The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-11-15
EX-sECRETARY cox AND THE PREST.



he would not permit his clerks to be black
nailed, has dumped out of the frying-pan
into the fire." The indignant rebuke of the
expressed in many cases through
prominent Republican journals, made him so
that he undertook to convince
the public that Mr.. Cox left the Cabinet for
some other reason. With this view he caused
the publication of correspondence between
himself and Mr.. Cox, last August, relating TO
the McGarrahan claim. This was blunder
for several reasons. In the first place,
it does not veil the fact that Mr..
Cox did Withstand the black-mail-
ing politicians and protect his clerks
from extortion, that the President abetted
the blackmailers, and that thereupon the |
Secretary did resign, Mr. Cox was forced |
out of the Cabinet in October, but the McGar-
rahan correspondence took place in August. |
Although the President had not supported
him on that occasion, Mr. Cox concluded to
suppress his sepsiblity and let the matter
pass Two months afterwards he was crossed
again in a matter which more nearly affected
the administration of his Office, and of more
general interest to the country. On this last
occasion be was opposed by the whole body
of trading politicians to whom General Grant
has surrendered, and he saw that his useful
ness in promoting cherished reforms of the
civil service was at an end. 1t was point
which he could not yield without total loss
of self-respect. He was compelled to offer
the resignation which was promptly and
gladly accepted, the President not wishing to
be obstructed in his determination to manage
the executive departments as party machines
on the old spoils system which Secretary Cox
had been steadily laboring to displace from
the first day that he entered Office. All this
was so apparent on the face of the documents
first published, that the August correspond
eDce not only does not obscure it, but
strengthens the impression that Mr.. Cox's
strict notions and resolute honesty we're felt by
the President as an annoyance and obstruc-
ton. In the McGarrahan affair the Secretary
was checked in resisting private, as in the
more recent case he was in opposing poiti-
cal, swindle. The reputation of the Presi-
dent is damaged, and damaged in the same
way, by both sets of correspondence, In the
one case he appears as the protector of pri-
vate fraud, and in the other of political ex-
tortion. The August letters do not go q step
towards his exculpation. They are cumula-
tive evidence against his character and in
favor of Mr.. Cox.
In the next place, the publication of the
McGarrahau correspondence was a blunder,
because it forces the subject into Congress,
where its discussion will now attract univer-
sal attention and cannot fail to discredit the
President. The warmth with which Mr. Cox's
side of this controversy is espoused by lead
ing Republican journals shows that he will
not lack defenders on the floor of Congress-
The evidence is conclusive that the McGarra-
han claim is a swindle. The President, with
astonishing folly, exhibits himself as its
patron. If he had aot indiscreetly published
the correspondence, his connection with the
case would not have been known, aud his
name not dragged into the discussion. From
dispute between McGarrahan and the New
Idria Mining Company it is changed, by
foolish act of the President, into controversy
between him and Mr.. Cox In this guise he
forces it into public notice and into Con-
gress. He will fare worse in this business
than he did in the San Domingo job last win
ter. Ihdt was not a mere contest between
rival private claimants. There was an osten-
sible public object. The frauds were not so
notorious and had not been condemned by
official opinions and judicial decisions If
McGarrahsn is defeated, it will be regarded
as triumph over the President; if he wins,
his success will be attributed to Executive
influence. BY the publication OF this
correspondence General Grant has intro
| duced a new element into the case and
made it impossible that it should be
discussed and determined purely on
its merits. 1t will now involve
the character and credit of his administration;
and having connected himself with it in so
conspicuous manner, he must encounter
some very hard blows. He has closed the
door of retreat through decision by the
Interior Department; for if it should be de-
ci6ed there against McGarrahan, Mr.. Cox
would be vindicated by his successor in
office; and if in McGarrahan's favor, the whole
country would say it was done by the i'm
proper influence of the President. 1t will go
into Congress and be the subject of a bitter
controversy.
With how little advantage the President
will appear may be judged by the documents
we printed yesterday. The most noteworthy of
these is the opinion of Attorney General
Hoar, which, it will be seen, was full vindi-
cation in advance of the course proposed to
be pursued by Secretary Cox, in which he
was SO abruptly overruled. He was proceed
ing under the advice of the recently resigned
law officer of the Government, who had
given most undoubting opinion that it was
Mr.. Cox g duty to proceed and adjudicate the
controversy. The opinions of two other
former Attorneys General are also given bear
ing directly upon the merits of the McGarra-
han claim. Mr. Bates and Mr. Black make it
apparent that the claim is bold and shame
less fraud, and it has been condemned as
such by a solemn decision of the Supreme
Court 1t will be seen from these
documents that Secretary Cox stood upon
strong and impregnable ground.
But Secretary Cox needed no other vindi-
cation than his own letter to the President.
He saw that General Grant had been misin-
formed and BIASED by one-sided representa-
tions, and 80 he proposed that the President
should come from Long Branch to Washing
ton and give the subject his personal atten-
tion. The Secretary desired Cabinet meet
ing or thst the President would at least sum-
mon Attorney General Akerman from his