The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-03-18

lohNO
discretion, and that little 20 be exercised by |
the officers themselves, aud not by him He
may appoint them, but he has no authority
TO chalk out what they are TO do when ap-
pointed. But In the exercise of military
command, It was quite the reverse. IL was
General Grants chief function as military
commander TO cut out work for his sub Irdi-
mates, and direct the course of their daily ac-
tiviiy. He neither raised his troops nor an
pointed their officers. All regimentaI aud
company officers (except in the small regula ar
army we're appointed by the Governors OF
the States In which the regiments were
raised; the brigadier- generals and other
higher officers by the President aud
Senate. General Grant could merely
select particular officers among his subordt-
mates for this or that particular service; and
neither in the Army OF the Potomac nor at
the West did he ever assign a dozen officers
to different commands from those in which he
either found them, or to which they were
promoted in the ordinary course of the SER
vice. His duties as general consisted in
planning and experimenting campaigns, the
Instruments of which were created to his
hands. When he came East, he found the
army which he marched against Richmond
already organized; General Meade continued
to command it; the corps aud division COM
mapders remained nearly the same, and no
changes were made in officers OF lower grade.
But now that General Grant has come to the
Presidency, his chief duties, as an admins
tIative officer, consist in the appointment of
officers whose duties are SO carefully pre-
scribed by law that he can give them no order
of any kind, either directly or through the
heads of departments.
1t is easy to perceive, from this statement,
that General Grants experience as an admin
istra,ive officer in the army had ne tendency
to fit him for the administrative duties of the
Presidency. The enc position was no sort of
training for the other, their duties being Sc
wholly unlike. IL General Grant had had the
appointment of all his own subordinates in the
army; If he had taken them mostly from men
who were not in the army and with whom he
had no acquaintance; If tbs applicants for
each position had been as numerous as they
are in civil Offices, and had been as per-
sistently and impudently backed; and it,
after he had appointed them, he could give
them no order, and never interfere except
to remove them for ineficiency or miscon-
duct, then his administrative duties in the
army would have been similar to those
which devolve on him as President. More of
General Grants time as President will be
consumed in listening. to representations
and counter representations bearing upon ap-
pontments to Office than he will bestow upon
all the other duties of his new position. His
acquaintance with the civil service is not suffi-
cient to enable him either TO form a very ac-
curate Judgment of the requirements of par
ticular offices, or of the fitness of particular
men to fill them. He has thus far proceeded
like novice; ard, beginning already to feel
his inoompetency and stagger under his un-
measured burdens, he has avowed his inten-
ton to take refuge behind the heads of de-
partments and members of Congress. His
Cabinet he has appointed himself, after much
foundering; and although there are one or
two good names in it, it is, taken as a
whole, the weakest and most inexperienced
ever appointed by any President. Con-
sideripg what a botch he has made of q
thing so simple, where the number
OF officers is so small, and all men competent
for them are well known, there is no likeli-
hood of wise selections for the sixty thousand
places in the civil service II is not surprising
that mere army officer should have blum
dered so egregiously, for there was obviously
nothing in his past duties which trained hin
for the performance Of his present duties
While General Grant will hereafter receive
recommendations from the heads of depart
ments and members of Congress, it is under
stood that he reserves to himself the ulti
mate decision on all appointments, for th
purpose, we suppose, of preventing any bod.
from holding Office who is not zealously de
voted to him, and who will not, when tn
proper time comes, favor his reelection.