Litchfield enquirer., 1878-03-21
Gbe Eitrbhelo Gnquirer,
 lITCHFlElD, CONN.
Thursday March 21,1878.
Hayes and Congress.

can President who will not run" his admins ty they assume to be. Assuming this to be the case, is it also true that the present ad- ministration is without friends in the country
 So far from this being the case, we believe that, were Presidential election to occur ir November next, there is noone of the Re publican Congressmen now prominent al Washington, particularly in the Senate, who could poll as large a republican vote as Presi' dent Hayes and that there is no prominent Republican there who would receive anything like the number of Democratic votes MT. Hayes would certainly win from the moderate section of that party. We do not believe that either Blaine or Conkling could carry any Northern doubtful state, to-day. How would it be in Connecticut, were there to be a presi- dentiaI election next fall. Would not Hayes poll heavier vote than any other Republican now prominent at Washington? Would not great many Democrats vote for man they believe to be thoroughly honest and thorough ly earnest for reform, and one who they
 
 interest of his party?
 The truth is that Washington-meaning the politicians there assembled4-is quarreling with the President about matter regarding which the country sympathizes with him and against Washington: and, if we are not mistaken, the Congressmen who are now fighting Hayes will feel good deal more lonesome among their constituents when they leave Washington, than Mir. Hayes and his cabinet can now feel among the disgusted politicians of the capital. The people at large are heartily sick of poli- tics and politicians especially of the personal politics and the selfish politicians against which President Hayes has been setting his face more and more firmly as he appreciates more and more thoroughly the gravity of the issue in which his honest adherence to the principles on which he was elected has involv- ed him.
 We are not denying that he has made many mistakes and that he has been guilty of se- rious inconsistencies but when he has done wrong it has been when he was not true to his own policy, but has yielded, as he has too often dOne to the solicitations of the very pol iticians who are now trying to ruin him with the people In nearly every instance his in- dependent appointments have been satisfacto- ", while his solicited appointments have of- ten brought him great discredit. In fact one of the most contemptble features of the poli- tician's hostility to Hayes has been it's treach- cry. Men have besieged him for appoint ments of friends and retainers, while they were denouncing his administration and condemn ing his inconsistency in yielding to just such solicitations. The simple truth is, as the Ma tion long since remarked, that Hayes cannot carry out his plans of reform without very bit ter fight with Congress. At first he evidently failed to appreciate this. Now, he must be thoroughly aware of it, and one of the most encouraging signs of the times is the firmness with which he maintains his position. There i' no yielding to pressure, but an obvious stiff fening against it. Two interesting letters in the Springfield Republican of last week, from different correspondents, indicate the feeling at Washington. Says the first
 In the White House sits man of mediocre ability and attainments, one whom I believe to be thoroughly honest and sincere in his pur- poses, possessing much of sound sense and judgment with not little appreciation of the popular necessities of the time, but weak and wavering in action hesitating and unreliable in pursuing even his avowed ends. If there is much to criticise, there is also much to commend in the position and course of the present administration Its immediate sur rOundlngs are at least clean and reputable. The cabinet officers, notwithstanding the 0n- just villifcatiOns some of them have received from metropolitan and other journals are all men of high order of ability and character. The various departments here have probably moi been conducted for years so ntelligently, honestly and systematically as at present.
 We cannot wonder that reformer abiding at Washington should be disgusted with the administration as well as with everything else he sees there. Yet the admission of the good Hayes has accomplished is worthy of especial note. The next correspondent laments Hayes lack of combativeness:
 If the president will give us a few more acts like the veto of the silver bill, and the nomina- tion of Mir. Beard, he will, to say the least, win the respect of the country. Oh! for a little more ugliness: it is all that is wanted to bring to his side many republicans So long as they can keep their friends in office, they will denounce the admin istration with the greatest freedom If he was more ugly, some of them would be more careful of their speech. This may seem d low view of the subject, but confess that am sick of seeing president so villified by men who are constantly treated by him with kindness and generosity.
 He justly considers the present Republican Senate the chief stumbling block in the way of reform, and hopes for improvement when it becomes Democratic in 1879:
 look to See a change next spring when the democrats get possession of the Senate Then it will be in the power of the president to make great changes in the civil service if he chooses and if am not mistaken good many repub- icans in Congress, who nov are unfriendly to Mir. Hayes, will begin to court him.
 We areO of the opinion that the presidents greatest strength lies in the very want of ran- cor so generally criticised Heisso little of par tisan that he does not even hate a personal ene- my. It may be true, indeed, that he is a me- diocre man, of great honesty and little force but, even then, an honest man, of no {. more than ordinary ability, is an excellent thing to see in the presidential chair, especial lywhen he shows capacity for learning from experience, and when he is not swerved from the right course by prejudice. We must not forget that Hayes came to the presidency as raw as Abraham Lincoln; that he has met with much firmness pressure to which his prede. cessor succumbed at once that he has already dene much to purify the civil service, and to reclaim the public patronage from the angry partisans who swarm in House and Senate 1; and that he has only to push the fighting little more sharply to become the man after the ardent reformer's own heart.
 What the President now needs is assurance oi support from the people, and he has a spec iai right to expect the support of the non-par- tisan as well as of the moderate partisan press nf fnn In fhis