West Feliciana sentinel. (St. Francisville, La.) 1876-1877, 1877-01-13
LETTER FROM WASHINGTON.
Especial Correspondence NO. Democrat.l

Especial Correspondence n. y. Democrat
WASHINGTON, ID. c., Dec. p, 1876
BY y pleasant patriotic fiction, Con-
gress did not adjourn for the usual holi-
day bender ut this particular season of
national travail. 1t is true, nearly all
the members have gone home, and there
is no qu0rum to transact any business
except to adjourn from day to dGT--a
business for which the rules have benign
" provided that wherever two or three
congressman arc gathered together III
the name of the Lord, there will be
quorum meet for adjournment also. But
to all practical intents, Congress- has
gone home for the holidays, adjournment
or no, and we may, with perfect proprie-
ty, sit down to Il calm survey of its ante
holiday work. To begin at the beginning
Congress assembled Il little over three
weeks ago, with blood in its eye-or
rather with blood in its two eyes, which
in this instance, seemed afflicted with
political ssrobismus. The Republican,
Senate assembled TO find that it's pro-
graun!e had been cons;acrately marked
out for it, by Zach Chandler, and that
the winters work for it's members and
committees had been duly told off and
appOrtioncd by the same provident au-
thority. Ineed not say that the pro
gramme of Chandler was large and, in
many particulars, startling; and l need
not proceed with any discussion to tell
You what it was. Suffice to say that
the enterprise of counting in defeatcd
President, counting out an elected Con
gress, and counting the devil generally
n all directions, which the Senate found
prepared for its einbarking in three
| weeks ago, was tiie device OF
CHANDLER, SOLrS.
To those who knew not the inside OF
the thing, the ven cradle and formidable
Zacharic loomcd up like brass Co!os-
sus, and to those who surveyed only the
metallic suporstructure and saw not the
unsteady legs of clay which tottered
under it, the apparition was imposing.
The casual visitor from the interior
came to Washington at the opening OF
| the session, saw the upper story OF this
ibrass Colossus blazing bright and bale
! full, as it were, from the portico of the
Patent Office, saw the Republican
Senate behind him proppinG up the
| unsteady legs with props mainly COM
posed of saw dust and north wind, while
| in the still more remote background he
| saw phantom President at the head OF
a few files Of shadowy soldiers. Thns
| the causal visitor fancied that we wero
IN THE MIDST OF A REVOLUTION,
| concluded that, because similar appli-
ances had once made Bill Kellogg GOV
ernor" of Louisiana, this ineSplicable
dumb show and noise was going to make
| HAYES President of the United States,
and forthwith bought areturn tlcket---or
| most likely procured % pass-and med
| him to the bosom of his family.
The result was that from December 4,
to the 18th the country was full OF re-
signed and solemn patriots who had
fully made up their minds that the
grand
| CRACK OF DOOM
was about to be heard, and who were
prayerfully devisfhg ways and means OF
avoiding that necessary dispensatlon OF
| fate which gives the hindmost to the
devil. All conceded that tho Inaugural
ton of Hayes by the methods proposed
| and under the circumstances set forth'
would be the practical end of popular
self-government in this country, and
| would constitute tho establishment OF
an oligarchy of drunken thieves and
snock-faced hypocrites in its place but,
at first place, many also gave it up that
as the conspirators had in their hands the
MATERIAL
of tho Government, and its appliances
of physical force-the army (sic) and
the navy (sicl-it would be utterly use
less for fhe people to resistt them. Strange
ISN'T it 9-how prone the most dis
cerning are, like the poor balance OF us us
to lose sight of what may be in the in in
edness of their all-seolng scrutiny INTO