The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1874-03-13
OUR STURDY REPUBLICANS.

If one is to credit Washingto
correspondents, there is of lat
years a growing tendency to in
I troduce certain kinds of etiquette
more in keeping with aristocrac,
than what might be expected o
eYen demanded of a republican
; government. We are told Their
is already ''laid in our capital tn
rude beginnings of what the chat
tering builders assume to style on
republican courtv After ali tn,
discussion and nonsense abou
official rank, society in Washington
are sure of only four degrees, at
ter placing the wife of the Presi
dent as ''first lady" the President
the Chief Justice, the Vice Presi
dent, and Speaker. Beyond thii
reigns a spiteful and jealous war
fare as to who shall be first in thu
fifth rank. For about fifty years
the wives of the Justices of thu
Supreme Court, the Cabinet Ia
dies, and Senate ladies, have bat
tied for the first place in the fiftl
rank.
This is truly q "momentou.
nonsense" to keep society al
Washington in a state of jealou:
ferment year after year, and which
but for the women, would have
been settled long ago. But where
nine out OF ten are demanding to
be recognized as first in the fifth
rank, one sees what rancor would
still exist even if the thing were
settled by legal enactment.
What q pity it is, that these
fashionable women who have
nothing to do, but a great deal to
wear, and much to say, have not
got something to do at home for
their families, or out in the world
among the poor, the ignorant and
the distressed.
Now it strikes US if any Crank
ing' is to be done in our plain re-
public, after the President, the
Representatives come first, and
the logic is this: the people are
the sovereignty, the Representa-
tives are next to the people, and
therefore rank first, always except
ing the President, who is the chief
official servant of the sovereign
people. But incredible as it may
sound, the discomfort and rivalry
has reached a point where Mrs.
Admiral Dahlgren, who at urgent
request has written a book on
etiquette, and whose long &C
quaintance with official life quail
lies her for the task, declares that
the issue can only be settled by a
social congress. One can imagine
how Abigail Adams, or Martha
Washington, would have silenced
these wives of our republican Of
ficials.
Mrs. Dahlgren gives in her book
very lengthy letter from John
Quincy Adams, when Secretary of
State, to Senators who were de-
handing he should make "first
calls" on them. The second par
agraph begins thus:
al have invariably considered
the government of the United
States as a government for the
transaction of business, and that
no ceremonial for the mode or Or
der of interchanging visits be-
tween the persons belonging to
the respective departments in it
had ever been established" What
a rebuke this sentence alone ought
to be to the silly people who make
such ado about their social ETH
quette, which they are trying to
establish in what they would fain
call our republican court"
One clause in the table of con-
tents heading Washington letter
reads: Battling for rank, and
stealing for display" Now, bat
Ting for rank, and stealing for
display, is bad enough anywhere,
and under any circumstances; but
for republicans, who in their con-
stitution have forsworn all rank
and title, and whose highest hon
or and aim should be to shine as
honest men, it is humiliating to
the sovereign people" to know
that these papers containing such
letters will be filed and go down
to posterity as a part of the his
tory of our day.
All this strain after a so-calleC
exclusive society among the fam.
lilies of officials in the capital
would be simply ridiculous, were
it not so despicable on account Of
its evil effects on other circles in
the land. For these women, burn,
ing with jealousy, and burdeneG
with an undue amount of vanity
struggling after upper seats and
"irst calls" will go to their re
spective homes ready to SOW the
same social discomfort, and il
time harvest another crop of jeal
ousies and heart-burnings in what
are now otherwise peaceful neigh
borhoods. r
1t will not be surprising if for
eigners, as well as our own com
nonsense people, are led to in
quire under what kind of a regime
the wives and daughters of GU
Representatives and Senators haV,
been educated.
There are at least few Sraini
J of comfort in the assurance o
some correspondents that the fam
lily of the President stands aloo
from this petty display and dis
honorable rivalry; and indeed blu
. for the vain fashionable womeI
there would be little of it-womeI
, who have nothing to do but dres
and amuse themselves, who rid
, about in costly equipages, and ap
Z the matters of foreign courts, ant
r that, too, when every year royalt.
is becoming more republican.
But there is q remedy for a.
this absurd nonsense, and it ough
to be applied at once. Let tn
people every where frown dow
+ with honest ridicule all this apin
: of foreign style, and the silly tai
3 about our republican court.
Let it not be spoken in q Whispe
3 that it was the votes of honest re
4 publicans who sent these men an
!, their wives to the capital, an
! whose money keeps them ther'
! And let it be no secret that whole
d souled republicans in their heart
q despise the vanity, and denounC
= the dishonesty that has been croI
r ping out year after year, until 1t
j. becoming a disgusting sore in tt
e eye of every patriotic America
Il who has not forgotten the plai
,. raiment, the plain fare, and Il
: plain manners of our honorab
" forefatheFs. And, finally, let Il
% entire circle of official servants
"a Washinoton meaklY forgive Il