Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-02-04
THE SUCCESSION.
The Fight of the Pface-seekers.

LAVAA ~ 0ANo6O AAAOAACs
WASHINGTON, Jan. 20, 1S74-A
young man of 81, formerly of Chicago,
: with some influence and power over
0pfnioR, worldly-wise, ~precocious, and
practical, said 20 me, yesterday:
81 have been in Washington a week,
for the first time, and have had private
, interviews with Butler, Richardson,
and the lea-srs of opinion In the Exc
cutive, the Judicial, and the Legislative
Departments. They mean to initiate the
currency, something to begin With and
more afterwards. There Is no DISPOSE
ton anywhere to limit expenditures,
and there viii be no change In the gen.
eral policy of the last eight years, to
build public works, architectural con-
struction, irrigating canals, andsoforth.
The party and the wealth Of the coun-
try are 20 deeply In hat line Of policy
that the late panic has not scared them.
When acertain material policy becomes
epidemic, it must go to its logicallmits
before you can revolationize against it.
The limit has not been reached by the
Republican party. The people have only
begun to suffer from the m~onopolies,
and will not rise and encounter them
until the discomfort is almost universal,
and every man feels the shoe pinch.
You can only change a national policy,
rolling along with ponderous impact, by
EVOLUTION OR REVOLUTION.
The dominant party has a conflict
within itself to anticipate a change by
revolution. Hook, during the present
session, for a rupture to start between
the Executive and Congress, which
shall be a more equal fight than Mr..
Johnson had with the Sumner and
Stevens Congress, because the present
Congress has neither leadership nor
popularity with the country"
questioned my informant as to the
explicit expressions be had heard in the
Cabinet and on Capitol Hill He gave
me several examples of a sullen temper
daily sugmenting on both sides, and
said, further:
'HThe President and his advisers,
amongst whom is Butler, are aware
that the Administration is unpopular
IN Congress. He thinks he has a first
class Cabinet, and is stronly attached
to every man IN 1t. He complains Bit
terly that his annual recommendations
are wholly disregarded, and his most
cherished nominations rejected. His
only object at present
IS TO BE RENoMINATED
by some party and reelected; and he
finds no way to do so but to antagonize
in his party the more stesdfast and re-
spectacle wing, represented by the
Massachusetts, school of Hoar, Sumner,
ETC., and bid for the independent sup
port OF the reactionary classes in the
South, aud the dissatisfied laboring
element in the North"
/ inquired, further, how any man
could logically hitch together the ex-
travagant and the needy classes.
upon the theory" said my ae-
quaintance, ''thst the needy want en-
ployment and the spectators want TO
carry out their arrested schemes. For
instance, Mr. Thomas Scott is forever
a bankrupt man unless he can 60 On
with the Texas Pacific railroad and
have its bonds appreciated on the maj
ket. He can give employment to sew
eral thousand people. Suppose the
President should declare openly In
fsvar of reviving this and many other
suspended works by a liberal subsidy in
order to have the poor taken care OF
and confidence resumed. Naturally
the currency would haveto be stretched
and the National Banks a~ntagonized;
for Gen. Grant has nOurished his pet
theory of ree-bsnking up to the height
Of fanaticism. 1t seems 10 me-" con-
Guided the speaker, that, IN the pres
ent general instability and the ineOm-
potency of Congress, Grant thinks he
ean harmonic all the elements l have
named-bfOnopOly and Autobiography,
the Railway Kings and the laboring
multitude, the Inscriptions interests
and the half-disloyal Democracy. With
Butler anxious to be revenged on Sum-
Der and the Republican organization IN
Massachusetts,, the negro vote might
prehensive Of the disarmament Of the
Republican party, would hasten to ar
ray themselves with its Chief Magis-
trate.
REMARKS.
The above views are somewhat sur
prising to me, but l give them as they
were conveyed. Imay and that some
Of the more sagacious men in the Sem
ate are apparently alarmed at the drift
of things, and, unless l mistake, Sena-
tor Morton is at this moment organ
izing for a coup-de-main on Secretary
Richardson, to dispossess him of the
Treasury, which Is the tete-du-pont Of
the position. The President does not
mean to go out Of office without ex-
hausting his resources and strategy to
retain it. There is not one man in his
Cabinet who has any chance to keep
his place with a successor, of any party,
and the bread and butter Of the whole
civil service IS
DEPENDENT ON A THIRD TERM,
It being wen understood that the Cabi-
net has no status with the leaders IN
Congress. Congress indeed has II
rendered to the President nearly the
whole patronage of the country, and
he has filled the executive Offices with
personal friends, business chums, and
often With people of the Opposition
party, recommended by men like
Mosby and eleventh-hour converts to
Republicanism, like Caleb Cushing,
James Lyons, S. I. Suit, and other per-
sons who have no party-future. In New
York City, the Times newspaper has ap-
parently swung off from Gen. Grant,
and he is looking for an organ there.
Some say the Express is to be bought
out, and, with its morning and evening
franchise, elevated to be the admins
tration's creature. Its proprietors
charged 5000, 900 for it some time ago;
but, as it is somewhat declined since, it
is thought that half that figure will
suffice. A rumor that John R.. Young
was to manage the Herald led to the
surmise that the President was to have
an organ there. In Baltimore City, the
american, whose ruling family has
been retired from Office by Mr.. Cries.
well, has almost ceased to be a political
daily. In Washington, ex-senator
Harlan, elated at the success of his op-
position to Caleb Cushing, has been
publishing mysterious articles iDtimat-
ing a
RUPTURE BETWEEN II EXECUTIVE
AND CONGRESS,