The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1885-03-11
Washington Letter.
WASHINGTON, March ., 1856.

WASHINGTON, March ., 1885.
The streets, hotels, bOarding-houses,
and homes of Washington are throng>
ed with visitors and guests. Soldiers
from many States in their gay uniforms
give military appearance to the out
door panorama that is more suggestive
of Paris or Berlin than of the Capitol
Of the peaceful Republic. Huge tiers
of seats a Ia cirque line the sides of
Pennsylvania avenue from the White
House to the Capitol. Gay red, white
and blue streamers, and countless rep
RESERVATIONS of the National flag drape
the houses along the route. If the
weather be good the inaugural pageant
will be magnificent, and it will be seen
by larger crowd than was ever before
in Washington. $4,000 men, regulars,
volunteers, cavalry, infantry, artillery,
mounted civilians and civilians afoot,
firemen and political clubs will take
part in the procession. In their midst,
i'm the same carriage. will be seated the
President and Vice President-elect, and
the retiring President. 1t will be a
scene well worthy the reflections of the
philosopher and the historian. What
other country can show a revolution so
peaceful, and a change of dynasty so
decorous? Wars have been waged,
cities razed and maps changed, on
issues and interests infinitely less mo.
mentous than those represented in the
President that comes and the President
that departs. But thanks to our tradi-
lions, the lesson of the war, the execra>
ton Of the crime of 1876, and, may l
not say, to the example of Washington,
-irover Cleveland and Chester A.
Arthur ride to and from the Capitol in
the same carriage. ale President est
sOrtie. Iiue ie President"
AS a usual thing the interest in
Washington matters ceases with the
adjournment of Congress, but the stu.
alton this year is exceptional, and the
impression is wide spread and well
founded that we are entering upon one
of the most interesting stages of our
nations history. The coming months
will be crowded with interesting events
and episodes. The succession of
powerful party after twenty-four years
of rigid exclusion from the government
of the country, must be attended by
changes and events far more significant
than the mere removing of one set OF
officers and servants and their replace
ment by another set. 1t is no doubt
matter of national importance that the
country shall have good servants. not
only in the rank hut also in the file of
its evil army. The new administra-
ton has task before it that may well
evoke the best energies of the able men
whom Mr.. Cleveland has called to his
immediate assistance. 1t is trite to say
that no period i'm our brief national life
has been so eventful as that which has
passed since the term OF President
Buchanan. We have passed the dark
heroic period Of great war. Mason
and Dixon's line has been spunged
from the map. States have been added,
institutions overthrown, political and
commercial forces redistributed. The
population of the country has been
doubled, its wealth quadrupled.
Progress has been great, but reckless.
Abuses have sprung up and thriven
, which find no parallel in the earlier
history of the country. That some.
thing must be done to correct these
abuses, to purify and simplify the
government in all the roots, trunk and
branches of the elective, legislative and
judicial system, even optimistic Obsery
ers are constrained to admit.
The impression is general that Mr..
Cleveland's presidency will be one OF
work and not of social display, that the
Executive Mansion will be more an
office than court. The new President
is younger than those who usually I'LL
the office. The cabinet he has called
to his assistance are men not only of
ability but of known great capacity for
work. The days of brilliant, over
towering leadership has happily passed
and the statesman who unites, with
intelligent breadth of thought, a capac-
ity for mastering details is far more
useful in the complicated interests of
modern civiliz alton than Napoleon or
a Bismarck.