Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1889-11-21
4 pourlcAL STORY.

- pOISJtCAl STORY.
70 Republican Civil-service Reformers,
Listen to This Tale Of Woe.
EF,rom Speech by Benjamin Harrison In the
United States Senate, March %, 1851
Mr. PRESIDENT: have another case.
do not know how it may seem
to the Senate, but to me it is in
initely 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
ingly, 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 Twenty sixth Indiana Volunteers.
He was Democrats Democrat before
the war, Democrat during the war,
Democrat after the war, or after his re-
turn from the army. He was a 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, 1 may hope, of his gallant
service as 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 sorrowing widow and one
only child followed the remains of as
brave a 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 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.
If 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 jealousy 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
refute 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 ap-
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.
y
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 ::
little; but to me that work is impossi
BILE. The story of Mrs. De La Hunt car
ries it's own pathos and its own indigna-
ton.
[F,rom the New York Evening Post, May Is, 1889.
The Cleveland administration havin.
gone out, and General Harrison havins
become President, Mrs. De La Hunt az
piled for restoration to her old position.
as postmaster. There was no doubt
to local sentiment demanding the restC
ration of this most efficient and worth.
person to her old office. She presente''
petition more numerously signed than
that of any other applicant, and repre-
senting an overwhelming majority o
the patrons of the Office. OF course
Mrs. De La Hunt was reappointed to he
old position as soon as her old champion
Benjamin Harrison, became President
On the contrary, the Office has beer
given to John Zimmerman, who has beer
chairman of the Republican County Com
mittee, and whose only claim to tn,
place is party service.
CHAPTER III.
From the New York Press, June II, 1891
WASHINGTON, June 10.-A reporter O.
the United Press to-day called the atten-
ton of Mr.. Clarkson, First Assistan
Postmaster-General, to the post-ofic
case at Cannelton, Ind, about which tn,
President has been criticised because Of
the appointment of Mr.. Zimmerman.
Many papers have quoted Mr.. Harrison's
speech in the United States Senate in
1886 in opposition to the removal of Mrs.
De La Hunt, former postmistHess, 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: ''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 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 that
it will yet be changed, and that Mrs. De
La Hunt will be appointed, rs it was the