The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1881-01-05
WASHINGTON LETTER..
From our Regular Correspondent. j


To-days' New Year calls, in Wash
ington, were a repetition of familiar
programme. The President, Cabinet
officers, Judges of the Supreme Court
nearly everybody, official and non.
official, received; but callers were
less numerous than usual, because Of
the intensely disagreable weather.
New Year receptions at the Capitol
are good, if for no other purpose, to
display the imposing reserve strength
of the Army and Navy. 1t has been
the policy Of our Government to bring
chiefs of Indian tribes to the large
Eastern cities, in order to impress
the strength of our population, the
extent of 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 and waltzing, to quail.
ify them for their executioners, and
the op.keepers and dandies who
promenade Pennsylvania Avenue.--
The accomplished pups of war" from
West Point, and the equisite civil
ian, look precisely alike when the
former are masquerading in citizens
dress, as is their custom for three
hundred and sixty-four days of the
year. The way to make the Army
impressive and effective would be to
bring the Indians here on the first
day of the year, and let them see our
military officers in their warlike pan
oply. They would then realize, from
their spaulettes, scarfs, gold braid,
and buttons, what terribly destruct-
i've fellows they are, and what a nu.
merous reserve we keep at the Capt.
tol, with Pennsylvania Avenue as
our line of defense.
But the New Year official ceremo-
mics are instructive and impressive
in 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 our
selves, nor order the fashion of our
National household; that republican
ism is not such a new departure as
enthusiastic optimists once hoped
and believed it to be; that, in spite Of
the discovery of new Continent, tn
width of the Atlantic Ocean, and our
Wanted secession from monarchial
forms and formalities, we are com.
PEELED to servilely copy that which
the "elfete despotisms" perpetuate
only asa venerable tradition. When
we see the foreign diplomatic corps,
the gorgeous ambassadors of Russia,
Turkey, Austria, Denmark, and the
Feejee Islands, with their numerous
attaches, am one of them with
twice as much gold braid and tinsel
as our own resplendent Army or Ma
val officers, our minds are carried
back to the day of Talleyrand and
Matterrich, or further, to the ages Of
Richelieu or Macchiavelli, when the
policies of nations were not discussed,
and the secrets of courts were not an
sicipated and exposed by the press,
cabied to the four quarters of the
globe for the information first of all
the world, aid, finally, for the en-
lightenment OF the Diplomats
When we see the mot,'ern ambassador
in his arduous and dehcate diplo-
matte work of calling at the White
House one day of the three humid ed
and sixty five, presenting his COM
pliments to the President, wishing
him and Mrs. Hayes a happy new
year, our hearts (not our pockets
may swell with the reflection that,
in spite Of the press, steam, the At.
lantic Ocean, and the Atlantic Ca
bles, we, also, have the proud priv.
elege of paying six millions a year,
at foreign courts, in support Of this
venerable, antique, useless, mimicry
of Diplomacy. G. AS.
Sometime since complaints were
made by emigranls of inhuman treat
ment during their passage to this
port on board an ocean steamer. The
poor passengers scattered and The