Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1885-03-27
Maryland Politics.

Maryland Politics.
AT the outset Of its career, the
Cleveland administration encount-
ers a most serious difficulty and
embarrassment in the matter of
distributing Federal patronage in
Maryland. 1t was on Maryland
soil that the famous battle occurred
that Union soldiers call Antietam,
and Confederates call Sharpsburg ;
then a Confederate check caused
Lees retreat from his first attempt
at invasion of Northern soil. Per.
haps Senator German, who, for a
long time, has controlled the Dem
ocratic machine in Maryland to
the utter exclusion of ex-senator
Pinkney Wbyte, Ex-Governor Ham
ilton, General Bradley T. johnson,
Teakle Wallace and other Demo
cratic leaders sO-called from patron.
age OF voice or influence, is about
to encounter an Antietam or SharpS-
burg, or something even worse.
When enough Republicans in
New York, led by George William
Curtis, Horace Deming, Henry
Ward Beecher and other pretend
ers to superior political virtue, de-
serted their party last year, the
Democratic party gladly accepted
their help even accompanied as 1t
was by sneers at ever Democratic
tradition and every Democratic
profession of principle. Now the
so.called Democrats are paying the
penalty of this insincere alliance
Senator German, for instance, Is a
representative Democrat, so Mary
land Democrats say. He believes
in what the Civil Service Reform
ers sneeringly call the 'spoils-sys-
tenn He procured the appoint
ment of a friend and supporter OF
himself to the important position
of Appointment Clerk in the Treas
ury Department. This was done
through Secretary OF the Treasury,
Manning, also a believer in the now
despised and rdiculed 'Spoils-
system
Mr.. Eugene Higgins is the person
named by Senator German and ap-
pointed by Secretary Manning, or
designated as the Democratic
press phrase it now, for they are
preparing to get rid OF him and de-
ny that he has been appointed
Perhaps the numerous achievements
in political corruption, charged up
OH him do not so much constitute
his offences as his unwillingness to
help the Democratic leaders in
Maryland who are now assalllng
him, in order to defeat Germans
re election to the Senate. For 1t
must be remembered that with Mr..
Higgins as Appointment Clerk no
enemies of Mr.. German would get
Office under Mr.. Manning. Besides
his appointment or designation,
was a warning to the rank and file
of the hungry and thirsty Mary
land Democrats, that German was
'on top in Maryland and that there
could be neither common sense nor
party fidelity in fOoling with Whyte,
Hamilton and the rest of the recall
citrants. This was too much for
the 'mugwump' Republican press,
as we'll as for the Maryland Demo
cratic politicians whom Senator
German has persistently LETT out in
the cold.
Hence the war upon Higgins
which is aimed at German. The
coerced retirement of Higgins will
mean that Senator German is not
so much ION top in Maryland as
his friends thought, with the Sena-
tor himself doubtless cOncurrlng.
On the other hand, should the adj
ministration, whose head was elect
ed by the Civil Service Reformers,
who deserted the Republican party,
retain Mr.. Higgins to oblige Sena-
tor German and help him retain his
hold on Maryland, it will inevitably
90 down beneath the anathemas of
the over-virtuous, supercilious and
insOlent mugwump press and ora
tors, whose aid its friends so gladly
accepted last year.
Such are the rewards of insincerl-
ty in politics as in all things else.
While our Maryland friends are be-
tween Satan and the iron-works,
we shall look on most complacent-
ly. They shall have no interior
ence from us, although Baltimore
has interfered a good deal in Vlr-
ginia politics for ten years past
Nevertheless the first test of the
purposes, nerve and sincerity OF the
new administration which has just
been made will be watched with
more interest than are usually call
ed for by incidents in Maryland
politics.
Tho Committee of the United