The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-05-01

structures, 10 is by no means so evident that it
offers practical advice II tells General Grant,
that he ought to dismiss his present Cabinet andl
fill their places with statesmen, piece of advice
which anybody Is competent to give, but which,
1t requires President of a very different ORDER
from General Grant to follow. On what proundl
can he ask the members of his Cabinet for their
designations? They have, as yet, committed no
egregious blunders; it is not what they have
done, II was what he has DONE that shocks and
revolts the public sentiment of the country
The Cabinet, bad as it is, is less incapable than
the President; and If anybody is to resign on
the the 5GO[e OF n%ciaP}act it ought to be
the Cabinet is no more conspicuous now
than 1t was when they were appointed;
and they might turn upon the Pres-
dent and ask why they were tri1ed
dismissed when they have done nothing to dis
appoint his reasonable expectations? Some of
them have given up other valuable positions
Judgeships, seats in Congress, commissions i'm
the army-to accept his appointments some of
them have sacrificed their inclination and taste
for private life; and there is none of them who
could not justly complain of an injury, almost of
an insult, if they have been lifted into a con-
spicuous position to be suddenly dashed down
and branded with inCapacity, when they have in
no respect crossed his wishes or beled the repu-
tation with which they came into office. They
would have no ground of complaint if they had
been LETT i'll their native obscurity; but they
would be most shabbiy wrOnged if made the
sport of an incompetent Presidents caprices.
Even If he could restore Mr. Boutwell, to his
seat in the House, Mr.. Hoar to his iudgeship in
Massachusetts, and General Rawlins to his place
in the army, he has no right to inhict upon
these gentlemen the gratuitous modification of
bestowmg honors upon them to be converted
into disgrace by prompt cancellation, without
any new disclosures respecting their capacity or
character.
Rut nvnn if Gnnorol Grant, could I,onoro11, =.
get rid of his present Cabinet when they have
scarcely, as yet, entered upon their duties it
requires no small crcdulity to suppose that he
would|elect better one. What reason is there
for Imagining that he would be more successful
in his third attempt than in his two first? He
has grown neither in stature nor wisdom since
his Inauguration, and has sunk immeasuraby in
the esteem of his party. Even if he could be
suddenly endowed with the political sagacity
wEch nature has denied bin, and his dull mind
were so Illuminated that he could make better
selections, men of character and ability would
be unwilling to serve under him. How could
they know that he would not, in some new fit of
caprice, drop them rs suddenly as he had
dropped their predecessors What reputation
| could they expect to gain in serving under such
| n vacillating bunderer? They would be likely
to feel resentment that their claims were not
sooner recognized, and to spurn his tardy tender
| of offices for which he deemed them unfit in
| his original survey of the field. At the outset,
| there is no statesman in the Republican
4 party who would not have regarded the
\ profter of a Cabinet appointment as an honor:
] but after the marked sight he put upon
| them in his first two casts of Il Cabinet. and
| after the bitter severity with which they have
| commented on his folly, they would feel them
| selves precluded from linking their political
fortunes with an administration which has so
| quickly forfeited the confidence of their party.
1t has become too painfully evident that General
| Grant is not President who can shed any lustrC
| upon the officers who serve under him. To re-
| construct his Cabinet now would be such Il con-
| spicuous display of bewilderment and fckleness
| such an open confession of incompetence that
new Cabinet, even if it were an able one, could
not shelter him from deTision. But if he selected
| it, there is no likelihood that it would be able
| and able men, especially after his past neglect
would be in no haste to serve under such u chief
| General Grant has squandered his whole stock
| of popularity; he is political bankrupt who
| will not easily find new partners among states
| men who have anything to lose. 1t is more sup.
| possible that members of his present Cabinet
| will get disguised and desert him, than that he
can succeed in filing their places with men who
| would revive the proStrated confidence Of the
| country.