The Sun.
London, England, 1864-07-19 00:00:00

AMERICA.

(From the Times Correspondent.)
NEW YORK, JULY 1.
A sensation-loving public has been gratified with
a sensation that might have been and was antici-
pated, but which, nevertheless, possesses all the
charms of novelty. Mr. Chase has either resigned
the office of Secretary of the Treasury, or been dis-
missed by the President. There is a Ministerial
crisis which threatens to involve the whole Cabi-
net—if such a word can be applied to eight gentle-
men who never meet for the transaction of business,
who manage their own departments without re-
sponsibility to each other, to Congress, or to the
people; who own no allegiance to anybody but the
President, whom they severally despise, and who
agree in nothing but in their hatred or distrust of
each other. The commercial and banking interests
of this metropolis experienced a sensation of relief
when the announcement was made. But it was a
moment only. They were informed in the same
paragraph which told of Mr. Chase's disappearance
from office that his successor had been appointed in
the person of Mr. David Todd, ex-Minister to
Brazil, ex-Member of Congress, and ex-Governor of
Ohio, and that Mr. Lincoln had sent his name to
the Senate for confirmation. The transitory feeling
of satisfaction was succeeded by incredulity, and,
when incredulity was no longer possible, by dis-
gust. Mr. Tod's antecedents were known. He had
no experience, was neither statesman nor financier,
was once of opinion that it would be better for the
Northern States to become colonies of Great Bri-
tain than to suffer the South to be independent, and
was generally in favour of a war of extermination.
Nor were his personal and social qualities found to
be of a higher grade than his public qualifications.
He was, it is true, a particular favourite of the Pre-
sident. A congeniality of humour had made them
friends. Next to himself, Mr. Lincoln admitted
Mr. Tod to be the best teller of a story in all the
West, an estimate which most people who were
acquainted with both admitted to be correct,
the only difference being that while Mr. Tod was
Mr. Lincoln's equal in the pruriency, dirtiness, and
broad vernaeularity of his jokes and anecdotes, he
was somewhat his inferior in the copious fertility of
the fountains whence he drew them, So great was
the alarm created by the announcement that it was
calculated gold would rise 50 per cent. if Mr. Tod
accepted and the Senate confirmed the appointment.
But Mr. Tod proved to be wiser than the President,
and telegraphed from Ohio that he declined the
honour. Once more commercial men felt relieved,
though many who while Mr. Chase was in power
considered him a dangerous Minister would have
been glad in view of the worse dangers that might
have resulted if Mr. Lincoln's next choice should
have been as absurd as that of Mr. Tod, to hear that
the difficulty had been arranged, and that Mr. Chase
had consented to resume his portfolio. But of this
there was no chance. The feud between Mr. Lincoln
and Mr. Chase was final, and boat parties intended
it to be so. Mr. Lincoln did not hesitate long, but
appointed Mr. William Pitt Fessenden, the senator
for Maine, to the dangerous post. The Senate seeing
no objection, personal or political, hastened to con-
firm the nomination, and took only two minutes
about it. Gold, which had risen to 282 on the resig-
nation of Mr. Chase, fell to 260, and when, at a
later hour in the afternoon, it was announced in
Wall-street that the Senate had repealed the stupid
Gold Bill it fell to 225, showing a fluctuation of 57
per cent. in a few hours.

It is asserted by Mr. Chase's friends that he
resigned, and was not dismissed ; that he long
meditated withdrawal from an Administration with
which he could not agree, and from the service of
a President whose incapacity he could not but de-
plore, and whose place he considered himself infi-
nitely better qualified to fill; that he would have
resigned some months ago if it had not been that
charges of corruption in his office had been publicly
brought against him by Gen. Blair, a person high
in the confidence and friendship of Mr Lincoln ;
that an investigation into these charges had been
ordered by Congress, and that, pending the inquiry,
his resignation might have appeared to his enemies,
if not to his friends, as a tacit admission that the
charges were true. The investigation having closed
and the insinuations against Mr Chase having been
dismissed, as without warrant or excuse, he deter.
mined to carry out his previous purpose and place
his resignation in Mr Lincoln's hands. It is
asserted by others, who claim to be in Mr Chase's
confidence, that he was -further impelled to this
course by the refusal of the President to appoint the
person whom he designated to succeed Mr Cisco in
the important office of Sub-Treasurer in New York,
and of Congress to pass such a stringent system of
taxation as would meet the interest of the public
debt, and pay at least some portion of the current
expenses of the war, Furthermore, it is believed