Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 January 1882 — LETTER FROM WASHINGTON. [ARTICLE]

LETTER FROM WASHINGTON.

Correspondence of the Sentinel. WasnmoTOX, Jan. 5,1882. There, I've written 1882 without spoiling a 1 to make a 2—just as easy as Get io—for that’s the proper pro nuneiation—gave Arthur the "Grand Prize" in what one of the Massachusetts Senators, Hoar, calls the "Lottery of Assassination.” To-day at noon meets the 47th Congress once more after a holiday vacation, and begins the trouble of the sixth-rate stalwart Speaker chosen to preside over the House. The author of this political metempsychosis "still lives,” a full match for the government counsel conducting hg prosecution, and as saucy under his "spiritology” and "inspiration” as a man who has completed a contract to remove an obstruction impeding the march of Imperial ambition. Is that plain? I hope it is.

We still hear a great deal about the determination of this administration to puieue remorselessly the Star Route scamps, and In evidence of their sincerity in that the appointment of Benjamin R. Brewster to the Attorney Generalship is triumphantly quoted. Mr. Brewster hag been a lawyer of -distinguished prominence and marked ability. No one cavils at that. But age has its compensations, and Mr. Brewster is no exception to its infirmities. That the “govern meat” will indulge in loud moutbings and encourage its organs in giving large assurances do«s not exactly make it clear that any of these rascals wfil ever be brought to book. -- Wl.a‘ t Dorsey, who corrupted Indiana from its moorings, and Brady, who gave him and his pals the facilities for accomplishing their nefarious work, as well of robbing the treasury debauching the ballot-box and making this administration a possibility, made to pay the penalty of their crimes by their beneficiaries! The idea is preposterous. If it should so happen it would be thiough a miscarriage of the eccentric form of “jus lice* in vogue with the men now autnorized to make and unmake the courts, judges and juries who w|li have jurisdiction of the causes. “Put not your faith” in these, who would be princes, to the extent of believing that they will destroy those witaout whose ready wit, fertility and genera} cuesedness it would be plain Mr. Arthur, kicked out of the New York Custom Hoase “in order that the of flee (Collector of Customs) may be honestly administered.”

The Committee of Ways and Means has been so constituted as to make it next to impossible to have any reform of our miserably disjointed and outrageously unjust and inequitable revenue system. The prompt approval of the Morrill bill by the Senatorial Finance committee, to constitute a finance commiision foreshadows the purpose of the republican represent atives in both Houses. Indeed, Judge Kelley, Chairman of the House committee nas avowed as much. The roving commission favored will protract Its labors until too late to enable legislation on the subject until after the next Presidential election. You remember what a handle was made of tnis issue in 1880. The same game |s to be p ayed over again in 1884, if they hays their own way. This is simply a denial of justice to the mass, es of the people, but what care these political speculators, This leads me to remark that the protectionists, a 8 they falsely style themselves, don’t “point with pride” so much to Prus. sia any more as evidence that thei r financial system is an unmixed blessirg. From reports emanating from the various parts of Bismarck’s dominion, both mining and manufactur. ing interests, despite the high tariff for their “protection,” are in a “state of obstinate stagnation,” and the effect has been “generally ruinous to local industry.” The complaint is common over the Empire, and a loud demand is made for a “return to tho customs policy of 1865, as the only hope for trade.” The words in quo tation marks are extracts from the several boards of trade throughout Germany, and with two solitary exceptions, the testimony is concurrent in declaring the effect in Germany as "disastrous to all kinds es trade and industry.” Speaker Keiffer’s assign men* o committees, under the “inspiration” of ex-Secretary “Secor” Robeson, ha g created a buzt, not confined at all to the minority. On the 53 committees all the chairmen but four are Jepre. sentatives from Northern States, and those four are among the unimportant on the list. But It is less tu this than other causes exception is taken Pennsylvania is rewarded with the lion s share of places of prominence while New York is scarcely considered. If not to-day, yet at an early period a move will be made, 1 :is said, by Republican members, to change the manner of appointment of these committees. You know the practical work of legislation is done by these committees,and the Speaker has practically made a “mess” of it in his assignment of the members upon them. If he doesnot enlarge his field of information and action, Mr. Keiffer will not find the Speakership a bed of roses.

Thf “grand old party” having returned to power Washington will soon be as it was when they before commanded ail the departments of government. The lobby, which was starved out by the miserly economy Of a Democratic House, Is here again in force, and the estimates for appropriations are boiling up and running over to their old proportions. If there is a regret for this it cannot in conscience be said by any intelligent observer that he is surprised. To make their work effective they are preparing to weed out every Democrat upon any pretext to enlarge their now slender and equivocal majority. There are twenty-one contests, not more than one or two of which have any merit, but such a thing as that is never an Impedimetf to “republican” progress. You will have noticed the dead lock in the New York legislature.— Bom Kelley has a following in itg membership large enough to be the balance of power in both Houses, and he is hawking his wares around for a dicker with the highest bidder. Lot OS hopo that the Democrats will not enter into the competition. That the republicans will, goes for the saying, with Mahone, Rlddleberger and Repudiation as illustrations of their ca» pacity to trade for anything from • jewsharp to an anaconda, and the negotiations are pending for greenback alliances In several Southern States H.