The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1878-10-24
Senator Hill and the Presidential
Fraud.
WASHINGTON. October II.

WASHINGTON, October II.
The recent letter Of Senator. Hill, of
Georgia, denouncing the Presidential
frauds and condemning the President
and his appointments to office and his
policy generally, is the cause of much
surprise tto:a. Up to the closing hours
of Congress, in June last, the President
had, apparently, no better friend or
warmer defender than Senator Hill.
Only few days before the adjournment
of Congress Mr.. Hill, in a published in
terview, spoke of Mr.. Hayes as honest
and upright, and in no way responsible
for the frauds by which he was elevated
to the Presidency. A member of the
Cabinet says that Mr.. Hill's open ad-
vocacy of the President was at times a.
source of embarrassment and annoyance,
and that the President would have much
preferred it had Mr.. Hill been less vehe-
ment in his support. In his letter just
published, Mr. Hill says: Hayes is as
bad man as Andrew Johnson would
have been had he appointed Booth to a
seat in his Cabinet" Those here who
are thoroughly acquainted with Mr.. Hill
believe that this sudden and radical
change in his opinion of the President,
put forth pretentiously at this time, when
there seems no occasion or excuse for it,
is to be taken as a notice Of Mr.. Hills
intention to attack the administration on
the opening of Congress. Mr.. Hill is an
exceedingly earnest and determined man,
and is never satisfied with quiet role.
During the last session of Congress,
through the efforts of prominent Demo-
cratic Senators, no attempt was made to
bring up for party discussion in the Sem
ate any questions growing out of the set
tlement of the last Presidential election.
In the course of the debates in the SEN
ate, both in open and in secret session,
all allusions made to the subject by SEN
ators Of either side were couched in the
spirit Of moderation and of Cancellation.
If, as MIR. HILLS friends appear to think,
it is his purpose to precipitate on the
floor of the Senate this question, it will
afford all the opportunities for sensations
that he or anv one else may desire. TO
reopen the question in the Senate will be
to inaugurate a discussion that would
spread over large part of the ensuing
session, and which would be bitter and
violent in the extreme. 1t is said on the
authority of Mr.. Rogers, the private Sec
retary of the President, that Mr.. Hills
assertion that he has made no recommen-
dations to Office is not borne out by the
facts. To the contrary, Mr.. Rogers says,
Mr.. Hill has made number of recon-
| mendations for Office, and several of the
persons recommended by him have been
appointed.
A friend of the President handed SEN
ator Hill's letter to him, and its perusal
caused him the most intense surprise, as
he still has the most lively recollection
of the almost daily visits paid to the
White House by Mr.: Hill in the early
spring of 1877, and his continued subse-
quent assurances of confidence and ap-
proval. The President was then re-
minded of remark made to him in
April, 1877, by prominent Southern
gentleman, not an otliceholder, who has
known Mr.. Hill for many years. The
remark was almost in these words: "Mr.
President, mark what I tell you; you
think Mr.. Hill firm friend of yourself
and of your administration, but the day
will come when he will turn on you. !"
1t may be that Mr.. Hill will content
himself with the issue cf his letters and
will not undertake to stir up strife on the
floor of the Senate, but the incorporate
language which he uses fully iustifes the
conclusion that he means to pitch in.