Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1878-01-19
WHOLE NO. 1920.

E rabIe rascality; but there are S
; many claimants to do the work tbs
the "outso always tattle on the sins.
3 The Bureaus at Washington, sue
: as Pensions, Patents and Agricu
3 ture, are very closely guarded unde
: the rigorous eye of Carl Schurz, VIII
> is, if not the ablest executive officer
: a very considerable moral presenc
In the Interior Department. Unde
+ Delano and his predecessors it be
came a law for anybody dealing sys
tematically with the Interior De
: partment to pay liberally at once
to stop the expense ,Df hanging ON
i People were worried out of thei
purses and patiences by delay on the
most trivial applications, and made
to feel, as the saying went, that they
j must not expect "meanness" Il
thrive around Washington.
2 The old Naval Ring is in despair
Nobody suggests that Dick Thomp
son either steals anything or permits
anybody to steal under his govern
ment. The old naval contractors
have as much as they can do tOavoid
prosecutions for past offenses. The
disposition manifested by Congress
and the people not to build ships un-
less for known purposes, and to ques-
tion any repairs of ships outside OF
the navy-yards, has well nigh extir-
pated that immense Naval Ring,
which achieved its greatest exploits
on land under Robson, and makes
him, at present, the partner of Will
liam r. Chandler in his vOciferous
Washington newspaper, intended to
break down President Hayes. 1t
was in RobesOn's interest that we
found Republicans filibustering just
before the recess to prevent re-
opening of the general investiga-
tionS into the past affairs of the De-
partments. Robson went into the
Navy Department as poor as
church-mouse, and came out as fat
as granary rat. Tne disgrace of
Belknap caused gloom to settle
over all the Executive thieves, Of
whom he was, probably, the least to
blame. Even the Attorney-Gene-
ral's Office was subject to the graVest
suspicion under its various occu-
pants until Hayes came into power
and put Devens, a highly respectable
man, there. 1t was not uncommon
for persons living about Washington
to receive intimations from lawyers
that it was easy to procure pardon
by influence with the Attorney
General, and that class Of bribery
went up through the social life and
under the petticoats of fine women,
until it hardly stopped at the feet
and hands of the Cabinet dignitary
himself. Persons are now absent
from this country who might be
questioned on such charges as this
to the greatest advantage. Even the
State Department, q few years since,
was intruded upon by avaricious pO-
Etical dependents. Under Sanford,
Perry, Webb, Thomas, Van Buren
and other Ministers, perpetual char
ges were made of American political
rapacity extending to distant Legal !
tiOns. The condition of our legations |
on the eastern course of South |
America about the time Of the Par
aguayan war was almost worse than |
that of the court of Lopez himself. |
Up to the present time no scandals
have attended the appointments of
Hayes in foreign countries. AS to
abuses in public buildings, whether
in the unnecessary number of them,
or in making Of jobbing contracts on |
the spot, that is largely attributed in
every case to the particular Con- 1
gresham or Senator In whose dis
triot the edifice Is set up. i observe
that the frank Mullett goes about
poor, while many a astOne-masOn and
contractor who received work is
'happy as a clam" And, by the
way, when Billy Chandler hOwls
about Hayes, il is well to remember
that his friend Ordway is interested
in the Richmond granite quarry.
When Ben Butler talks twice un-
seemly we are reminded Of the Cape
Ann quarrieS.
DESPAIR.
In short, the Republican pOliti-
clans are in despair, because their
revenues are either cut down to the
pinch of poverty or are threatened
with extinction. The public senti-
ment is generally against embark
ing in large Government cOnstruc-
tions, and the Government officials
are afraid any longer to be in cOllu-
sion with Senators and Congressman,
rs to increasing the sinecures, en-
Iarging the estimates, and rolling up
the surplus of plunder. If you will
look back a few years at the Inn
mense sums of money paid at Wash
IngtOn over the Treasury counter to
every kind and description of claim
ant you can the more appreciate the
hunger of the politicians at present.
1t took ten years to settle the war
claims, adjust the pension rolls,
the subsidized railroads,
destroy the subsidized Steamship
expose the subsidized
navy, track out and expose the sub
sidized Postal Ring, develop the
Land Ring, apprehend the patent
and bring the Government
to any kind of order after the ex-
cesses of war. Every piece of busi-
ness, however minute, in those days,
was transacted through Congress-
men and Senators, through lobby
lists and the brothers-in-laW of exec
utiVe officers, through claim lawyers
like Chandler and big contingent
counsel like Butler and Black. The
very lawyers around the District of
are ineensed to-day at the
of ftheir perquisites. Not
some fellow, who could
not ring into profitable claim bus
mess, Jerry Wilson, for instance, set
up as an Investigator of other Offend
ers, and "blazed his way" into prac-
tiee. 1t Is not to the prejudice of
General Grant that he could not dis
cover all these things, for he was go
ing to school much of the time that
he filed the executive office. He
condition of things which
went, in his administration, to high
water mark. He did not know
when he sought out Columbus De-
Iano, with the modeaty Of newly
elected President, and asked that
old expert to be Commissioner of
Internal Revenue that he had gone
to the furthest limit of a mistake at
once. Nor is it wholly just 10 say
that the very thieves who battened
around the Government center from
1865 to 1876 could extrlcate them
selves from the temptation to steal,