The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1877-04-27
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER.

To THE EDITOR OF THE NEW NORTHWEST:
For the first time for many months
there is brief period of political calm.
The settlement of the South Carolina
troubles in such way as to quiet the
anxieties and soothe the passions that
have long been excited, has inclined the
public mind to the belief that the Lou
isiana case will be settled in the same
way. In the meantime all hope for the
best from the commission, and are at
least content to trust that the letter of
instructions from Mr.. Hayes, backed up
as it has been by the almost parallel
case of South Carolina, will lead to sat-
isfactOry results. Thus the most exas-
perating issue between the two political
parties is for the moment withdrawn
from the attention of the wearied news
reader, and the great leaders have given
US a rest. Usually the political tempest
assails the country for a few months
once every four years, the interval be-
ing occupied by peaceful interests, ma
tional industries, with an occasional
squirt of party enthusiasm. But the
contest has ragged now for over year,
so much so, that a foreigner would i'm
agine that politics formed the central
pivot upon which revolved the whole
civil, social, commercial and domestic
circles in this country hinged. There
fore, after the long strain of battle the
people have passed through, we, the
correspondent and rehearsers of such
events, need not, less than the citizens
at large, give our journalistic stylus a
brief political repose. 1t has been said
that the system and theory of American
citizenship is vast mutual admiration
society. Yet this time our adulation
comes from abroad, and it is creditable,
indeed, to our cOuntrymen to review
the history of the past year and its tenn
perate results. During the fierce heats
of last summer came the conventions
and the long, warlike session of Con-
gress; then came the bayoneting of Ger
tain of the Southern States; then the
rapture of the strife in the campaign;
then the death-grapple of the election,
the short period of uncertainty, the con-
hicting returning boards, the electoral
count contest, the massing of troops in
Washington, the scepter of civil war
and the cOup'detat, the electoral COM
mission, the filibustering, the count,
the Inauguration, the wrangle over the
Cabinet, aud the Southern policy, with
its doubts and hopes and fears-all these
followed each other with swift steps,
and sometimes Overlapped, giving two
or more causes for fierce excitement at
the same time. Now, nearly all of
them have passed away, and our citl-
zens, perhaps above all others, may
venture to hope that we are at last en-
tering upon period of political calm
and industrial activity. 1t is satisfac-
tory, indeed, to note that through the
whole of the foregoing excitement the
American citizen never lost his self
control, and thus avoided precipitating,
by over rash acts, the nation into an
other sanguinary conflict. After all, the
war taught the people some good lessons.
By it the fire-eaters were extinguished,
while the queen grass on the sodden
graves of our manly soldier dead cried
out with widows weeds and orphans
toil-earned couches against the ech-
oes of the cannon, the tortures and ruin
of homes, and the hard breathed NUT
terings of civil strife.