Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1877-06-14
tconclnded from ri,t paee.l


stopped 10 pick up broken erockery. The Nestor
"Periey" raises his bugle horn, and blows long
and loud reioicings that with the inauguration
of President Hayes the regeneration OF the repub
lican party has commenced" We gladly swell
his yRan, though we have had toe many disap-
pointments to share his touching and enthusiastic
fath that "the troubled waters of sectional strife
are TO be stiied, brswliug politicians must take
back seats and every one will be well pleased ex-
eept the partisan wire-pullers." Nevertheless, we
are just delighted to hear that the "Presldents
first act has been to secure q Cabinet which viii
aid him in administering the Government on
board national principles" But what means, in
the self-same letter. the assertion that ten. Sher-
man will endeavor TO improve tue opportunity al
forded by the personal friendship OF the President
toward him and bis brother. the Secretary, By re-
vviag an old army measure What broad, nation
al principle is involved 10 being personal friend
of the President or brother TO one OF his Cabinet
II should not be forgotten that the trump card OF
the Rcformers is President Hayes more than Ro-
man severity toward his friends aud relatives.
They may be endowed with thousand virtues,
but all 20 for nothing against the one crime OF be-
ing his friend or his cousin or his wife's cousin.
He shares the proverbia modesty of Ohio, and
well-nigh harms the republic by keeping his own
friends in the background. We all know how at
the last election that shy State hung coyly 10 the
rear aud had to be sweetly forced to the polls by
outside barbarisns TO give her faint voice for her
own son. 10 like manner the Jaoilant Reiormers
tell GON. Hayes 'Ttlustu 10 appotut u an
portsnt office gentleman of high character, ear
nestly urged for the place BY nearly all the repub-
hcans of the city, only for the reason that
the proposed neminee was an intimate personal
friend for many years. But before our
admiration of this heroic course had time to be
riously mitigated by the misgiving as TO whether
personal friendship is constitutional disqualified
ton for office. the Reformer cheerfully records
that "the appointment of Gen. L. Z. +. Smith OF
Cincinnati, is the Presidents own appointment.
- zG2 20 tna
President that he proposed TO take new appoint
ment clerk the President replied that he thought
he knew just the right man, his friend Gen. Smith
of CINCINNATI" And while we are yet wrestling
with these sntagonistic statements and wondering
whether the rejected nominee will not make a
fuss in the family" when be hears Of it, forth
fares again our dapper reformer, and, with bland
and beautiful Inconsistencies Of any discrepancy
announces that alfred Z. Lee, the Presidents
former private secretary, holds the position OF
Consul General to Frankfort, and "Robert Schuy-
Ter Gardiner Of West Virginia, who was maj or Of
a regiment which President Hayes commanded at
one time during the war, has received the appoint
ment of Consul General at Melbourne, the salary
of which il 80, 500 per annum, and "Gen. Moves,
who made the nomination of Gov. Hayes in the
Cincinnati Convention, has been appointed Minis
ter to France" and ''the Postmas ership of Balt-
more is TO be given to Gen. +. b. Tyler, under
whom the President served during the war" and
so Fast they come, fast they come, Faster and
faster, Chief vassal, page, and groom, Tenant and
master; and still the undsmayed Reformer opens
bis mouth and brays anew. mo Nepotism in the
Hayes Administration"
"The President looked all Mr.. Stilwell's
papers carefully through, and then looking Still
well full in the face said "Your papers are unex-
ceptiousble. There is nothing in your record
which does not seem to show that you are fully
qualified for the position but there is one insu-
perable objection to your appointment to any fed
eral ofice-that is, that your wife is iavorite
cousin Of Mrs. Hayes
Now we must draw the line somewhere between
belief and disbelief, and l draw mine at wife's
cousins husbands. Whatever becomes of Civil
Service Reform openly avow that do not believe
one word of this story Look at it. If President
Hayes was determined to reject Stilwell irrespec-
tive of his papers, why did he take up his valua-
BILE time in carefully looking them all through ?
As Mrs. Stillwell was Mrs. Hayes favore cousin,
are not President Hayes and Mr.. Stillwel on good
enough terms with their own wives to enable the
President to know Stillwells qualifications with
out looking at his papers, and to enable Stlllwel
to know the Presidents principles without the ex-
pense and fatigue Of a journey to Washington to
find them out
In the light even of unassisted reason, no one
but resolute Reformer can believe this story.
Who told 1t ! Not the President, surely. Even If
he could summon Spartan firmness enough to
suppress his wife's favorite cousins husband,
nothing but total depraviiy could induce him to
and Mrs. Stillwe into state OF mind. For, of
course, Mrs. Stillwell would Immediately rise up
in her wrath and demand to know why Mrs.
Hayes cousins husband was any more dangerous
to the liberties Of the republic than Mrs. Hayes
brother Joseph's wife's husband! OF course Still
well told it, and of course to suit himself Prob
ably there is no Stillwell. If there is, undoubted
ly the President looked him full in the face and
said: "Stillwell, you are a humbug and fraud.
/ have tolerated you hitherto. not because you
were Mrs Hayes grandmother's third cousin S
brother-in-laws' stepson, but because you were a
poor devil whom II was unlawful to kill, though
of no earthly use alive. Then, however, you
were only domestic excrescence. Hanging on
the verge of the government you would be public
rag-and-tatter. Here are $25 to pay your fare to
Vancouver's Island, and if | ever catch |, GU on
the White House grounds again | will have you in
the District Jail in Is minutes" and instantly
went upstairs, like good family man he is, to
consult with his brother-in-law's brother-in-law,
Stanley Matthews, as to whether the play should
begin at once, or whether they would better re-
hearse the Millennium little longer before they
performed in i'll
But we have right to ask the reformers TO
keep the peace among the quarrelsom inanties
just IS strictly as if they were not the fruit OF
spontaneous generation. GAIL HAMILTON.
May %, 1877.