The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1877-04-07
Letter from Warrington.
wAsnlSarox, April 4th, 1871

WASHINGTON, April 4th, 1877.
Y Washington has lapsed into its summer
4 apathy, its greatness has departed. The Sen.
ate Chamber and the Hall of the House Of
Representatives are undergoing indispensable
repairs. The Departments jog on through
monotonous routine Mr.. Hayes shakes hands
with all who. are disposed TO condone his
usurpation, and drives with Zach Chandler,
or Secretary Sherman, about the banks OF
the much sounding Potomac. A few Sena'
tors and members remain, some Of them own
houses and property in the city, and Wash
ington is more their home than the district to
which they are accredited. This is especially
the case with reference to the carpet bagggers.
Spencer, of Alabama, and Patterson, ofSouth
Carolina, although they represent those States
in the Senate, are less identified with their
interests and people than are intelligent and
philanthropio members of the foreign legations
These worthless, their peers and yassals are
not identified with anything in fact but theft
and lechery | am willing to be responsible
for this assertion. have no doubt but that
similar expressions Of opinion in my letters
have been attributed to malice and personal
spite, by those who were not themselves cog
INFANT of their truth. | came to Washington
four years ago prepared periodically TO ad-
mire our great legislators. | had read the
invective and bitter personalities Of the OPP
position press, until II impressed me as rhe'
torical rather than truthful. Strong in the
orthodox faith that we were the envy of sur
rounding nations, | was worshiper Of
American institutions, American women, men
and congressman. My opportunities for OBJ
servation have not been remarkable, but they
have been fair, aud, while have written with
strong indignation, | have never written a
word that | did not believe to be the truth,
and feel 1t my duty to write. ! earnestly be-
leve that the story Of corruption as it eife cts
congress and the Departments as it permeates
1 every artery and tissue of official life, has
never been told-can never be told. THE
fraud that most shocks our existence is one,
which, ere we can fix it in language, is gone,
or eclipsed by bigger fraud, and so it goes
on IN stunning succession, until there is a
responding apprehension Of a decay of public
spirit in the American people, n reasonable
fear that despair has made them resigned to
the greasy old machine, until it shall run
down, with its fraudulent executive, perjured
Judiciary, and corrupt, imbecile legislature.
! said that that the story of corruption can
not be told. There are something's too mon.
strous and too insignificant for statement
that will be credited by our peculiar, packed
jury Of iO,OOO,00O. They will not believe
the government snpplys its legislators with
cologne, visiting cards, and tooth picks, its
thousands of employees with pen knives, and
stationary, for private use; and they will not
believe that u cabinet officer who was \ mem.
Der of the Republican church stole thousands
of dollars from the soldiers and charged the
theft upon his wife But these are only items,
grains of sand on the teeming shore. | hate
statistics; the world hates statistics; we all
| prefer romance, and cant Of moral ideas, and
progress; the blowing Of trumpets and bang.
ing of drums on the fourth Of July, or the
soft hattering singing Of star spangled poets.
| II the poet of the future Will but get his facts
from the archives Of the Departments, and
his inspiration from the reporters gallery, the
American epic will be different from Bayard
Taylor centennial ode.
In my humble opinion, popular government
is faulty; not an absolute failure, perhaps,
but, so tar as our experience goes, a failure
to secure wise legislation, fair administration,
or Just construction in municipal, State, or
national matters. One thing is certain the
government made by the fathers for 3, 900 900
colonists of the Appalachian watershed, is
not suited for n steam-regenerated, railroad.
ribbed, electric'neryed 40, 0OO,0 Of people.
] am no pessimist, but since Hayes is called
President, think there need be no haste to
put the obituary Of the devil in type
II au American citizen can bear or even
look at such lOw.browed wlainous men as
Patterson or Spencer, without sense of NOR.
tlticaton, so much the worse for the Amer.
can citizen. These honorable senators are
not monsters, they are such men as we meet
every day, men whose bosoms never sweled
with free aud generous thought, who have
never felt an emotion that was not self sh,
never an aspiration that was not yeual. But
they are Senators, and this is our country
c. A. s.