Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1877-11-17

to dispose OF 1t otherwise would be
such a bitter offence to the Pennsyl-
vania Republicans that it would
certainly give the State to the DEM
ocrats.
Now, first of all, his consent to
such an arrangements at all is a vio-
lation of the very first principle of /
his Civil Service Reform program
me, which sternly excludes party |
eXpediency from the motives of APP
pOintments. But, however that |
may be, the arrangement has evil
IDENTIFY been adopted with an entire
ly different understanding on the
part of the President ON one side
and ON that of the Pennsylvania
politicians on the other. The Pres
ident evidently considered that his
side of the compact would be filed
by appointing Pennsylvania Re
publican; not 50 the politicians of
that State F; their understanding
was, not only that a Pennsylvania
politician was to be Minister to the
Court of st. James, but that they were
to have selection of him and their
selection meant Simon Cameron.
This appointment he did not ven
ture on; he knew that it would be
considered tantamOunt to a final
abandonment of any position he had
held distinctive from that of the ex-
tremists of his own party, and es-
pecially that it would deprive him
of any possible chance of the sup
port of the Democratic party should
the dire alternative ever come up of
having to seek it, and he refused
Simon, thereby exasperating the
Pennsylvania politicians and the
malcontent Senators. And, having
ventured thus far, what did he do
towards conciliating the respect of
those who, if any, would support
him against the opposition in his
own party? What did he do? He
appointed a Dir. John Welsh! and
the Philadelphia people took down
their directories to see who John
Welsh was; and it appeared that
there were twelve John Welsh's liv-
ing in Philadelphia, and it was still
unknown who was the minister to
st. James until, finally, one partic-
ular John Welsh was pointed out as
the man, and he turns out to be a
secOnd-class business man, who has
Just two qualities recommending
him for the office-ke is a Pennsyl-
Vananian and he is not Simon Cam
erOn.
Readers will readily understand
that this precious transaction did
not save Pennsylvania to the Re
publican party.
But did it conciliate the respect of
any body of men or of any individ-
ual to compensate for the offence
it gave to his own party? We are
at loss to conceive of one unless
that individual be John Welsh, of
Pennsylvania, himself.
Now let us take another appoint
ment-that of the Minister to Bel
GUM. To this important mission
the President has appointed Mr..
HENRY S. SANFORD. This is Mr..
Sanford's third appointment to the
Belgian Court. First he was APP
pointed by Mr.. Lincoln and held
the office during the war, and it was
during this period he committed the
disgraceful action which twice pre-
vented a Republican Senate from
confirming his appointment for
other neutrality-suspicious.. He was
appointed by President Andrew
johnson to the same Court at which
he had before been Minister, Belgi-
UNI; this was in 1867-the Senate re-
fused to confirm. Then Gen. Grant,
in 1869, appointed him to the Court
of Spain and he was rejected for the
same reason.
And now for the reason. While
he was Minister in Belgium an
agent of the United States Govern
ment arrived in Europe with draft
of 5000, 900 to his credit to buy cloth
and Otherstores for thearmy. A letter
is eXtant in which Sanford proposed
to the agent to buy 100000 yards Of
utterly worthless cloth, which had
been rejected by the agent of the
Confederate Government as wOrth=
less, and which, being grey, would
have to be dyed blue if taken. This
worthless stuff he proposed that this
agent should buy up and sell to the
United States Government at the
price of first-class cloth, and that
the agent and the Ambassador
should pocket the balance, about
equal to the first purchase money.
A similar speculation in purchasing
a lot of condemned rifles for the
United States Army is also recorded
against him, Documentary eyi-
dence of these transactions was pro-
duced when the two other appoint
ments alluded to were made and
prevented their confirmation. Mr..
Hayes was informed of these cir
cumstances last spring and made
the appointment in the face of them.
What better case could the malcOn-
tent Republican Senators desire as
a comment upon his CiUU SerUice
Policy so angFily condemned by
them, and what can the Democratic
Senators be expected to do? Con-
firm the appointment which not
over squeamish Republican Senate
has twice rejected? Rather than
that we would prefer to see a Senate
without single Democratic Senator
in it. Meantime there has been a
caucus of Republican Senators III
which the President has been very
roughly handled indeed. Mr.. Conk-
! H. I,rr, ,,rooIoiD, oil cloud fl,of Do oh