Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1882-12-05
ALEXANDRIA, VA.
TUESDAY EVENING, DEC. ), 1882.

TUESDAY EVENING DEC. >, 1882.
THE SYNOPSIS Of the Presidents message
printed in yesterdays GAZETTE was really
Il better document than the Message itself,
all the points Of which it contained. The
full text Of the Message is u long, prosy and
uninte:esting compendium of the reports of
the several departments Of the government,
the gi$t of which had been published weeks
before, which could have been prepared as
well, if not better by any clerk in the ex-
ccutivc office lit was probably by one Of
them as hv the President himself and the
preparation Of which indicates anything else
than the work Of Il man at all above n low
grade Of mediocrity. When he leaves his
clerical work and goes off on his own hook
he exposes himself al once to the shafts Of
his opponents He does this when he agrees
with all the employees Of the Internal Reve-
nue. service. from the commissioner down
10 the detectives, who would be forced to
work for their living if removed from their
offices, that the abolition of that service
would he unwise. His character doesn't in
ducc the belief that his desire for the mai-
tenance OF The service arises fl ON any chaiita-
bic disposition toward its employees, but rath-
or suggests the idea that he wants these em-
ployeS retained in order not onlyto pay them
for the valuable work they did forhis party at
the late but also to engage them for SINH
~ lar work AT the next election. The negroes
in Virginia, under the manipulation of these
internal revenue officials, fairly elected
three Arthur men to the next Congress; the
same officials all through the South. and
North too. worked hard and cntctivclysin
the stntwart cause. If retained in the pay
of the Government they will work rs hard
for the President at the next election as they
did 1T the last one. And then, too, Gen
eral Malone has promised the President
the vote of Virginia ut the next national re-
publican convention, and that promise can
not be fulfilled without the active services OF
the revenue officers. The farmers of Vir-
ginia want the tax on tobacco removed, and
also want the right to sell their tobacco, us
they sell their wheat and corn and other
products, 10 any body who many desire to
buy it, and not have their market restrict
lie, as it now u.s. 10 a few licensed purcha-
sers as they are by the internal revenue
laws But what are the rights of Virginia
farmers compared to the terms Of a nelari-
Gus bargain with Malone? He denies that
he has made more than the usual number of
removals, when ii is well known fact that
in the postoiiice service alone in Virginia
there have been more changes since he made
his bargain with Malone than there were in
all the previous twenty years put together
He also asserts that he i; opposed to polit-
cal assessments, and yet women were forced
10 pay those assessments last fall under
threats OF removal from the places they
held He says he wants the star reuters
punished, and yet he complimentcd the
chief Of the gang at public dinner, and
though made aware BY Mr. MacVeagh more
than Year ago of the means that were be-
ing used to shield them from the punish
ment due their crimes. was only induced by
the recent election to interfere with the
further Use of those means. He winds nm
his twenty-five pages with thanks fer the
decay al sectional aninosiieS and for The
conservation Of the public credit, when he
endorsed the last campaigns book of his
party. the main object Of which was to keep
alive sectional animosilies;, and when he
allied himself with the regulators in Viz
GINA, who said that the principles of read
lustment should be applied to the national
IS well az to the State debt The message
reflects credit upon neither the heart nor
the brain Of the President, and, as State
paper, Is probably the weakest one ever
issued from the White House.