The Newberry Herald

FOR THE HERALD.
Our Washington Letter.
WASHINGTON, D. C.,
March 27, 1878.

As Senator Conkling has not frightened members of the Administration by his silence, nor Blaine terrified them by his indiscriminate noise, though the latter must have amazed them as he has every one else, a new departure was lately determined on. Yesterday Senator Howe attacked in detail every act of Mr. Hayes since March 4, 1877. Senator Howe is a man who, if he had stayed in Maine, his native State, would have been a Judge of Probate, perhaps a State Senator, and, in case of a party quarrel, might have got for one term to the lower House of Congress. If he had gone to his present State, Wisconsin, at any time in the last fifteen years his fate would have been the same there as it would have been in Maine. He emigrated at a fortunate time for him, and the result is that he has been the most conspicuous man of his adopted State. His term as Senator expires in March next. His speech, in itself, can do no possible harm to the Administration. It was simply a repetition of what the Globe-Democrat, of Missouri, the Traveller, of Boston, and the Whig, of Bangor, Me., have been saying for a year past, and was not as effectively stated by him as by them.

If, however, he was put forward by others, to find out at what point a general attack will most likely have effect, the case is different. Abler men will avoid his mistakes and take advantage of his discoveries. Hamlin is said to have been the author of the new movement. His trained political eye saw that the Administration was gaining day by day among the people by the failure of its enemies to take the offensive.

In Executive Session yesterday the Senate rejected the nomination of Hon. Lewis E. Parsons, as U. S. District Attorney for Alabama. This was not a party or an Administration fight.

The Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs opposes the reduction of expenses provided for by the House in the Consular and Diplomatic bill. It remains to be seen whether the House will "stick." Probably it will not.

The Texas delegation in the House, all Democrats, had a caucus the other day by themselves, and resolved to oppose any reduction in the Army. Representatives of other sections and of various interests are constantly interfering with well intended efforts in the interest of economy and reform. If we are to have success in the future, it seems to me that it is time there was harmony in the party in the support of every legitimate party measure.

The unsavory McGarrahan case still occupies the attention of the Senate Committee on Public Lands, and promises to do so for some time. It excites great interest, not only on account of the enormous value of the property at stake, and the charges of corruption freely made and fully proved by both sides to the controversy, but because so many public men of prominence in the country, for the last half generation, in Congress and the Cabinet, have been called upon to investigate the subject and have arrived at opposite conclusions as to the merits of McGarrahan's claim. There is, to use a common phrase, "no end" to the value of quicksilver in the disputed territory.

It is thought now that Packard will be appointed Collector of the Port of New Orleans, Anderson to remain as his Deputy. Packard was offered a $12,000 office in this District, but declined it. It was an office where no more than $12,000 could be made in one year, while in the Custom House at New Orleans, with Wells and Anderson as his supporters, who can estimate the income? The same capacity for figuring that converted a minority of 8,000 into a majority of 4,000 sees possibilities, in a Custom House, which may be called brilliant.