra-
ton with the whole Arkansas business 1t
could not have been better done. 1t is an
embodied yawn.
1t has been very pretty game in Arkansas,
for year and half, for those who under
stood and could keep the run of it. But that
required constant watchfulness and uniDter-
rupted attendance. The players have changed
sides so often and the game has become such
wild tangle of moves that it has grown to
be very confusing to the intellect and severe
tax upon the memory to understand which is
which or who is who. Stronger heads than any
in the present Cabinet might well be turned in
the almost inextricable tumble of the situation
Only they who have sat on the State House
steps at Little Rock and kept an hourly record
of the changes can understand the relations Of
the parties and the situation of the game, and
even they are unable to communicate an
ineligible idea Of it. 1t IL such middle
that the Administration is only certain that
those who were elected or declared elected as
its friends have become its opponents, and it
is by no means certain that they whom it
consented to see cheated out of the election
have become its friends. What can it do 7
Governors have shifted sides. Judges have
reversed their own decisions, and there has
been such a grand Hands across" and "Turn
"your partners that even so clear headed
master of ceremonies as the Attorney General
confessed his inability to resolve the situation,
and begged the music to stop that the ball
might have new opening. In this state of
affairs it was not strange that the Adminstra-
ton should say he was tired of the whole
business and should seek relief in the stables,
leaving things to settle themselves.
We suspect there is disposition abroad TO
be too exacting of the Administration One
Administration cannot reasonably be expected
to know everything or to do everything. This
one has had tho most serious questions to
wreste with, and, what with its own course
and the various views of Congress upon them,
has managed with great discretion to DO on
both sides of oil of them, 80 that no harm
could come to the party. Observe how beauti-
fully divided it is uOQn the currency question.