The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1876-04-07
POLITICAL NOTES.

IT looks as if Belknap exercised con-
siderable discretion in awarding the
contracts for headstones for soldiers
graves.
IF republican office-holders can afford
to pay political assessments, why can
they not aff5rd to have their pay re-
duced?
"No administration SENATOR" says the
New York Evening Post, "stands any
chance of becoming the next president of
the United States"
TREASURER NEW thinks he will resign
April first, if the president is willing
There are fifty hoosier radicals waiting to
plump themselves into News place by
the grace of Merton.
THE offer by the president of pardon
! to Marsh if he will return, is frank adj
mission by that official that it was through
fear of the president that Marsh ran away.
1t is an admission which places the or
gans in an awkward position with respect
to their charge that Clymer's committee
was responsible for Marsh's fight.
IT is conceded that Belknap should be
tried and punished for selling pOst-trader-
ships. But if Belknap had brother to
whom he gave control of certain posts,
! and if the brother sold them for whatever
he could get, would there be anything
wrong in the transaction? The, brother
would probably be grateful, and so was
Orville Grant when his brothet rare
him the "tip" in respect TO vacant In
dian traderships.
EVEN the Soldiers Home at Washing
ton must be investigated, if economy is
to be the watchword of success. The
cost of this institution is enormous. ii
would be cheaper to board all the inmates
at Willard 5, dress them in broadcloth
and give them enough spending money
TO keep up appearances. If the invalid
soldiers got the benefit of this eXtrava-
gance, it might be well enough, but sus-
picious democrats think able-bodied Off
cials make away with the heavy appro-
priations in a manner not altogether
f! honest.
THE new secretary of war, Taft, is
thus described d" Large, strong features,
of habitually phelgmatic expression; full,
high forehead, over which his straight,
black hair thin and slightly tinged with
gray, was smoothly brushed; deepset
bright dark eyes; heavy, firm under jaw,
showing, as an old lawyer here who has
often practiced before and against him,
expressed it, that I" when Taft made up
his mind, though he is slow to do it. he
is mulishly stubborn" and, over all,
quiet, ruminative air that would not
lily become bookish college professor,
and indicating that, though Yankee
ingrained, by descent, education and
breeding, he lacks in toto the Yankee
nervous temperament, and is neither
easily aroused nor liable to act hastily
when stirred up"
THE New York Evening Post, which
is certainly not a democratic journal, in
commenting upon the testimony of Peck
before the house committee on expendl-
lures in the war department., says: 1t
is impossible to believe that all this
wretched buying and selling of patron
age could have gone on about the presi-
dent, upon the threshold of his house
and under his very nose, without an un-
paralleled, and almost inconceivable in
sensibility on the part of the president
himself < = Is it possible that
the president can surround himself with
official and personal associates so obtuse
without sharing their obtuseness that
he can live in such an atmosphere of In
sensibility without suffering from the
moral malaria? General Sherman rightly
saws that General Grant did enough to
entitie him to absol':te confidence in
military life. President Grant in civil
life is a startling illustration of the lost
Federal sense-the decent sense Of
shame"