National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1881-03-28

| by authority for the President concern
lug the causes which led the Executive
mind to the selection of Mr.. Robertson
as the generalissimo of the administra-
ton forces in New York. One journal
had it that the New York Senators had
| quietly winked and silently nudged and
mysteriously conspired for Robertson's
appointment by way of pleasing the
bakers dozen in the New York Legisla-
ture who, representing all there was of
the Republican opposition to Senator
Conkling's leadership, were ashamed to
be counted, and therefore hid their in
significance safely out of sight among the
so-called machine men" who voted for
Mr.. Platt for the Senate. This we know
| to be false. Other statements, equally
silly, are made, evidently to take away as
much as possible the appearance of hos
tile rudeness toward the New York
| Senators which seemed to characterize
Mr.. Robertson's nomination. We pass
these small efforts by, and come to the
| declarations made by the Presidents
trusted friend, Mr.. E. Y. Smalley, in his
dispatch from Washington to the New
York Tribune, and which appeared in that
journal on Saturday last.
Mr.. Smalley leaves no room to doubt
that he thinks he knows of what he
speaks. His manner is positive, and
authoritative to the point of Podsnap-
pianism. If he correctly understands the
matter the President has all along in
tended to recognize all elements of the
party which contributed to his success
last fall, and to I" do all in his power to
heal the old factional fight" &c. In
furtherance of this generous intention he
has, says this friend, made up his list of
appointments from representative men of
the two Republican elements in the
State.'' The distribution among the
elements" strikes one as did the divi-
sion of the oysters where one side re-
ceived only the shells. However, we
hope there has not been cool and delib-
crate effort to divide up the duties and
responsibilities of public station as if they
were the loot of the campaign. The
Tribune, for which Mr.. Smalley writes,
has become so abandoned as servant of
the new machine that it talks loosely of
the extreme or nincompoop wing of
civil-service reform theorists" but let us
hope that such depravity has not yet
reached the White House. Mr.. Smalley
felicitates his readers that, the spoils hay
ing been divided between the "ele-
inents," 4" if the factions continue to fight
after this it will not be his (the Presi-
dent's) fault" If this is really by au-
thority it presents gloomy view of the
future.
1t ignores the vital question involved
in Robertson's appointment, and simply
counts noses, to see if the President has
not appointed to Office from the friends
of Senator Conkling as many as from his
enemies. The real question is very re-
mote from this. Mr. Conkling has never
been an office-monger. The real objec-
ton to the appointment Of Mr.. Robertson
is not that it was not giving an office to
an adherent Of that Senator, but that it
was inviting all who want patronage to
enlist in political crusade for that Sen
ator'S destruction. This does not interest
alone the parties Immediately engaged in
the Republicans of New York will see
their great leader dragged as captive at
the chariot-wheel of any chief outside of
New York. Least of all will they obey
the orders of Mr.. Robertson, who swindled
them out of the vote they intrusted him
with at Chicago. If these words are based
on the truth, then there is great danger
that the party in New York may suffer
disaster in resisting the tyranny sought
to be practiced upon it. 1t is this un-
necessary strain the party in New York
is to undergo which should give the Presi-
dent pause. We hope the Tribune CORE
spondent may find some time to investi-
gate and report upon this aspect of the
case.
But Mr.. Smalley did not stay his ex-
planation at the point we have reached.
Stirred by the exhilarating atmosphere
in which he moves, he could not resist the
temptation to tell us why this blow had
been struck. It was not necessary; but
he makes love to his theme and rushes On
to the true explanation. His harmony
theory suffers in the supplemental story
but then what matters that? The fan
tastic and bewildering performances, COM
mencing with the invitation of Senator
Conkling to Mentor to confer on public
affairs, and winding up with public and
unmistakable manifestation of q hostility
which was not and is not now admitted
to exist, may fittingly receive conflicting
explanations from the administration Or
gan.
But let us hasten to the central truth to
which Mr.. Smalley's indiscretion treats
us. He says:
"Ah! but the anti-machine men get the big
place." say the malcontents. ''Their best man is
put in the custom house. and will control its vast
patronage" Well, did any one suppose the ad-
ministration idiotc enough to put there of the
306 who decorated themselves with medals and
pledged themselves at Chicago to keep up the coz
test for Grant until 1854? Self-preseryaion is the
first law of nature, and no administration can be
expected to put a sharp knife in the hands of
man who has taken VOW to cut its throat at the
end of its first term. Very naturally and very
properly, say Republicans of all sorts-save a few
who cherish old resentments-the President pre-
fers for collector at New York who was his
friend at Chicago and the friend of the cause he
represented. to one who was not. At the same
time he shows by his selection of some of the most
prominent Grant men for other important offices
that he has feeling of unfriendliness toward
the element which opposed his nomination and
afterward labored zealously and efficiently for his
election. He stands as near to them to any
body, and they have his confidence and est eem;
but in filling an Office which might be made a
powerful political agency ne prefers one of his old