WASHINGTON, April 1,
1862.
ED. HAWK-EYE – Dear Sir:
Our great army has a multitude of representatives at the hotels and “all quiet
on the Potomac” is what I see; at home I only hear it.
There is a desperate effort to prop up the fortunes of Gen.
McClellan, yet all agree if he does not gain a great battle, and soon, he must doff his plume and
give way to Banks or somebody who defies mud and dares to lead and to die.
This city is to be free, thank God. The Emancipation bill will pass despite the
[money] used to defeat it from Baltimore and the District. Senator Sumner’s speech was very fine as an
historic statement. He gained good
attention for full two hours, and part of the speech I have no doubt, will be
read with delight in Iowa.
The Iowa employees so far as I have seen them are a credit
to the State, and are gradually being promoted in the Departments.
Mrs. Senator Harlan has just returned from a visit to Port
Royal. Hers was truly a mission of
mercy, and at the proper time she will make public facts and theories in regard
to the Carolina negroes and what can be done and what ought to be. In her view it is a great missionary work,
and can only be prosecuted by government aid in part, and the banishment of
sundry official negro haters who seems to hold the power wherever there is a
military occupation by the Union troops.
Senator Harlan is one of the busiest men in Washington. Ash chairman of the Public Land Committee he
is hard at work. There is a promise of
his doing some large work for the State; yet I must not particularize. The facts will justify a large expectation
and time will give more details.
Mr. Grimes has certainly a high rank here as Senator. The commercial men of New York name him as a
Secretary of the Navy, in the event of a place being made by Secretary Welles
retirement. Any one who reads the Globe
cannot help seeing that the Governor knows all about this District, and that he
must be the worker on the Naval Committee – not to mention the many jobs he
spoils by a question, or by a very short telling, insinuating speech.
Who is this man Wilson? asks a member of the House. I never heard of him before, but he did make
a “big speech,” killing a bad Railroad bill.
He was enough for two or three of the most adroit of the old members.
I can say only for our Representative that he got Sorghum
exempted from the Tax bill; that he is acting as one of the working men on the
Judiciary Committee, and will get a bill for an United States Court, placing
Iowa in the center of the District, embracing Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and
Minnesota. Who will consent to be Judge?
– on the supreme bench for life. Have we
any man who would take the place?
In the House I noticed how instinctively our Democracy voted
against the tax on dogs – but it carried; but they went in for a high tax on pianos, melodeons,
&c. Don’t they love music?
I saw Le Grand Byington, a seeker for a seat in Vandever’s
place, hand in glove with the traitor Vallandigham. It will be a fine thing for him to get
mileage and perchance a seat, back by 4,000 traitors votes! Wilson will make a big fight against him, I
guess.
Yours,
_______
– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye,
Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 12, 1862, p. 1
No comments:
Post a Comment