Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 January 1885 — A STORY OF THE HAYES REGIME. [ARTICLE]

A STORY OF THE HAYES REGIME.

How Garland, of Arkansas, Narrowly Escaped a Seat on the Supreme Bench. [Washington telegram to Chicago News.] Senator Garland, of Arkansas, whose name has been mentioned so prominently for the Attorney-Generalship under Cleveland, is now serving his second term in the United States senate. He is about 52 years old. His frame is tall and well built, surmounted with a large, well-rounded head, covered with bushy black hair His face is clean shaven, his mouth firm but pleasant, solemn one moment and twitching the next with some nascent drollery. His eyes are brown, small, frank, and piercing, kindly withal, but changing rapidly from earnest to quizzical. The Senate does not contain a more universal student or a more restless wag. After hours spent in profound and abstracted study he will refresh himself with a series of practical pranks, sparing no one in the range of his sallies, hitting home with the most grotesque solemnity, but never in malice. His. especial delight is to get hold of some dismal personage with no more juice in him than there is in a boarding-house steak and test him with some ludicrous yam, and then enjoy telling to others the effect. A guilty conscience keeps him always on the lookout for some terrible retaliation, and it is a red-letter day in the Senate when this biter is bitten. On one occasion, when an important measure was before the Senate, Garland delivered a careful and exhaustive speech, to which close attention was given. About ten minutes after he had finished Don Cameron went over to the Arkansas Senator’s side of the chamber and said: “Garland, when are you going to speak on this question? I want to hear you?” “Good Lord,” remarked the surprised Senator; “why, I just got through. Where were you?"

About five minutes later Mr. Whyte (Maryland), who had not been in the Senate during the speech, had the job put up on him, and asked the same question in good faith, “Why, I just finished, Whyte. Consult the Record in the morning. ” Another five minutes passed, and then Butler of South Carolina, another sleepless wag, went meekly up to Garland and asked when he was going to speak on the bilk Considering the source or this last inquiry, the remark was in the nature of an eyeopener, and Mr. Garland tartly replied: “If you have any more of ’em, Butler, bring them on in a body; it saves time.” Politically Mr. Garland’s career has been a wise and eminently conservative one. By training and instinct he sympathized deeply with the old Whig party in politics and entered the war like other thousands more through fidelity to his region than because he believed in its wisdonfor necessity, or had gny special faith in its outcome. He was less than 30 years of age when his State passed the ordinance of secession, and he was sent to the Provisional Congress at Montgomery. He served in both branches of the Confederate Congress, and was a member of the Senate when the war closed. At the age of 35 he was elected to the United States Senate, but the smoke of the late conflict had not sufficiently cleared away, and he was refused his seat. He next.served a term as Governor of Arkansas. Upon the retirement of Powell Clayton from the Senate in 1877 Mr. Garland again appeared at Washington. This time he took his seat in the Senate without objection. Six years later, without a dissenting voice, he was re-elected for a second term. The legal reputation which had preceded him secured film, on his first entrance to the Senate, a place on the Judiciary Committee, and for four years he has been first on that committee from the Democratic side. He not only enjoys the profound confidence and esteem of his Democratic colleagues, but is equally admired for his personal and professional qualities by such critical adversaries as Edmunds and Conkling. On points of legal doctrine they seldom dash.

The esteem in which Senator Garland is held by the Republican side of the cnamber brings to light a bit of curious and unwritten nietory. When Hayes was eking out the last days of his administration there occurred a vacancy on the Supreme bench. As the court was overwhelmingly Republican, a happy and magnanimous idea suggested itself to Senator Edmunds. Taking with him several other Republican Senators, including Mr. Morrill, of Vermont, all of whom cordially indorsed the plan, he went to the White House and presented the name of Mr. Garland for the vacancy. They took the broad ground that a competent and vigorous lawyer was the chief need of the court at that time. The docket was far behind. No Republican principle canid be in jeopardy, ana the appointment of Mr. Garland would be an extremely graceful and well-merited compliment. Of course all this was done entirely without the knowledge of ■ the Southern Senator. The idea struck; Mr. Hayes apparently with some force. He promised to consider the matter carefully, and asked the distinguished gentlemen to call again. On their second visit he expressed himself better pleased with the idea, and promised to comply with their unselfish wishes, and give Mr. Garland the place. It was impossible to keep this important news a secret in Senatorial circles. Somebody leaked and Mri Garland, to his amazement, found himself in advance of his appointment the victim of hearty congratulations. He was. Of course, deeply gratified to learn how this unexpected thing had been accomplished, and would have relished the honor, as law is more in the line, of his ambition than politics. < It is hard io paint the profound disgust of Mr. Edmunds when the Presidential < gift, only a few days litter, was placed on the plate of Stanley Matthews. It largely accounts for the fact that Mr. Matthews was confirmed by one vote—not, by the way, under Hayes, but when the nomination had been renewed by Garfield. Should Mr. Garland become a member of Cleveland’s Cabinet the Legislature will probably re-elect him to the Senate in 1889, thus enabling him to resume his seat in that body on the very day the coming administration steps down and out.

A peculiab-looking fish, measuring over nine feet in length, came ashore at Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. It weighed over 600 pounds, and was of a dark color. It has been sent to Prof. Baird, of the Smithsonian Institution. Lieut. Gen. D. H. Hill, of Confederate army fame, who is writing war reminiscences for the Century magazine, has resigned the Presidency of fixe Arkansas Industrial University, and has taken up his residence at Macon, Ga. Thb private desk of the late Chief Justice Chase is still in the law office in Cincinnati where it has been for fifty years. In Ohio on Jan. 1 the standard weight of a bushel of ear com will be sixty-eight instead of seventy pounds, Thomas Nast is getting ready to lectern. He ought to draw.