Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1884-08-21
WASHINGTON LETTER.
From our Regular Correspondept. !

WASHINGTON, d. G., Aug. IL, 1884.
ut is my deliberate opinion" said
Senator Edmunds four years ago, "'that
Mr.. Blaine acts as the attorney for Jay
Gould. Whenever Mr.. Thurman and I
have settled upon legislation to bring
the Pacific railroads to terms of equity
with the Government, up has jumped
James G. Blaine, musket in hand from
behind the breastworks of Gould's lob
by, to fire i'm our back.n And thissa same
James G. Blaine is to-day asking the
suffrages of the people whom he has
thus wronged, and whose interests he
has thus attempted to cripple, for the
highest Office within their gift! 1t was
before Mr.. Edmunds wrote those
things, that his record as Speaker Of
the House had been held up to public
view, and his completely with the Lit
tie Rock and other subsidies fully es-
tablished. The 1amentable.s feature,
however, Of all this rotton business is
the discrimination of the Blaine follow
ing to make public palliation of his
great offences by the declaration that
any man placed in like position would
under like circumstances do precisely
as Mr.. Blaine did,. So it has come to
that point in our estimate of political
morals that men in official position are
to be justified in prostituting their high
prerogative, in the acceptance Of any
and all pecuniary reward that they may
demand for the performance of official
duty! How long should we have a
country worthy of the respect of the
King of Dahomey, or worth living for
at all, If such a sentiment as this We're
to obtain among the people? The cleo
tion Of Mr.. Blaine by the people of the
United States, they having the direct,
explicit, incontrovertible knowledge of
his dishonest methods and official de-
linquencies, will demonstrate to the
other nations of the earth that they are
willing to puts premium upon practices
in official life that make ordinary cor
cuptiOn respectable.
The election of Gov. Cleveland will
have the effect tofinstituting here true
system of civil service in place of the
present incompetent Office-holding au-
tocracy, "a change that will be hailed
with proud satisfaction by everybody
who has had anything to do with the
department. of officials here. Twenty
five years Of constant office-holding has
rendered these fellows as audacious as
the devil and infinitely more arrogant.
Servants of the people, are they? Let
the people come on to Washington and
attempt to direct their servants and see
how soon they would be disabused of
that notion! Why, the people haven't
right in the world that these fellows
would respect any more than they
would respect the right of dray-horse.
Politiness and ordinary decency are
conspicuous by their absence in every
department, and favoritism, proceeding
from partisan considerations, is abso-
lutely the rule. May God help the
Government that cannot get along
without the assistance of such mass of
incompetency as that now in charge of
the great and vital affairs of this nation!
Congress saw fit at its last session to
increase the fee of pension claim agents
to S25, conditional that it should be
paid upon the allowance of the claim,
under an agreement executed In dupli-
cate between the claimant and his at
torney, which should also be approved
by the Commissioner of Pensions. The
Identical provisions Of this law are EN-
bodied in report made by Commits
sioner Dudley in December, 1883, in
which he strongly urged Congress to
adopt some measure looking to the re-
lief Of the Pension Office from the pet
ty annoyances proceeding from the
army OF $40 attorneys, who were resort
ing ito all kinds of legal ana illegal leg
erderlnain to get a larger fee for their
work kthanthe lawprovided. Now that
Mr. Dudley has got his law passed,
strange as it may appear. he is doing
everything in his power to nullify it,
and to perpetuate the very annoyances
that lie had been so loudly complain
ing of. Who that has had any eXperi-
ence in the prosecution Of claims before
Mr.. Dudley's bureau, knows that for
every dollar he receives he earns two.