The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1874-01-27


ton, had given the country reason to hope,
and there can be no doubt of his prompt
confirmation.
The dry bones of partyism never got so
thorough rafting as the grab and credit
mobilier folks have suffered during this
season. They were badly disrupted in
the credit mobilier and grab hurricane, but
the Williams Gushing tornado has thrown.
them into quake which time nor tact can
not repair. It will not escape the country
that the senate leaders who have heretofore
confirmed with unquestioning docility the
most shocking incompetents, find open
voice and effective impediments when their
own peculiar interests seem to demand dis
agreement. When the incompetents, Sickles,
Schenck, Kramer, Butler, Newman, and
men of that class, were sent abroad to repre-
sent this country at the most polished courts
of Europe servile senate had no word of
protest. When the credit mobilier robber
Bingham was appointed to japan, there was
no word of dissent. When brother-in-law
decent population of New Orleans
protested, came before them for
confirmation there was no word of dis
approval. When Hughes, of Virgins, a
duellist and drunkard, was nominated to a
district justieeship the other day, he was
confirmed instantly. When an incompetent
clerk in the Freedmen's Bureau was selected
aweek or two ago, for a judgeship in the Dis
trict of Columbia the senate assented to the
combined and indignant protest of every
lawyer in Washington. This selection, by
the way, illustrates the presidents ruling no
ton. demonstrated with respectfully by
some of the lawyers OF the district, who laid
before him the fact that the man could not
take the bench, as he knew no law, the presi-
dent responded briskly, "Oh yes; he read
law a year while in the bureaup Well, the
senate had no objection, and he would have
passed had it not been for the clamor of the
entire bench and bar of the district. Debar-
red from this place, the president promptly
appointed him to mail agency on one Of the
postal routes, where his years learning of
law may not be too severely taxed! So soon,
however, as the unfortunate Gushing comes
to the front, the envy and 'partisanship,
which long lists of worthless men and me-
diocrity could not arouse to opposi-
ton, bristled at once, rot only into
vehement dissent, but absolute war
upon the president himself is evoked and
Cushing who has been identified with every
legal action of the government for the
last fifteen years, is thrust aside with loud
cutlery of indignation. The man was not
proper selection, but the thing that defeated
him was simply an artifce. II the mere
writing of shallow letter, which at the time
was treason, should debar its author from
Office or honor how is it that we consent
to Alex. III. Stephens in the house, General
Gordon in the Senate, General Longstreet,
the presidents kinsman, at the head of fed
eral affairs in louisiana? How utterly nau-
seating this demagogue pretence of loyalty
is. The man who brought forth the Cush-
ing letter in the senate, Sargent of California,
is the common carrier of the California rail-
roads-a man whose whole public career is
tainted with fraud and corruption. He
reeking with robbery snesks about and pur-
loins the letter, brings it to the
senate caucus and with an affectation OF In
tense devotion-puts it to its final use. 1t is
very probable from after developments, that
the railroad rings Of which this Sargent and
his fellows are the ductiie instruments were
alarmed at the the prospect of Cushing on
the bench, as his familiarity with their cases
for and against, would enable him to adj
judge too righteously on the bench, and so
they brought out the old skeleton, which
Oliver paraded during the last campaign-the
spirit of the war"-a spirit which it seems
can never bs laid, while truculent dems-
gogues of this blatherskite sort, rule the
councils of the country.