The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1886-04-09
The Egis & Intelligencer
Bel Air, Md, April ., 1856.
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER.
From our Regular Correspondent.
wAeurNcT0N DrIl 5fh I


WASHINGTON, April 9th, 1888.
The House of Representatives has been giving
itself to strikes FOR tho past few days, while the
Senate has been takiRg rest voted Tor by the
fight In caucus over the Edmunds' resolutions
When they passed these resolutions last week,
discussion which had been neither as interesting
nor as profitable as had been anticipated.
slider IL binding upon them TO follow The line Of
party action indicated in the resolutions, and
held that they were free to vote upon the Presi-
dents nominations according to the merits of
each case. But Mr.. Edmunds angrily demanded
what was the use of passing his resolutions if
they were to get no good out OF them.
Caucus after caucus was held, but no agree
ment was reached, and 1t is asserted that the de-
bate was sometimes more acrimonious than the
Senators care to acknowledge. Hoar, Logan and
Morrill, are among the refractory Senators, and
oddly enough, the latter. who is Mr.. Edmunds
most stubborn combatant represents the same
State as he Mr. Morrill, commended that an at
tempt to reject the Democratic nominees would
do the Republicans no good: 1t uid be re-
garded by the people as partisan obstruction,
and would be resented as such. Mr.. Edmunds
and his adherents tried to secure the adoption of
practically committing the caucus to carrying
out the letter of the Edmunds resolutions, but
result will be that the Edmunds resolutions will
be virtually repudiated. There is, and has been,
no cohesion among the Republican Senator's
There is no sincerity in any course they agree
upon. One-half of them are jealous of the other
half, and policies are voted Tor which no one in
Presidential aspirants among them for any har-
mony OF purpose. They have neither helped the
party nor individual members so far.
The continued illness of Secretary Manning
and the recent illness of other members of the
Cabinet and of Col Lamont, the Presidents elf
cient private Secretary, have greatly increased
the labor of Mr.. Cleveland during the past week.
Sickness in the Cabinet has called attention to
the very arduous nature of the duties which
Cabinet officers are called upon to perform, and
it would be difficult to find conditions that offer
more liberal inducements to illness than may be
lohf
of its members is unrelentiDg, constant and
we're. There are few persons who know how
very much Secretary Manning was overworked
He found it impossible to conduct the affairs of
the Treasury Department by giving the business
only general supervision. immense labor was
required of the Secretary personally: The con-
tnuous strain of weighty responsibilities, added
to the everlasting worry of petty detail, makes
havoc with the nerve forces that only regular
seasons of repose can repair. And recuperation
is not to be thought of in Washington official life
Society makes larger demands upon public men
every year. To entertain and to be entertained
is to perform the duties attached to the position
To close the doors of a house that custom has
rented to society for the season, as were, is to
be inhospitable and eccentric 1t is true Mr.
Manning went very little into society, and left
social duties usually to his wife, but for all that
he has had no rest.
1t is to be hoped that tn Senate's vote to en-
ploy half million dollars in the erection of
another monument here to Lincoln will receive
an emphatic protest in the Lower House. There
is not oven the poor argument for the Senate bill
that Lincoln has no memorial, as is the case tor
instance with Lafayette. There is statue of
him In front of the City Hall reared by the coored
race, another called the Emancipation group, be-
sides several busts and oil paintings in the Cap
itol.
1t might be urged that these memorials are in
artistic but the Senate proposed work might be
more so. The construction of immense piles of
stone as memorials of the dead is an ANTICIPATED
custom, more fitting the era of mound builders
than one of enlightenment. 1t is true Washington
has such q one here, but that was begun years
ago. The modern idea of II worthy memorial,
and one commended by every feeling of human
Nv Ia an acu n ART on or
other institution that will benefit the living as
well as honor the dead.