The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-02-06
The New Cabinet.
From The ~. Y. Tribune.

We are gradually discovering who are not
going into the new Cabinet The Sor1ngfeH
Republican announces, by authority appa-
rently, that Mr.. Evarts "dOes not wish to con-
tinue Attorney General under Grant. Were
he offered the post of his old friend Mr.. Seward
his feelings might be- different, but he will not
serve as Attorney General under the new ad-
ministratiop." Mr.. j. W. FOrney reminds US
that ''under Polk, Buchanan was regarded as
the future Secretary of State three months
before the Inauguration; so with Webster
under Taylor, Marcy under Pierce, and Seward
under Lincoln" Now, however, "the whole
situation impresses everybody with the belief
that the man who can manage such a condi-
tion of affairs so wisely, shows by this single
trait a rare aptitude for the great work con-
fded to him by grateful people," Even Mr..
Gideon Welles, it is rumored, contemplates
retirement, and feels no interest in the naval
appropriations. We can hardly credit this.
Mr. Doolittle certainly does not intend enter
ing the Cabinet, as he proposes coming to New
York to reside. Nor do we suppose that Mr..
Henderson has any ambition of this kind, or
he would not run away to Cuba. Thus we
might continue our process of elimination, if
the discussion were really Of value.
The truth is, this "Cabinet question" is of
little interest to anybody but the small COM
pany of politicians who live in the city of
Washington. We should like to know the
names early enough on March to have de-
cent biographical sketches written for the
Tribune of March 5, but there our curiosity
ends. The Cabinet is not an essential part of
the Government. In pinch, we have no
doubt republican institutions could survive
the omission to appoint any Cabinet at all.
The Offices are created to give the Executive
efficiency. A Cabinet serves the President
as a staff serves the general of an army,
and it remains for the President to say just
what service it shall perform. He may
select statesmen and experienced politicians,
whose province it would be to counsel
him-leaving the routine work to subor-
dinates. He may take representative party
men, and give his Cabinet a political signif-
canoe. He may call around him councillors,
or creatures, or workers-the country holds
him and not them responsible. When Gen.
Washington became President he gave the State
Department to man eminent among "the
statesmen" of the period. His Attorney
General was a superficial lawyer. His Secre-
tary of the Treasury was an aide on his mill
tary staff a young man of thirty-three. "You
are to marshal us as may be best for the pub
lie good" This was Jeffsrson's theory of the
Presidents relations to his Cabinet offic ers.
Washington treated them as ministers, with
power at times to overrule his own
decisions. A merry time they gave him
when the ambition Of Hamilton and Jefferson
began to tester Jackson's Cabinet was
composed finally OF creatures-blind mediums
of his will-such Cabinet as we now see
under Mr.. Johnson. Mr.. Seward assures us
thata Secretary is merely the ''deacon" of the
church. We therefore presume Mr.. Johnson's
theory to be that his Cabinet advisers serve
at his feasts and distribute the bread and the
wine. He has certainly been we'll served
Mr.. Lincoln probably had no theory. HI
seemed to have dropped the name of hi
rivals at the Chicago Convention into ha
and taken out the frat seven. His Cabinet wa
neither one thing nor another. His policy TO
instance had no more unsparing critic thar
the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr.. Chase
Omitting Seward, Chase, and Stanton, Lin
coins Cabinet was weak, and OF these three
MIR. Stanton was probably the only one upol
whom he could lean, or who was personall
devoted to him. II the war had not held the
Lincoln Government together by the force
outside pressure, it would have been shattered
in two years.
General Grant will fiud preoedeRts for ever
course he may take but one. No Presiden
has ever made his Cabinet merely 80 man
staf- officers and selected them without regar
60 their politics, influence, or fame. 1t is pos
sible he may consider that to do this will b
TO best serve the public, and that he means
put men in power who will do the civil work
inst as Generals Rawlins, and Badeau, an
Parker. and the remainder Of his staff, do tn
army work now. He may say, for instance
70 General Rawlins or General Badeau, Igiv
YOU the Treasury, and want the revenue
collected and you must have no thought
politics; you obey my orders, and take counst
from no other authority" This would D
quite as constitutional Cabinet q
Mr.. Linooln's, but 1t would PRACTICAL
remove cut Of the range OF politics
ambition any Cabinet station, aud 1t
SUCCESS as an experiment would depend upo
the temper of Congress. A Cabinet Office ha
s.rowu fa he almost the prerogatiVe of amb