Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1885-06-13
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER.



goes on between the administration
and the Office seekers The Juggling
issto great extent among the Office
seekers, that is they tug against each
other; but the President has to hear
the brunt and suffer the wear and
tear. He is, no doubt, becoming very /
weary of the delegations that pursue
him relative to comparatively unim-
portant Offices Perhaps no minor |
Office has made greater demands upon
his time and patience Than the
Charleston South Carolina collector
ship. The rival delegations have been
persistent in their claims upon his al
tention. He told them last week thai
they must agree to settle this matter,
between themselves, and that if they
did not do so soon, he would be conf
PEELED to settle it in way that would
not suit any OF the contending fac
tons
The work OF turning out the idle,
the incompetent, and the otherwise
offensive partisans goes on slowly but
surely. The term offensive partisan
is in the mouth of every one here, and
it is in danger of being not only abused
but misunderstood 1t should be
known that these discharged employees
were not cast out merely because they
were Jealous republicans, but because
their zeal in politics wholly interfered
with their duties as Government en-
ployes. They are those who have been
drawing pay from the public treasury
but performing no public service,
because their time has been entirely
taken up with partisan work. While
they were doubtless very important
factors in the republican organization,
collecting campaign money, faIsifying
statistics, skilled in the art of making
the worse appear the better part" upon
| the stump and through the press, they
were the vampires of our political
system sucking its blood, and lulling
it with lies Many of them have been
discharged and many more will be
discharged. No matter who their
influence" and backing may be. the
time has come for them to go into
scandulous retirement, and they will
go.
1t is not alone in the discharge of
| idle and worthless partisans that this
administration is making itself mem
orable. There are other and perhaps
more important reforms going on.
These reforms are not palpable and
visible to the unskllled eye of the
public at large, but their cumulated
weight will be seen in the reports OF
of Cabinent Officers when Congress
assemblies next fall; in the message OF
the President and especially in the
greatly reduced appropriations that
will be asked for the public service for
the next fiscal year.
1t is well known that frauds upon
the revenue have long been practised
by impostors in connivance with Gus
tom-house officials. So great had this
evil become few years ago that it was
found necessary for Congress to APP
propriate 100000 to aid in the detec-
ton and exposure of these frauds.
But even this fund, designated as it
was for the prevention of evasions and
irregularities, was soon perverted to
as fraudulent uses as those which it
was appropriated to correct; and it is
matter of notorious history that the
greater part of this hundred thousand
dollars year went into the hands of
disreputable gang of political bum
mers in New York, Philadelphia, and
other cities as a reward Tor their parti-
san services. Here was one attempted
reform, but the misfortune of il was,
like that OF most Republican reforms,
that it was backward rather than a
forward step.
Such is but one OF many greater
rascalities in the customs service
which Secretary Manning, as a practi
cal business man, set to work to elm
mate upon his taking charge of the
Treasury Department; and how he
has succeeded is best told in the Ian
guage of IA prominent Republican of
this city to correspondent of the
New York Herald v
al have occasion, by the nature of
my work, to know what is being done
in the Treasury and by the admins
tration in the way OF reforming long
standing and very grave abuses; and
say to you that, in the important
matters which am necessarily famil-
lar with, this Democratic administra-
ton has done more in three months
than has been done IN fifteen years
| before"
1 T,,o