Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1882-02-11
WASHINGTON LETTER.
From our regular correspondent.

1t is clear that the enemies of Mr..
Blaine have not yet succeeded in
putting him at a disadvantage. The
spectacle of a retiring Secretary of
State hurting open letters at the
President accusing him of vacilla-
tion and laundering in the foreign
policy of the Nation is sufficiently
novel to attract attention. Mr..
Blaine's position is not only plausi-
bic but calculated to be popular if
the public mind becomes interested
in the subject. 1t is a fact that for
eign policy has deteriorated to a
farce. We have had none since the
days of that harmless elly-Fish,
whose notion of American dignity
was confined to the proper adjust
ment of letters of passport, and who
had no conception of the growth and
power and force of the United
States in the diplomacy of the world.
The advent of Mr.. Blaine on the
scene in the high capacity of diplo-
mat was notice served that the spinal
column of the Government was to
be stiffened, and it was stiffened
with a vigor that recalled the days
of Jay, Webster and Buchanan.
Some people suppose it is the proper
policy of a powerful nation to wink
at all manner of indignities to which
ten-cent governments propose to
subject it and its representatives,
ard that conservatism means moth
ing more or less than an abject will
ingness to be peaceful at any cost.
BY publishing the text of his dis
patch proposing a peace congress of
American powers, and by his letter
to President Arthur, Mr.. Blaine has
toppled down a structure of misrep-
resentation, the rearing of which
cost its authors several weeks of fall
sifcation. l am not going to cham
pion the side of the ex-Secretary but
l can see through the attacks that
have been made upon his diplomatic
career. The business of belittleing
and maligning n of the ablest and
most popular statesmen of our time
is at best, a poor one. But it be-
comes what insurance men call sex
ira hazardous" when it is practiced
upon a man of Mr.. Blaine's fighting
capacity.
Some of the bills for the Yorktown
celebration are beginning to turn
up, and like nearly all bills for en-!
tertainments of that sort they are
quite curious. One of the items re-
garded as remarkable is a charge of
twenty-five dollars for water fufn-
ished an official party from Washing
ton. 1t is said to be the first time
a party of that sort has used water.
Water, however, was not all that
was drunk, for there are several
charges for wines, amounting to
thousands of dollars, aud cttrg' 5
for things called entertainments,
under which disguise "A great deal
of wine was paid for
The railway corporations are get
ting some attention just now in
Congress. Firing has commenced
all along the lines. The Northern
Pacific is in the jaws of the Judicia-
ry Committee; the Kansas Pacific
has been bombarded with shot and
shell by John Anderson of the First
Kansas District, with an array of
facts and figures to startle Congress,
and the Ways and Means Commit
tee, that tried to choke a piece of
iobbery for the Reading Railroad
down the throat of the House, was
defeated by the crushing vote of JOG
to As. Allthese facts occurring with
in a few days, are convincing proof
that Congress has some notion of
protecting the Government interests
from the land pirates who have set
tied on the public domain. Monop-
oily will experience a few paralytic
shocks within the next ninety days.
Bear this in mind.
1t is interesting on receiving days
to see the stream of callers on their
rounds in Jul politico- fashionable
society. Since the first winter of
the Hayes administration the Cabi-
tYah ath