The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1880-08-06
WASHINGTON LETTER.
WASHINGTON. July 81, 1880.


The aristocratic exclusiveness of the State
Department is something fearful to contemplate.
To be fully appreciated it must be seen, for no
description of the agony" that can be shown
by an employee of this department when brought
into earthly contact with the common herd
could do the subject justice. The stranger
visiting Washington cannot fail to at once notice
the State Department building. A building
equalling in size and far excelling in architectu-
raj design and interior ornamentation the Capitol
itself. Although the State Department by name,
the department of State occupies the south wing
only, the other portions being occupied by the
War Department The Navy Department still
occupies the old building until the new State
Department building is finished, when 1t will oc-
cupy the west side of the building The Patent
ONCE building is occupied by the Patent Office,
Indian Office Land Office and a part of the De
partment of Education. Railways connect all
the bureaus of these departments, but not so with
the aristocratic War and State Departments, for
though under one roof, the line of demarcation is
carefully drawn by solid brick walls, and per-
son who visits some mighty military Captain
must, if he desires to inspect the diplomatic
branch of the government, leave the sacred pre-
cincts of military exclusveness and go outside
the building and take the influence of a sun bath
along the east front of the building before he is
in proper sanitary condition to visit the awe-in-
spring atmosphere of the State Department pro-
per, or in a proper frame of mind to interview
the multitudinous Mikados, Ameers, Sultans and
Cars inhabiting for a few hours during the day
NJ fho hni he Ira
service reformers would but once come here on
business that would call them into the presence
of the Lords of the Sun and Moon they would
quickly alter their demand for life retention Of
their clerical service. Fitzhugh was bigger
man than old Grant," but these mites have be-
come greater than the government and it is the
universal opinion OF all persons who have busi-
ness to do with them that they ought to be hoe
ing corn at their homes in Ohio, or curing cod
fish of the coast of Maine. There must be some
thing decidedly wrong in 9 traditional system
that engenders exclusiveness and aristocracy so
un-American as this. Our government is founded
upon in fact 1t is the cornerstone of our C0nsti-
tuition, that all men are equal, yet here in our
midst we carefully fostering a department
and q system whose chief object seems to be
drawing away from the people and from the con-
ditions of our fathers, and holding on the public
ladder with the tenacity of the Old man of the
Sea- Take the green country boy with the smell
of the cowslip and the clover on his homespnn,
and If by miraculous good fortune, such as the
death of some Tycoon of the State Department,
he receives an appointment to enter as q young
Lord of the Moon its jasper walls, its system is
such that in a few years he would be too aristo-
cratic to recognize his former friends and neigh
bors and on both sides of the street and the adja-
cent reservation. II our civil service reformers
win but stop and for one moment consider the
aristocracy Of the pearl handled West Pointer,
born in q garret and bred and educated as pub-
he charity, he win hesitate before he csmmits
himself to the folly Of insisting On The building
up of another institution for the propagation Of
exclusiveness and circumlocution which charac-
acte,izes the British civil service.
The President and hjs Cabinet were evidently
somewhat hasty in accepting the report of Ad-
miral Wyman regarding the 6panish outrage
Yesterday the matter was again discussed By the
Cabinet THE alBdasit of Ospaain Parsons, Of
| the schooner George Washingsoa, wa received
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