The daily gazette., 1877-03-30
Our Washington Letter.
From Our Regular Correspondent. - -,
WASHINGTON, March 2S. .

From Our Regular Correspondent. ..ss,,,,,
| .s ., WASHINGTON, March 2s.
The political situation would seem to
be sufficiently exciting, but compared
with the turbulence of the last three
months, it is dead calm, unruffied by
an episode. True we have in our midst
two claimants for theGovernor's chair in
the province of South Carolina, whom
our minority administration treats in a
way that would be interesting and origi-
nal, if it had not been made old and odi-
GUS by the last administration. Where is
there law, precedent, or reason, for the
legal governor af a sovereign state to be
summoned before fraudulent president
to show cause why he should not yield
to pretender from Massachusetts,, whose
only strength is the bayonets illegally
sent there by the ex-presidential curse?
1t is futile in politics as in love to think of
"what might have been;" but, how natur-
ally and sythmically would all those
jarring discords have adjusted themselves
under legally elected president, untram-
meled by "Returning Boards, Electoral
Commissions, or leagues with Packard,
Wells andEliza Pinkston;a president who
could be Indifferent to the cleaying of
Blaine's tongue in the defense of thieves
and carpet-baggers; president who would
be under no obligations to make Morton
the dispenser of boundless patronage, or
to give the sons of the ensign of the bloody
shirt rich sinecures.
| We hear much now days Of civil SER
Svice reform-on paper. Each cabinet Of
ficer is printing and publishing list cf
rules which is an embodyment of sound
principles is as faultless as a political
platform, and as empty and hypocritical
as Garfield. ANY one at all acquainted
with the diagnosis Of the civil service
malady, knows that its cure must be
commenced with purge. For the body
lpolitic to hope for health and eupepsia
| with all the vile accumulation of the
lost administration ranking in its bow
els and preying on its vitals gives reason
to fear that the disease is affecting the
head. 'YA
The last to come to the front with
his little hoard of civil service maxims
has been John Sherman, Mr.. Hayes
Secretary Of the Treasury, Wendell
Phillips, Mr.. Shermans' fellow partiA
san, congresses hispolitical biography
into the words: he went into the Sen
ate poor, and he left it rich. A biog-
rapher with a genius for details could
have said something more on the sub
Iject than this, but it will do. Mr..
Sherman goes further on paper than
Mr.. Key went. Like Mr.. McCrary and
Mr.. Shurz, he says no removals with
out cause, and no promotions without
merit. But, while Mr.. Key says Re
publican shall have preference. Mr..
sherman says that politics will not be
considered in civil service appoint
ments, and, ir order that his reform,
may have illustration, he appoints,
forthwith, friend of Mr.. Morton, ran
attachee OF an Indianapolis paper, upon
the syndicate; in other words, sends
him on European tour ct Govern
ment expense. A much better rule
than "no removals without cause and
no promotions without merit" would
be: "there is cause for general remo-
val"
Ex-senator Powell Clayton of Ar
kansas, one or the ex,moral idea states =
men bade final adieu to Washington
last night in peculiar and character
istic, but unsenatorial, way. He dis. 7,
putsd the bill of his landlord at the
congressional hotel when he had Been
boarding with his family OF Of IN,
Words followed and the ex-senator d
jumped over the bar, aud taking bot
tie, bruised the face of tile landlord
considerably, and Immediately left the
hotel with his familya The landlord
swore out q warrant, fer assault with
intent to kill, and placed itin the hands
of officers who followed Clayton to the
depot when they found him in Pull
man car with his family and surroun-
ded by a large number of friends. The
warrant was served upon him, but he
replied that, in order to answer it he
would have to remain in the city over
night, which he did not desire to do.
Mr.. Clayton, came out upon the plat
form of the car, with his friends, who
claimed for him that being a United
States Senator, he could not be arres-
ted and showed disposition to resist
the officers if they attempted to take
him by force. At this point the train
started, and Mr.. Clayton, who had
stepped off the car, was carried on
board and the train proceeded on its
journey, such was the manner of exit.
of a Senator only less notorious and
despicable than Patterson and Spen-
Ger. G. A., s,
Evidence showing the guilt of