The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1889-11-27
A POLITICAL STORY.
70 Republican Civil-Service Reformer
Listen to This Tale of Woe.

Z Listen to This Tale of Woe.
LF'rom Speech Ivy Benjamin Harrison in the
| United Slater Senate, March 26, 1885,
MIR. PRESIDENT: I have another case
l DO not know how it may seem
F; to the Senate, but to me it is in
hnitely full of pathos and indig-
nation. Down on the Ohio river. in one
/ Of our Indiana counties, is the town of
Cannelton. The post-office there is of
! the fourth class, and regret it exceed
i lngly, because it withdraws from our
| consideration here the case to which
/ am about to refer. Isabelle De La Hunt
! was the widow of Major De La Hunt, of
! the IWenty-sixth Indiana Volunteers
lie was Democrats Democrat before
I the war, Democrat during the war, a
Democrat after the war, or after his re-
turn from the army. He was gallant
! man. At Prairie Grove, in Arkansas,
he was shot down by a wound entirely
through the body. Recovering from this
desperate wound, he rejoined his COM
mand and again received rebel bullet
through his arm. Disabled by these
two wounds received in his country's
service, he was compelled to leave the
army and return to Perry County, Ind
In acknowledgment of his Democracy,
in recognition, may hope, of his gallant
service as a soldier, the Democracy of
Perry County elected him to one of
the county offices. But his days
were few. His vital forces had
been so Slapped by the wounds
which he had received that it was not
long until a sorrowing widow and one
only child followed the remains of as
brave soldier as ever went out from
; Indiana to his last resting-place in the
,, grave. This widow, left with small
means, entered upon the work of main
! tanning herself and that soldiers orphan
boy. For many years her old father
was postmaster at Cannelton, and she
his principal and most efficient deputy.
Something like a year or eighteen
months ago, her old father being beyond
eighty years Of age and unable to dis
charge the duties of the office, Isabelle
De La Hunt, the widow, was appointed
on my request by Mr.. Hatton, then
Postmaster-General, to this little post
Office
Ii there was in all this country one
person who by reason of her sex, who
by reason of her widowhood, who by rea-
son OF the sacrifice she had made in Civ
ing the arm on which she leaned to her
country's service, was entitled to be
kept in office, was entitled to have her
reputation guarded jealously by all men
who represented the Government, it was
Isabelle De La Hunt. Fearing, however,
that some person might be mean enough
to misrepresent her for the sake Of OBJ
tanning this little Office, she wrote to the
honorable Postmaster-General in March
last expressing her apprehension and
asking him in case charges should be
made against her to do her the favor of
giving notice thereof, so that she could
rcfute them, and also informing him of
her husbands service, death, of her
financial necessities, and the further
fact of her husbands politics.
Mrs. De La Hunt was removed, and
neither to that appeal nor to la ter APP
peal to know the character of the vile
charges that had been preferred against
her was She given the simple recogni-
ton Of an answer.
Now, Mr.. President, perhaps my dis
tinguished friend from Kansas, whose
command of language so far surpasses
my own, might characterize this trans
action, perhaps he could touch it up a
little; but to me that work is impossi-
BILE. The story of Mrs. De La Hunt car
ries its OWL pathos and it's own indigna-
ton.
CHAPTER II.
[From the New York Evening Post, Mays, 1885,
The Cleveland administration having
gone out, and General Harrison having
become President, Mrs. De La Hunt ap-
piled for restoration to her old position
as postmaster. There was no doubt as
to local sentiment demanding the resto-
ration of this most efficient and worthy
person to her old office. She presented
a petition more numerously signed than
that of any other applicant, and repre-
senting an overwhelming majority of
the patrons of the Office. Of course,
Mrs. De La Hunt was reappointed to her
old position as soon as her old champion,
Benjamin Harrison, became President?
On the contrary, the Office has been
given to John Zimmerman, who has been
chairman of the Republican County Com
mittee, and whose only claim to the
place is party service.
CHAPTER III.
from the New York Press, June II, 1891
WASHINGTON, June 1O.-A reporter of
the United Press to-day called the atten-
ticn of Mr.. Clarkson, First Assistant
Postmaster-General, to the post-ofice
case at Cannelton, Ind, about which the
President has been criticised because of
the appointment Of Mr.. Zimmerman.
Many papers have quoted Mr.. Harrisons
speech in the United States Senate in
1886 in opposition to the removal of Mrs.
De La Hunt, former postnistress, from
this Office, and have criticised his action
in failing to appoint her now, when she
was an applicant with Mr.. Zimmerman.
Mr.. Clarkson said: 1.-THE President had
made memorandum directing the APP
pointment of Mrs. De La Hunt, suppos-
ing the office to be Presidential, but the
appointment was really of the fourth
class, and 1 had already appointed Mr..
Zimmerman upon the recommendation
of Congressman Posey, whose indorse-
ments are usually followed in the dis
trict, knowing nothing of the desire of
the President for Mrs. De La Hunts re-
appointment, nor of the circumstances
Of the case am inclined To think tha 4