Jasper County Democrat, Volume 1, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 October 1898 — WASHINGTON LETTER. [ARTICLE]

WASHINGTON LETTER.

(From our regular correspondent. 1 That investigation commission promises to do some investigating this week; it has done nothing yet but get ready, except to abandon the idea of star chamber sessions, and agree to have the Press Associations represented at all sessions \vhe_re testimony is taken. * * * Although Gen. Joe Wheeler has been offered command of all the cavalry that will go to Cuba with the army of occupation, there are reasons for believing that he will not go to Cuba, unless there is a hitch in negotiating the treaty of Peace at Paris. A close friend of Gen. Wheeler says he will resign his commission and resume his Congressional duties, as soon as the treaty of Peace is signed; he lias no hankering after the command of a mounted police force, in Cuba or elsewhere, and that is about all our cavalry will be after the treaty of peace becomes an accomplished fact. • * ,* Not being admitted to Boss Platt's confidence I cannot vouch for its correctness, but there has been a lot of talk around Washington to the effect that Teddy Roosevelt was nominated for Governor with the deliberate intention of ending his political career by getting him badly defeated, and that he is to be traded for legislative votes wherever to do so will increase the chance of electing a republican member of the legislature. According to this talk, Mr. McKinley and Boss Platt are acting together in this scheme to get rid of “Teddy” and at the same time elect a legislature that will send a republican successor to Senator Murphy. Democratic advices indicate very strongly that the democrats will control the legislature as well as elect the entire state ticket- They say they can beat Roosevelt without any assistance from Piatt, and his knifers. • * * Gen. Lee, who was ordered to Washington last week has gone to West Point to visit his son, who is a cadet there, but will return to Washington in a few days. Republican influence is being brought to bear upon the administration to cause it to give General Lee only a subordinate command in the Cuban army of occupation, instead of command of the entire army. It was to sound nim, in order to find out how far he would

allow himself to be poshed into the background without tendering his resignation that he was sent j for. General Lee’s admirers hope if he is tendered anything less ! than commnad of that division of the army of occupation that will have Havana for its headquarters, he will tender his resignation and leave the army at once. ‘lf he gets less than that, a very positive promise will be violated,*bnt that happens frequently in Washington. Some idea of the panic existing in administration circles, on account of the prospect of republican defeat in the congressional campaign, may be had from Boss Hanna's estimate, after going over all the information in the possession of the republican congressional committee that it would require a campaign fond of §2,000,0CX) to elect a republican majority of the next house. Hanna is chairman of the national committee, and under ordinary conditions, would have nothing to do with the congressional campaign. But existing conditions are not ordinary. On the contrarc. they are extraordinary. from Air. AlcKinley’s point of view. Chairman Babcock, of the

congressional committee, told Air. AlcKinley that he considered the fight already lost. Then Hanna was telegraphed for. asked if he could save the House for his party. He decided that it would take $2,000,000 to do it. and made out a list of men that must pnt up that amount. They are the same men who furnished him the money he used so lavishly two years ago. anti already they are l»eing personally waited npon and made to come down again, some of them by Hanna himself and oth€*rs by his agents. ♦ * Col. W. J. Bryan, who has been confined to his bed by an attack of malaria, is now much better, and expects to return to his regiment after a short stay in the Virginia mountains. None of the many attentions paid C’ol, Bryan daring his stay in Washington, gave him more pleasure than a magnificent basket of roses from the executive committee of the Alaryland democratic association, accompanied by a communication from which the following is quoted: "The executive committee of the Alaryland democratic association deem it a privilege and a pleasure to present this basket of flowers to Col. W. J. Bryan, as a token of their respect, love, and esteem for him who. more than any man living, stands as the personification of the most vital issue affecting the welfare of all the people of our nation anl of the world. The intelligent, aggressive and disinterested advocacy of the cause of the plain people that marked your entrance into public life at once awakened a response in the hearts of your countryman, and singled yon out as an object of their affection. Your steadfast devotion to principle, year untiring zeal in the cause of the people and the recognition by them of yoar rare talents, combined to make you their chosen leader in their contest for deliverance from the evils that are threatening the overthrow of the republican institutions and the establishment of a plutocracy to rule and plunder under forms of law.”