New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1880-01-14
Washington Letter.

NEW YEAR CEREMONIES. The SAME
OLD PROGRAMME. MILITARY. Ma.
VAL, AND D1PLoMATIC spLENDoR.
PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE AS A LINE
OF MILITARY DEFENCE AGAINST THE
INDIANS. MODERN M1M1cRY OF
DIPLOMACY.
From our Regular Correspondent
Washington, D. c., Jan. LIST, 1880.
Io.days New Year calls, in Wash
lngton, were repetition of the
familiar programme. The Presi.
dent, Cabinet officers, Judges Of the
Supreme Court-nearly everybody,
official and non. official, received: and
everybody called. The New Year
receptions at the Capital are good,
II ior nothing else, to display the I'm,
posing reserve strength of the Army
and Navy. It has been the policy
OF our government to bring the
chiefs of the savages to the Eastern
cities, to impress them with the
strength of our population, the ex.
,ehC o1 our resources, and the hope.
lessness Of their cause in the ire.
pressible conflict. This policy has
had no apparent effect upon indian
wars. because the savage is unable
to distinguish those who have been
taught French, engineering, and
waltzlng, to qualify them for their
executloners, and the shop. keepers
and dandies who promenade Penn.
sylvania Avenue. The accomplish.
ed pups Of war" from West Point.
ami the exquisite civilian, look pre-
clseiy alike when the former is mas
Queradlng i'll citizens dress, as is
their custom for 364 days of the year.
The way to make the governmental
policy effective would be to bring
the Indians here on the first day OF
the year, and let them see our Of
ficcrs in their war.like panoply; they
would then realize, from their cpau-
lettcs, scarEs, gold braid, and but
tons, what terribly destructive fel-
lows they are, and what numerous
reserve we keep at the Capital, with
Pennsylvania Avenue as our line of
defence.
But the New Year official cere-
monies are instructive and impress
sl'e III at least one other way, We
are reminded on the first day of the
year that we have foreign relations:
that we, as people, do not live to
ourselves, nor order the fashion of
our National household; that Re.
publicanism is not such new de.
p!rture as the apostles of new. fangl-
ed steam, electricity, and printing
presses would have US believe; that,
in spite of the discovery of a new
continent, the width of the Atlantic
Ocean, and our Wanted secession
from monarchical forms and formal
tiles, we are compelled to servilely !
copy that which the ''effete depot |
lsms' perpetuate only as venerable
tradition. When we see the foreign
corps, the gorgeous en-
bassadors OF Russia, Turkey, Aus
tria, Denmark, and the Cannibal
Islands, with their numerous at.
tachees, any one of them with twice
rs much gold braid and tinsel as our
own resplendent Army and Navy Of
icers, our minds are carried back to
the day Of Talleyrand and Matter.
Mich or farther to the age of Richie
lieu and Macchiavelli, when the
policies Of nations were not discussed
and the secrets of courts were not
anticipated and exposed by the press,
cabled to the four quarters Of the
globe for the information of all the
world, and, finally, for the informa-
ton Of the Diplomats. When we
see the modern ambassador in his
arduous and delicate diplomatic work
of calling at the White House one
lay OF the 365, presenting his COM
Dliments to the President, wishing
him and Mrs. Hayes a happy New
Year, our hearts (not cur pockets) |
nay swell with the reflection, that,
II spite of the press, steam, the ct.
antic' Ocean and the Atlantic
Cable, we, also, have the proud
privilege Of paying few mil.
ions year, at foreign courts, in
support Of this venerable, antique,
Useless mimicry of Diplomacy.