South Branch intelligencer. [volume] (Romney, Va. [W. Va.]) 1830-1896, 1884-05-23
Letter from WASHINGTON.
From Our Regular Correspondent.


/ Washington, ID. c., May 10.
| don't know'ho much Mr.. Arthur
will make out of his business mans
game that tho office holders i'm New
York are just now playing, but it
shows pretty plainly that the Presi.
dents chances have become SO very
desperate that he has been compelled
to resort to desperate means to raise
what little boom he has got. But it
ia neither a shrewd, sagacious or pru.
dent device TO have such names as
John Jacob Aston and Horace b, Cla-
fin 10 lead in any political movement,
for they at once put the rank and file
upon their suspicious. Mr.. Arthur's
administration has teen purely ne.
gati1e one, and it is appropriately en-.
dorsed by these negative men, for 10.
body knows how Mr.. Astcr votes, or
how MIR. Clatlin votes, if they vote at
all. Mr.. Arthur has done no harm,
simply because there was no harm to
be done. The machine wouli have
run ne well if Mr.. Arthur had been in
Kamschatka. The politicians in the
grand old party have all along cred
tied Arthur with harmonizlng the diff
ferences that for three years have kept
their leaders in hot water all over the
country. The recent action of the To-
cal conventions for choosing dele /.
gates to their Chicago funeral hardly
looks that way, and Mr.. Arthur's APP
pointments have calculated to keep
up the arrangement between the two
or three wings in which the party is
divided. Talking with leading De.
mocrat the other day, he seemed to
think that the killing of the Morrison
bill was, after all, the best thing that
could have happened this year to
shape things for Democratic success.
There was no leading Democrat that
had been or would be talked OF in con-
nection with Presidential nomina-
ton, who had not pronounced views
upon the tariff, and it was rot for
Congress to be making tariff plat
forms in advance to suit any pos sible
candidate, and the Morrison arrange
ment wouldn't suit any of them. The
dropping of the question altogether,
gives us Democratic President Just
as sure as if the thing had slready
happened,
l should like to know if the coun.
try ls to continue this pampering Of
the Grant family during the term of
their natural lives? Grant has been
given three or four fortunes in the
last twenty years, and now Congress
puts him on the retired payroll at J..
bout the same salary that he got when
President during his first term If he
Is foolish enough TO invest his own
and other peoples money in Kelley
motors and other South Sea bubbles,
l don't sec why the country should
keep on encouraging him in that sort
OF out-of-pocket speculation, and this
talk of our being unable to compen.
safe him for his brilliant services,
smacks q good deal more OF sentiment
than ofjustico to ourselves and re-
gard for rosterity.
The calow clap-trap politicians in
the Republican school who clerk in
the departments and affect base ball :,
are the ones who have started this
hue and cry for Bob Lincoln as a
Presidential candidate. While there
may be n sad dcarth of statesmen i'm
this country just at this time who may
be available, it must strike an intelli-
gent citizen with the idea that we
have got on our last legs altogether
when such n statesman as young Lin
coin can be seriously talked about as a
candidate. Why, Henry Clay tried
three times, and Daniel Webster as
many more, after thirty years of as
jealous service and able statesman-
ship as the world has seen, and yet
failed to reach position that this
political aspirant proposes TO Jump in
TO without even having exhibited the
first qualities for the place either as a
citizen or public official! These are
not the times and the cGuntry's inter
ests cannot permit the election of
Presidents upon mere sentiment, and
Mr.. Robert Lincoln would do well to
bide his time until he can acquit him
self OF something that will enttle him
to consideration, besides his fathers
name.
The Republican Congressional Com
mittee are in peck Of trouble over
the discovery all at once that their
connection with the political MACH.
merry OF their party is in coniravention
of the Civil Service law, which makes
them amenable TO all the pains and
I : T.
The eleventh section of the law OK.
pressly hits them, and Senator IIaw.
ley admits that the duties of the COM
mitteo cannot be performed without
the inevitable following Of a term in
the peiritentiary. To see such men
as Hawley, Sabn, Logan, Frye aud
Don Cameron IN company with the
House Members OF the Committee all
going to the penitentiary, would be a
d. 1 afrr l,I g.. . 4.