Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1877-04-21
our WASHINGTON LETTER.

WASHINGTON, ID. O., April 18th, |
1877.-There seems to be much I'M
certainty as to the time when an ex-
ira session of Congress will be called. /
The Secretary of War said yesterday |
that if the Louisiana difficulty could |
be satisfactorily ended before that /
time, the extra session would begin !
on the 10th of May. The Louisiana
difficulty is the uncertain quantity, |
and very uncertain quantity it is.
The Commission it is understood |
have about ended their missions,
negotiations, labors, or perhaps
meddling is a more definite term
for all that they have done or could
do in that distracted State. There
is much anxiety among southerners
in the city to know the purport of a
long dispatch in cipher sent by the
Commissioners to the President. 1t
is the first dispatch of any conse-
quence that the President has re-
ceived from that source. 1t came
directly to the executive mansion
and was taken by an instrument
there in private room. The Pres
ident up to a late hour last night
had not made the contents public.
After the excitement preceding
and since the election, political mat
tiers now seem to be in the condition
of the river described by Caesar, "of
such incredible placidity that it is
impossible to discern with the eyes
in which direction it flows" The
letter of Blaine created q little SEN
sation, for it was supposed by some,
from his long silence, that he had
been subdued to acquiescence in the
Presidents policy. When he made
his defiant speech in the Senate,
last month, and boldly assumed the
championship of Packard and Cham
berlain, nearly all his friends de-
plOred his action as rash and i'll adj
vised. But there is as little equiv
ocation in the blast which he sounds
through the Boston Herald as there
was in his speech when he called
upon heaven to wither his hand and
paralyZe his tongue III case he de-
serted his Republican friends in the
South. The indications are that he
intends to make war upon the Pres
ident's southern policy, if he has to
do it single-handed and alone.
There has been much gossip recently
in relation to a sort of partnership
between Mr.. Blaine and Mr.. Butler,
by which they should naturally OPP
pose, one in the Senate and the other
in the House, the Presidents policy.
But it is not at all probable that any
such arrangement has ever been
thought of by these gentlemen, and
it is impossible that such a cOmbi-
nation could end in anything but
futility, even if it We're attempted.
There is at present social as well
as political stagnation at the Ma
tiOnal Capital. The old leaders of
society have all abdicated. The
names of Mrs. Fish, Mrs. Robson,
and their brilliant satellites and
parasites are no longer conspicuous
in the thin unWholeSome stuff that
composed the society column of the
city journals, and the average cor
respondent has not yet been able to
adapt himself to the new order of
things, or rather, the new order of
things is not clearly defined. Mrs.
Hayes and her cabinet seem as little
disposed as the sterner half of the
administration to be content with
mere imitation of the old regime.
What reforms will he silently infiu-
enced in fashion, repasts, entertain
ments, ETC., are not yet apparent.
These are matters that we are dis
posed to treat as frivolous and I'M
worthy the consideration of any but
women, dandies and, if it is not
multiplying synonyms, youngnaval
officers. But when we remember
that Paris is France, and Washing
ton, though happily in a milder
sense, America, and that the subtitle
influence of fashion and manners
have always left deep impress ON
national life and history, it will not
do to treat as unworthy of cOnside-
ration the magnitude Of wOmen's
bustles, the number of courses at Ia
bic, or indeed anything that is ma
teriaI or ceremonial at the national
capital. c.