Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 March 1881 — LETTER FROM WASHINGTON. [ARTICLE]

LETTER FROM WASHINGTON.

Correspondence of "The Sentinel.’" Washington, Feb. 26.1881. Before this handwriting is a week old a good many anxieties will have ceased to worry—the new adminis tration will be an accomplished fact and its chief clerks will be known. — After Mr. Blaine, in the State Department, public opinion is at loggerheads whether Chief Justine Folger, of New York, orsorne other man, will commiQ i the treasury portfolio. It is a somewhat remarkable coincidence that all the possibilities canvassed fjr these head clerkshis are tainted, like- their chief, with some one or other of the numerous and corrupt jobs which made the history of Grant’s reign a scandal and a reproach. Judge Folger was one of the Tweed Senators in the New York legislature, and has a claim pending against the Government of SIBO,OOO for handling revenue stamps during a six months service as Assistant Treasuter of the United States in New York. Th# whole republican party is so honeycombed with this class of statesmen that it is hnrd to make up a slate of even seven or eight to form a cabinet council and not fall athwart of atleust'Six of such out of the eightPity ’tis, but true nevertheless. The Funding bill h«s encountered •i now’ snag. The nalional banks are generally arrayed against it because they are required under its provisions to n ice the new three per cents an 1 substitute or hypothecate them with the government rs security for their circulation afid reducing their capital and circulation in proportion. As the mass of those institutions at ihe north purchased their bonds at hi immense discount, their apology for this course does not measure up to a rational'or just cause. It is beloved that a iatge body of the debt now drawing five and six p#r cent, can be funded at three, and it strikes me that interest and patriotism alike ■justifies the measure. There was a well-defined feeling that would have ■ been formulated into action by Con gross to relieve these banks of the

tux upon deposits. It seems an imposition and hardship to amerce these institutions for accouwnxlatiug the public in taklDg their money audjaeting us a public cashi#r gratuitously. B.iU do they so act? It is well known that a large source rs a bank’s income is derived from these deposit#, a id they have been thus quite well remunerated for their trouble. A large per cent age of deposits are available for discounting purposes. With the improved financial condition of the country and its steady advance to a vigorous pr#perity however, the demand for discounts have greatly diminished, aud thi*, perhaps, is as mush a controlling reason for reducing their capital and abridging their circulation. , The requirement to substitute the threes for ftv# and six per cent, boride, and the equivalent loss of interest to be drawn thereon from the government, opens the door for the plea they make, and they imagine that the other reasons are not discerned by the people or by Congress. In my judgment, nevertheless, they should be relieved of the tax on deposits, especially as they are no longer so remunerative a source of '.heir profit. I suggest that they wo’d fare better if they would mix a little modesty with their appeals aud modify their blustering attempt to intimidate.

The fate of the Apportionment bill, as 1 write, is equivocal. The largest latitude, compatible with the time left for definite action, has been given tiie republicans for debate mid* consideration. At first they affected quite an amiable temper towards a reasonable settlement. Then Conger 3«ma back from Michigan, flushed with his success in being chosen as successor of Chandler in the Senate, and being by nature crooked and combative, he got ids partisans together and whooped them into antagonism to the measure. God knows tho House is too large at 203 members, but to make an equitable distribution and secure the fullest representation under the census of 1880, that is; leave the fewest large fractions unrepresented, 307 was found the fairest. The republicans demand 310, their avewed reason being that at 807 .Southern representation would be increased, and to that extent imperil the tariff. That is trumpery, of course, tho real purpose being to prevent the passu, e of any apportionment and thus necessitate an extra session of Congress, so hungry are they lo find places for the additional number of their dependents which a renublicati organization o the House would give them. Such men as Hawley, of whose class there are too few-, and such journals as the New 1 ork Times, sustain the bill agreed upon by the Committee aud reported by Mr. Cox. committee has-been a reed upon to harmonize the conflict of opinion, but at this writing they have accomplished nothing, and I am realiy apprehensive they will not. The River and Harbor bill, growing ponderous as the days elapse, appropriating for everything and anything that shows a semblance of water—aye, and for where water ought to be but is not, as Belford of Colorado wants an appropriation to bore artesian wells in his State. How he pro poses to make them navigable when they are bored ho has not so far vouchsafed. There are meritorious objects for appropriations in this bill, but far more that are not. I cannot write further on this topic, for I have already, I fear, trenched on my walcome.

You have heard of course of the death of Senator Matt, H, Carpenter. There has gone a man who is a public loss. Stubborn repuolican as he was, he could not brook a palpable wrong even though it enured to party advantage. His speech before the electoral commission in February, 1877, when he told the foul majority of that body that if they decided that they would not consider the evidence of the palpable frauds of tho ‘Tour villains,” as he termed the Louisiana Returning board, they might “as well sit down and write a license to pos terity to perpetrate all the frauds that lugenaitv and self-interest can suggest,” i 8 one that will live in history. H.