Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1884-12-17
From our Regular Correspondent.
WASHINGTON LETTER
Washington, d. c., Dec. IS, 'S4

WASHINGTON LETTER.
Washington, d. c., Dec. 10, 'S4
The only man who has been prom
inently mentioned in connection with
place in Mr.. Clevcland's Cabinet,
who is at all likely to reach the place,
is Senator Garland for Attorney Gen
eralship. The Senator is not only one
of the clearcst headed men now in pub
Tic life, but he is most thorough and
industrious student, who never spares
Il moment Of time from the duties that
attach to his high position and the de-
mands made upon him by constitu-
ency that appear to recognize him as
the sole representative of their interests.
Mr.. Garland has come to be recognized
also as one Of the best constitutional
lawyers in or ont of the Senate, and is
as powerful in debate as any Of the
best forensic speakers that we have
had in thirty years. He is just rising
fifty years of age, so that he could not
have reached more than thirty when
he was delegate to the Arkansas Sc
cassion Convention in 1861, and a
member OF the Confederate Congress
the same year. At thirty-two he was
elected by The Arkansas Legislature to
the Senate, but that body (Which now
delights to do him honor) refused to
give him the seat. 1t was he who
made the Tcst-Oa case ms to lawyers
in ahc Supreme Court Of the United
States, and gained it over the com
bined opposition Of the best legal tai
ent in the country. In 1864 he was
elected Governor of Arkansas without
opposition, and made the best Cover
nor the State ever had, and in 1876,
when his name was mentioned for the
Senate, he was exalted to that position
without single voice to say him nay.
One of the first things that the new
Democratic administration should do
upon its accession to power, is the I'M
ceremonous bouncing of the landscape
architect ground the capitol, whose
denominations abound on every hand.
In the outrageous devastation that has
been wrought here under the name of
improvements, the once beautiful plats
of ground both east and west of the
capitol have been transformed into an
unsightly and incongruous field of con-
crete walks with small patches of
shrubbery here and there that have as
little attraction as the burdock plants
that line country road. The large
and magnificent trees whose foliage
made the west entrance to the capitol
really superb resort for the stranger
and an attraction to everybody, have
all disappeared under the blighting
edict of the taste-forsaken architect,
and their places are supplied by walls,
walls, walls, some with purpose, but
more without any other purpose than
the expenditure of money and con-
tribution to the inevitable contractor.
If the digniGed character of the capitol
and its surroundings must be preserved,
we must get rid Of the landscape idiot
who would reject the stately trees in
these grounds as beneath his ideal of
landscape beauty.
Mr.. Arthur's chances for becoming
Senator from New York are rapidly
waning. The difficulty that has ex-
listed between the Stalwart element and
the Hat-Brced section Of the g. o. p.
since 1861, has not been adjusted either
in New York or Illinois, where Logan
will undoubtedly be knitted to give
Half-Breed Charley Farwell his place
in the Senate. 1t is a little strange
that Farewell and his friends should
have looked on with complacency when
Gov. Hamilton, the friend of Logan.
was fixing up his decision in the Chi
cago fraud case, in the intere st of Lo-
gan. The Illinois General Assembly,
however, is exactly tied, and one Dem
ocratic vote would be necessary to
elect either Logan or Farewell, and
the latter has said to have captured
that in the shape of a renegade Repub-
lican, who is to establish himself in
favor when the Legislature meets. p.