Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1879-02-12
From Our Regular Correspondent
Washington Letter.

much rejoicing and lively exchange Of
congratulations among the personal and
political friends of the secretary Of the
treasury. but the president received the
news of confirmation without apparent
surprise, and did not permit himself open
~ to exult. On the morning after his de-
feat, when he came into the Senate Cham
Der, all the eyes of the galleries were fixed
upon the New York senator. but there
was nothing in his appearance to indicate
Il consciousness of subjugation. He per-
haps feels that he is young and can bids
his time, that every senator has his day,
and that even this defeat may be retrieved.
But although his seat in the Senate is Sc
cure for six years, this first great reverse
may have momentous influence on his
political future. There is an ebb as well
as 4 tide in the affairs of men, and this
defeat wrests from him immense patron
age and strips hundreds of his friends OF
the siuews of political warfare. 1t is in
sisted by many that Mr.. Conkling's defeat
came from his un-Napoleonic tactics in
deferring the encounter, that it might have
been brought on earlier, before. as his
friends say, the morale Of his following
was corrupted by the rich promises
Of the enemy. There are many ways
Of surmising how it might have been,
but none of them will affect the fact that
it is. This is victory of Secretery Sher-
man and the other cabinet officer whom
Mr.. Conkling once designated as little
Everts.' The president really cared very
little who had control of the New York
custom house. As Mr.. Sherman's victory,
it scores one more to the remarkable sue
cesses of Il man no way remarkable in
himself. The old theory that men are sue
cessful in the more conspicuous spheres OF
life, through force of genius, will find
many contradictions in the study of those
who are eminent in national politics. The
man Who makes by force his merit
known is not the one
" Who lives to clutch the golden keys,
To mould mighty states DEGREES,
And shape the whisper Of throne"
1t depends among other things upon
whether the man was elected from Yer.
mont or from Ohio.
Only four more weeks of congress re.
main, and as the 4th Of March approaches
the probability OF an extra session in.
creases. The two parties are numerically
so nearly equal that either party has the
power to so thwart or protract pending leg
iSlation as TO make an extra session neces-
sary. 1t is said that the leaders of both
parties are opposed to such y course, but
from the time that has been consumed
and will be consumed in debate on Mr..
Edmunds resolutions it seems scarcely
probable that the Senate will have time
for the consideration Of appropriation bills
and other indispensable legislation.
Ga yesterday the much talked of Ban
ning army bill was introduced as an
amendment to the army appropriation bill,
and after considerable debate it was ruled
in order. The discussion that followed
was one of the most exciting of the ses-
sion. The new bill removed three hundred
anu thirty.seven officers, mostly from the
staff. The officers Of the army are in the
proportion of one to every ten privates,
and it costs half Il million more every
year 10 pay the officers than it does to pay
the soldiers of the army. a final vote it
is thought will be reached too day, and
before this reaches you, the fate of the
much debated bill will be known.
Mr.. Sargent presented in the Senate
yesterday a letter from the secretary Of
the navy, in which he states his objection
to Mr.. Blaine's bill for the re organization
Of the navy. He points out the small
number of cadet midshipmen that will
graduate under the present six years
course with the limitation put upon the
appointments AZ III &c unucl tilc IeCtul
construction eff the law, and expresses his
belief that the casualties in tie higher
grades will continue to make vacancies in
the rank Of ensign equal to the number Of
cadet midshipmen graduating. Neither
does he deem the number of officers in the
navy disproportioned to the number OF
men that should be employed in the navy.
He points out the necessity for more men
when the addition to the naval vessels
now ready to be made are completed, and
urges provision for such increase in the
force Of seamen, He says the modern
style of war ships requires an additional
number of men for the guns, and unless
IN increase of force is authorized the de-
partment will be unable to man properly
all the vessels intended for the several
squadrons. c.