The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1881-11-16
washington Letter.


THE STATE BEYOND THE POTOMAC. a
aBrrrER RrED" Ex-cABISET OFFICER.
CIVIL SERVICE SHAM FooLERY. THE
GOOD THAT BLAINE, JAMES AND HUNT
HAVE DONE.
WASHINGTON, d. c., Nov. 18th, 1881.
From Washington, We look across the
Potomac npon the hills of Virginia. Vir-
ginia-named from the Virgin Queen,
| Virginia-the ED st aud most majestic OF
the colonial sisterhood But yesterday, on
her historic sands, was celebrated the event
that assured our independent nationality,
and prefaced the brightest and most Won
derful book in the annals of peoples. To-
day. Virginia sits Inundated and debauched,
wearing 'the sorrows crown of sorroW'
/ her fair fame, her VOWS, and her obligations
REPUDIATEp. The hills of Virginia look
across the Potomac upon Washington with
/ its marble Capitol, the White House, and
the Treasury of the United States. In
these, they see the cause of disgrace and ruin
/ of the once beautiful and chaste. In the
CAPITOL of the United States, Senators con-
spired and colleagued with an apostate
Virginian. Two Presidents OF the United
States executed the compact of conspiracy,
and, through the Treasury, every taxpayer In
the United States of America, noLefs uotehs,
has been made accessory to the crime.
In all the bitterness of her degradation,
Virginia has the wretched consolation that
her shame was comprised not alone by
traitorous sons, but by the Senate of the
United States, by two Presidents Of the
United States, and by the Treasury of the
United States.
If there is an honest taxpayer in the
Union, let him reflect that the money he
through the hands ofgovernment employees
into the corruption fund of Malone. If
there is a man in the United States who
remembers the legend of "civil service re-
form" honored with the lips of the party
of smoral IDEAS" let him know that hun
dreds of experienced and faithful postmas-
tiers were removed from their offices in
Virginia, by Presidents Garfield and Arthur,
in compliance with the compact with Ma
hone.
Perhaps the most thoroughly disappointed,
and, as Burthorne would say, 'bitter-
hearted one' in Washington, at the present
time, is exp. NJ General Tyner. 1t was he
who first discovered the Star Route yilliany.
His great mistake was that he did not turn
the lights upon it, but concealed it in a
napkin. In due time, the little patent
reformer Mr.. James, poking about in the
pigeon holes of the Department, discovered
Tyner's discovery, and, with brass band
accompaniment, threw a flood of calcium
splendor upon the whole bad business. Now
Tyner, driven by the angel James from the
paradise of sslaried sinecure, reflects upon
what he might have done and might have
been, rolling the bitter boIus of disappoint-
ment under his tongue, and impatiently
planning revenge.
ApropoS of James, am told by those who
are around him, and who intimately know
him, that he is really the greatest humbug
who ever spun fame for himself, or tried to
climb up in the world on the suspenders of
other men. They say, he really knows
nothing about business or public affairs,
and that, for all the ecLat he has gained in
this Star Route business, he is indebted to
the advice and to the work of an almost
unknown employee in the Post Office
Department.
It is expected that all of the present
Cabinet will have retired before the 18th of
December, but the work they have done for
the principles of civil service reform will |
live after them. The Secretary of State
has placed his son in one of the highest |
and best paid places in that Department. |
The ?. NJ. General has made his son-in-law
Postmaster of New York City And the |
Secretary of the Navy has placed three of
his sons on the permanent pay-roIls of that |
Department. Pity they must resign, as it |
were. in the morning of their administration,
when their usefulness to their families is
just beginning 10 be folt G. A.