Rensselaer Democrat, Volume 1, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 June 1898 — Washington Letter. [ARTICLE]

Washington Letter.

From our regular correspondent. At last General Shafter’s army is in Cuba, and unless somebody at the Washington end gets rattled over the reported sailing of a Spanish fleet from Cadiz, bound in the direction of Cuba, and issues orders that will prevent, this is likely to be a hot week in the vicinity of Santiago. The first fleet of transports is due at Manilla to-day, and Dewey is not likely to wait for Gen. Merritt, who is just about ready to start from San Francisco with the third and last fleet of transports, before taking Manila. It is semiofficially announced that at the last Cabinet meeting it was decided that more troops would bt needed, and that another call for volunteers would be ; issued shortly, probably this! week. It would seem that more 1 _ j use should be made of the troops j wealready have, before asking 1 more men to volunteer. Although Secretary Alger has positively denied the story that owing to quarrels between him-! sell and Gen. Miles, who is now in Washington, the latter had; been virtually deposed from the command of the army, the talk oi friction between them continues, and even goes so far as’ to. 1 say that the President intends: directing tlie movements of the armv himself. The change of plan by which Gen. Miles is to go! to Por.t<> Rico in commond of the invading army now b ing prepared for that expedition is said to have been caused by this disagreement. and to have been the proposition of Gen. Miles himself, who preferred being responsible for one army over which he would have absolute control to’ being held responsible for the movements of all our troops and being hampered by civilian control. It is announced that the invasion of Porto Rico is to take place before the Spanish fleet alleged to have sailed from Cadiz can reach Porto Rico. If the reported starting of this Spanish fleet results in the hurrying up of things a little, it will be an almighty good thing. Similar reports in the past have resulted in hanging up things.

A democratic caucus of the: House is ti be held this week to determine whether the party shall return to the old method suspended since the civil war, of compelling all participants in a' party caucus to abide by the de-: cision of the-caucus. While members of the adminis-’ tration profess to believe that the insurgents in the Philippines are ; acting in accordance with an 1 agreement made with Admiral ■ Dewey, it is well known that thev are more or less worried over the news announcing the declaration of an independent! government by the Philippine insurgents. No official will say i what are to be the relations of ' General Meritt, who is to command the army sent to the Phil- i ippines as well as the military j governor of the islands, with the insurgents. It begins to look as though there might be more ser- • ions trouble in those islands than i whipping the Spaniards who are ■ There. The administration was l certainly not expecting the in- i surgents to set up an independ-1 ent government when instruc-! tions were prepared for military , government, to be established by ■ Gen. Merritt, to collect tariff! duties on importations to the islands. Although there are about thirIty senators who are opposed ‘to the adoption of the Hawaiian annexation resolution, which went through the House last week by so largem vote that the Czar was compelled to keep his room, under plea of sickness, for several da£S, and which is now the “unfinished business of the Senate, it is not believed, even by themselves, that they can prevent a vote being reached and the resolution adopted by the Senate. It has been decided that the opposition should do all the talking during the debate; also that Con-

gress shall not be allowed to adjourn until the resolution is voted upon. This brings it down to a question of the endurance of the opponents of annexation, should they decide 17 fight to the last ditch; but it is considered likely that they will allow a vote to be taken in the course’of a week or two —one very close observer of things legislative is so confident of this that he has wagered the cost of an elegant dinner for 8 gentlemen that thas the vote will be taken before the 4th of July. The whole power of the ad mistration is being used *to bring about a vote. A larger proportionate number of democrats in the Senate will vote for the resolution than in the House, where 18 voted for it, and a few who favored annexation refrained from voting in deference to the large party majority against it. In the House the populists divided- evenly on the question, and there is about the same division among the populist Senators, although Senator Butler. of N. C. and Pettigrew, of 3. Dak., are among the leaders of the opposition to annexation. The resolution tendering the thanks of Congress to Lieut. Hobson and the volunteer crew of the Merimac, and authorizing the President to advance Hobson to the rank of lietenant Commander, offered in the Senate by Senator Morgan and in the House by Representative Underwood, will be promptly adopted by Congress. There has been a hitch in the exchange of Hobson and his men, but officials are confident that the exchange will shortly be accomplished, as it has been officially stated at Madrid that the Spanish government had authorized Gen. Blanco to make the exchange.

Miss Audrey Vondersmith of Brook, is visiting with Miss Mary Wright. Perry Carson. Ira W. Yeoman. •I. W. McEwan, J. C. Chilcote, Simon Fendig. Jay Lam son, E. P. Honan. John Knphe and D. W. Shields, attended the Democratic State convention last’ Wednesday. H. J. Nichols, the Lowell stock man came to Rensselaer on Thursday of last week and in the afternoon broke the stock buying record. He bought three ear loaijs of sheep, three of hogs and one of cattle. That was certainly a good half day’s woik.