Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1881-02-26
OUR KINGDOM.
THE COMING REPUBLICAN INAUGURAL
Tl0N.
pomuous Parade After the Model Of Ma
poleon's Rotten empirs-GarReidt to
be Inducted Into Office bya
Military Pageant Of the
Most Elaborate
Description.
the ROYAL HOUsEslN THIS COUNTRY.
eoi.l corrssnondence Of the Register.

Since the close OF the civil war, the
whole tendency OF the Republican par
| ty has been TO centralize power, and TO
pompous parade, after the model oil
Louis Napoleon's rotten empire.
During the first term OF Gen. Grant
the imitators of imperial manners at
tempted to establish sort OF court at
the White House, with Babcock, Boss
Shepherd, and others as ornaments
When he was inaugurated the second
time, a great display OF troops was one
of the chief features Of the procession,
and the course OF study at West Poipt
was broken in order that the cadets
might be taken to Washington to appear
in the procession. Now it is proposed
to exceed all previous experience, and to
Inaugurate Gen. Garfield
in an unprecedented manner, wholly
contrary to all the accepted ideas con.
pected with the great office which he is
soon to occupy. Gen. Sherman has or
dered a large detachment OF United
States troops from different points, in
addition to the force already at the Cap.
ital regularly. Societies in great num-
bers, and volunteer soldiers from many
Of the States have been invited
TO attend. Already the vantage places
! on PENNSYLVANIA avenue are rapidly
| nnInpTOng
stately arches of the type known as
Queen Anne" are in process OF cree
ton at different points along the hlstor-
ic route from the Capitol to the White
House. What with the thousands oil
armed militia and the hundreds oil regu.
lar soldiers and marines, not TO speak OF
veteran clubs and and other political
or semi-political organizations. The
procession, it is said, will readily recall
1.-THE two DAYS" parade OF May 1865,
when the veteran armies OF the Poto.
mac and ofthe West marched over that
self.same road with the breeze OF battle
still hot upon their cheeks and theii
bayonets plittering in the sun that
seemed TO rejoice in their victory. Then
| the tears of the nation had not yet dried
upon the bier of Lincoln, and Generals
who have since rusted with age or de-
generated into mere politicians, or
moldered into clay, were heroic figures
on horseback, headed brawny battalions
| such as Alexander or Caesar might have
| been proud TO lead TO the conquest oil
Darius or the destruction OF the Neivil.
| Now Lincoln is becoming
A Patriotic Tradition,
and the soldiers of the war who may
take part in the inaugural pageant will
have the frosts, il not the SHOWS, oil age
up,n their brows, and their passage
over that road OF fame can not fail to re.
call the picture OF the heroic days OF
their triumphant young manhood
in colors not so much mellowed or made
mourniul by time. While the Nation
al militia will step along with the light
gait that savors OF carpet knighthood,
| the grim old days OF war will still
tramp through the dust with the echo,
faint though it be, OF the glorious re-
turn that thrilled the loyal land in the
| beautiful young summer that Coverei
the young graves OF the civil war, which
there seemed but as yesterday, gith
emerald robings OF peace.
|
OF the country does not approve the
proposed show. No President thus lar
inaururated has been ushered into office
by military pageant OF such elaborate de-
scription, aud it would have been in
vastly better taste for man OF the in
coming Presidents record and his mar
row majority to assume the
place with such modesty as
marked Jefferson's assumption OF the
Presidency in the purer and better days
of the government We are not peo-
pie pleased by waving plumes and flash.
| ing sabres; will have no ignorant and
| dangerous masses, whom it is necessary
10 dazzle into dumb quiescence. The
( n!aronade OF the 4th of March will be
witnessed only by the office-holding
classes. Nothing would better become
Garfield and those equivocal men, re-
sponsible for him, than unostentatous
installment into an office which TO ill
with honor he and they must reverse
every precedent Of their past careers.
A word from Gen. Garfield would put
an end TO all this vulgar pomp. His
unaided rise from the humblest sphere
10 life is the shining fact OF his public
career. He ought to be the last man to
countenance an exhibition like that
suggested. When Jefferson rode
On Horseback Alone to the Capitol.
took the oath OF office as President, and
afteryorl went to the Executive Man
sion unattended, he set an example OF
simplicitv that shed lustre on the Chief
Magistracv, and honored himself as the
first citizen OF plain and pure govern
ment.
In the eighty years that have passed
ayay since that memorable scene, great
changes have come over US, and the
worst OF all the the aplng OF imperial
customs.
Most royal houses, it has been stated,
began their grandeur with the sword.
sometimes statecraft has elevated
narticulsr line TO the crown, but the
hash OF steel was generally necessary to
keen il on the throne. When three
bonses were particularly prolific they
overspread the lands in which they
ra;oned with a network OF personal in.
terests that preyed on the poorer classes
and when the latter we're drained oil
every valuable, the Ioyalists began 10
mo, ppon each other. In this way, to
% hack 10 England for an example, the
descendants OF the successful soldier,
Duke William Of Normandy, after sew
eral generations. spread out over Eng
land and gobbled dukedoms, esrldoms
and lorlships without stint, until, by
mutual jealousy and ceaseless rapacity,
thew destroyed themselves, root and
branch. and their great possessions,
passed into the hands OF strangers, or oi
Door and unrecognized relations. The
PI.ntagenets, the Lancasterians, the
Yorkists, the Tutors, all have
Pissed Away from England
and few of the descendants OF the con.
ouerors that wrote their names, II they
could write at all, on the doomsdsy
book at Battle Abbey possess toe
lands robbed from the natives
by their forefa,hers in Britain to-day.
But while great families are becoming
extinct in the elder country, In ours
they are but beginning to arise. we
have now in the land several great