The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1885-05-16
Correspondence Baltimore County Union.
LETTER FROM WASHINGTON.
Appointments that Were Revoked-Work
in the P. o. Department
The Races, &c.
WASHINGTON, D. c., May 18th, 1ss

WASHINGTON, d. c., May 18TH 1885.
Messrs. Editors AS remarked sometime ago
in this correspondence one of the difficulties the ad
ministration would meet with in the multtudinous
appointments it would have to make. would be to
avoid making bad ones. 1t has experienced two
such instances the past week, in both of which it
had to revoke its action. One the appoint
ment of DIR. J. Ernest Metre, of Colorado, to the
Consulship to Nagasaki Japan, who, few weeks
ago, figured in a somewhat disgraceful role in the
presence of large crowd, in the lobby of the
Ebbtt House, in this city, for an applicant for a
high and representative position under the Gov
eminent. l happened in the Ebbitt House at the
time, and saw DR.. Metre in a towering rage,
angrily stamping his foot on the stone floor and
swearing vociferously because Commodore Trux-
ton, of the U. S. Navy, refused to shake hands
with him. DR. Mere was intoxicated, but he
seemed to conceive that Commodore Truxton, a
ex- Union officer, had offered him an insult and
refused to shake hands with or recognize him be-
cause he (Dr. Meire) had been in the Confederate
service, or "Rebel Army" as he expressed it, and
for this he greatly abused and threatened to as
sault Commodore Truxton. But after awhile the
latter went away, and then some of Or. Metres
friends also persuaded him to leave the hotel, but
he afterwards returned and continuing to be noisy
was arrested by policeman and taken to the
station house, where he was required to give per-
sonal recognizance for good behavior. What
ever impression this incident may have made upon
the minds of the bystanders and observers of it
as to DIR. Metres fitness for office and to rep
resent the Government in foreign position, which
probably never came to the ears Of the appointing
power, yet ON the very day his appointment was
made out, his wife, (the daughter of Commodor
or Admiral Buchanan, commander of the Con-
federate ram Merrimack) who is residing on the
Eastern Shore of Maryland with relatives got a
divorce from him in the courts for cruel treatment,
and this caused his commission to be withheld
and not signed. Secretary Bayard remarked, on
learning of DR.. Metres true character, that if
leading and representative men in the party, on
whom the appointing powers must rely for recon-
mendations, will continue to recommend such
persons for office, it will be impossible to avoid
making bad appointments
The other appointee that the administration
had to reject Senator Joe Blackburn's oldest
brother, James Blackburn, of Kentucky, who had
been commissioned internal revenue collector for
a district of that State. The position is said to
be very remunerative one, being the largest
whiskey district in the United States. But after
Blackburn was appointed, letter was produced,
| which was written by him to his wife during the
| war, while he was a captain in the Confederate
service, which was very violent in its language
| and threatened to murder the "Union men" of
that State. This letter reached the President by
| some means, who, it is said, presented it to his
Cabinet at its meeting last Thursday to read, and
that Blackburn's commission was ordered revoked.
| In an interview with Postofice Department
| official to-day, was informed that a large num-
Der of postmasters, especially of the fourth class,
had been appointed the last few weeks, but that
| no removals of consequence had been made, the
| appointments being made simply to fill vacancies
| that have naturally occurred through deaths,
designations, &C., and which greatly accumulate
during the early part of the administration, when
| the pressure of business in the department so
great that they not able to give attention to
them 1t is true, he said that several postmasters
in the Presidential class, notably the postmaster
| at Chicago, have been removed for political
| reasons, but also the hundred or so appointments
made in that class of offices under the admins
tration were made on account of vacancies &C.
curing in them by of the expiration of
| postmasters' commissions, deaths, designations,
| &c. To the first of this class belongs the post
| office at Baltimore, in which change was made
| last week. As vacancies are continuing to occur
in Presidential offices through the expiration of the
| postmasters' commissions, and as it was estima-
| ted that there were, a couple of weeks ago, be.
| tween four and five thousand vacancies already
existing in the fourth-cass offices, which are be-
| ing filed at the rate of only one or two hundred
week, it is thought that it will be next fall be-
fore the department will have an opportunity for
removing postmasters for political causes and
putting others in their places, if it be done at all
But the Postmaster General has caused circular
to be sent to all the postmasters of the country
that if their accounts are not kept straight, de-
| posts of monies due the Government promp tly
made, and the duties of the offices carefully per-
formed, there will be no hesitation in their re-
| moval.
| The spring races at Ivy City, near this place,
opened to- day. Five races we're announced. The
races are under the management of the National
Jockey Club. A number of notable stables are
- al rko kbao Ind
ing some from Maryland. 1t is thought the
meeting and races will be very successful.
| This city will have another hanging on next
! Friday. colored man named Langster last
summer killed police officer Fowler, while in the
act of arresting him, he having escaped from the
chain gang while returning from work on the
| streets. ANON.