Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1877-06-14
NO. 14O.
Miscellameons.
Civil Service Reform.
VIII.
LETTER FROM GAIL HAMILTON.

STANLEY MATTHEW'S AS THE FOURTH ESTATE OF
THE GovERNMENr-oHIo IN THE LIST OF AP-
PoINTMENTs-MR. sIILLwELL's 8 CASE.
To the Editor of the Tribune:
SIR: There is still third class of diametric Cd.
positions through which we must beat down the
columns OF the newspapers in our unwearied
search for the truth; inconsistencies not malig-
nant like the first class, not of grave import like
the second; slight, sometimes comical, yet help.
ing to veil the truth of facts aud complcating the
puzzle in which we live and move and have our
being.
For instance there seems TO have entered since
the 4th Of March a new element into our poIity
indeterminate but incessant, intangible but ubiout-
ous, Ineffective yet powerful, unsubstantal as
Millions deaih-what seemed his head. the like
ness of kingly crown had on, and men called il
Stanley Matthews. When this phenomenon frst
met our eyes in the rural districts it seemed no
bigger than mans hand wrestling his Congres-
sionai chair from Mr.. Banning, and Nesting in
modest corners of the reform newspapers as Mrs.
Hayes brother Joseph's wife's husband but like
the Eastern gcnii unsesled from their bottle, it
loomed up as we gazed, and strobe forth over the
whole country. Our government which had hith-
erto existed in three departments speedily toek on
sort of fourth estate and divided itself into the
legislative the executive, the judicial and Stanley
Matthews There was an angry buzz in South
Carolina; Stanley Matthews had been poking his
stick into the nest. There was a scratching be-
hind the arras in Louisiana; Stanley Matthews
had been scattering ratsbsne and sugar. Gen.
Garfield suddenly found his way into the Senate
sweety but securely hedged up with roses; STAN
ley Matthews head popped up on the Senate side
of the hedge. The Southern democrats sat suck
ing their thumbs in suspicious silence, while their
Northern brethren were curveting over their desks
to count out the electoral votes, and To- Stanley
Matthews was distributing contingent nuts and
candy in sealed cans. There was jar and Q
hitch in the approaching extra session of Con
giess; Stanley Matthews was Juggling at the
brakes. So did this Little Busy Bee Improve
Each Shining Hour, till AN admring nation came
to put him in the same relation to the President
that the old divines considered Satan to bear to
the Almighty, "not equal in original power but
making up for it by an Internal activity" As
Stanley Matthews had never been incorporated
into the Constitution, and lacked the antiquity OF
comman law some people began to grow restive.
Despotism tempered by assassination may be q
good enough form of government for Russia, but
many American citizens demurred at forsakiug
the polity of the fathers and forming themselves
into a Republic tampered with by Stanley Mat
thews. Parliamentary government has its draws
backs, but even the chronic gramblers were hard
| ly prepared TO abolish Congress and establish
Patriarchy under the FEDERAL Headship of this
Complete Letter Writer Our Constitution is the
work of human reason, aud therefore liable to err
| ror; but here and the re may be found man who
would be 10th to the grand old words:
"We the people of the United States, in order to
form a more perfect union, establish justice, in
|
mon defense, promote the general welfare, and
secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and
our posterity, do ordan and establish this Consti.
| tuition for the United States of America'-and to
substitute therefor. IL. Stanley Matthews. desire
| 10 say that can assure you, the people, in the
| strongest possible manner, Of my great desire TO
| have my sisters husbands sisters husband d.
right, and 10 say further, that, from an acquain-
tance with and knowledge Of him and his views,
l have the most complete confidence that such
will be the case"
| Not so our newspapers. They gamboled under
his yoke as gamesomely as if their necks had been
originally curved for that wearing. Object to the
| Chamberlain letter. Not they 1t was only
that mole hill was magnlfed into mountainous
proportions" "As q prominent republican, Mr..
| Matthews had a perfect right to make any sug-
| gestion in the premises he saw tit, without lead
| ing Gov. Chamberlain or anybody else to reRsr
| President Hayes administration as complicated
thereby" Unquestionably; only why does the
| same journal, few days after, when Stanley
Matthews had been nominated for Senator, de-
clare that his selection "nvolved a special tribute
to President Hayes, and an emphatic. III
| dorsement of his reconciliation policy
MIR. Matthews standing in such intim ate person
al relations With the President, and being prom
inently identified with the policy, that his re-
lection might have looked like distrust on the part
| of his own State p What sort of political pres
tidigitaiion is it that makes Stanley Matthews at
one moment such Siamese twin to the President
that TO reject him is to distrust the President, and
| at another moment entirely divorced from the
President that to suspect the slightest complies-
| ton between them is mere phantom of the i'm
aginatlon First upon the heel tap, Then upon the
toe Wheel about and turn about-but which po-
sition faces the truth when the jig is upf
STANLEY Mathews Worried About the Extra
Session" is the pathetic headline with which one
of our Boston Retormers leads off its telegraphic
dispatches. 1t strangely neglects to bulletin the
exact degree Of his worriment, aud we left in
painful suspense as TO whether he Is only In the
first stage of irritation the last stage of insom-
MIA. But word of the wise men of Boston 10
sufficient. A greatful country will Instantly muf-
de its IL o'clock bells, bury its driveways in tan,
and feed out to Stanley Matthews celery BY day
and chloral by night to soohe his agitated nerves
| A grateful country, do | say Boston alone, ap-
parently, could Gull from her newspaper offices,
nurses enough to take him through brain ie-
yer, and crave of Heaven no higher boon. what
is an Extra Session that it should stand 10 the way
of Stanley Matthews peace of mind ! Extra Ses-
| sions grow on every bush, but here is a Century
Plant-perhsps, considering the occult and con-
| iinuous char aeter of its processes, We might more
properly call it Night Blooming Series-upon
| whose like we may never look again. IL mas tax
en- this republic hundred years to flower in Stan
ley Matthews, and shall rude Congressman scatter
his tender petals at their first blossomingf
| No Ii the soldiers want money. there are plen-
| ty of Bankers in New York to discount their pay
vouchers, and $50 are as good as 500 for the vag-
abonds, 10 time of peace. No. Laws may stretch
and grumblers resign. and the discharged soldiers
trudge home afoot, but when our eyes shall be
turned to behold for the last time the sun in heav
en-, let there feeble and lingering glance see upon
the gorgeous ensign Of the Repabiic, spread I'll
over character. OF living light, that sentiment,
dear to every true American heart: I'VE will not
have our Stanley Matthews worried y
There is something little depressing yet irre-
sistibly comical in the nimbeness with which
honest old party papers, take the Boston Journal
for instance, that never pretended to be anything
| else and were never required to have any opinion,
except of the party in power, whipped around ths
the corner and came out full fiedged reformers
GER" "wrepuIers, .scaiswass.s Gala .ossice.seeE
es," goods which had been the recog nized stocl
in trade of reform" for years, now appeared on
their shelves as promptly and calmly rs il they
also had been in the business time out OF mind
There fervor lacked only the words, not the spirit;
of Simeon's prayer: Lord. now lettest thou thy
servant depa,t in peace, for mine eyes have seen
thy salvston" None forward s. these new
converts to hand waning "Copgressmen 70 me
back seats" or exult 10 the victory OF tne rres.