The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-10-21
MIR. Cox's RESIGNATION.

MIR. COX'S RESIGNATION.
From the NJ Y. Nation.
1t is, of course, very unfortunate that SO |
valuable an officer as Secretary Cox should |
resign his place in the Cabinet, but il would |
be still more unfortunate If the public we're |
left in ignorance of, or under any missppre-
hension about, the cause of his resign alton |
An attempt has been made by some of the |
more Jealous party papers to ascribe II to
purely personal" reasons, and there have
been one or two insinuations that, az he was
not in entire sympathy with the party about
the suffrage, it is, perhaps, not altogether to
be regretted that his official connection with
it should cease. But we believe we run no
risk in saying that his motives for retiring
are no more personal than those of an
officer who finds place which he has filed
faithfully and well made untenantable must
always be; and that the suggestion that he
does notagree with the party touching any of
its fundamental doctrines, or any great feature
of its policy, is simply one of the modes In
which the party hacks raise the mob on any
hon estm man whose presence is sinconvenient and
whom they determine ito run off," Just as
''soundness on the main question" has been
made a cover for every vice, from burglary
to habitual drunkenness, so uusoundness is
used as an excuse for covering the purest re-
putation with mud. His resignation has in
short, nothing to do with his opinions or With
simply and solely the result of the Presidents
failure to support him in the maintenance
and prosecution of the reforms which he has
introduced into the Department of the In
terror, and the value and extent of which the
press of all parties is now ackno wledging
with gratitude. He has introduced changes
which, three years ago, seemed we'll nigh out
of any mans power, and the extension of
which in all branches of the Administration
1a 6
could befall the country. He has filed the
working force of the Department with COM
petent, well-educated men of good character,
and has shown that such men can serve the
Government better than others, and without
any arrangement of the political machine.
He has, moreover, broken up the innumer-
able rings which the nature of q great deal of
its business gathered around the Department
during the late Administration, and, in fact,
has made probably the most complete clear
ance of jobbery and corruption which any
one department in Washington has witnessed
in our time.
Now, that this sort of work would be done
in all the departments, and. that the Cabinet
officers would have the hearty support of the
President in doing it, was, we believe, the
general expectation of the country when tue
present administration came into power; and
it was generally believed that Grant, not
being politician and yet possessed of d repu-
tation 80 great as to enable him to set poll
ticians at defiance, was just the man to effect
this great and long-desired but hardly
expected revolution. It was, we believe on
the understanding that he was such a man
that Messrs. Hoar, Fish, and Cox took Office.
Had he issued declaration, on taking Office,
that he was going to revolutionize the civil
service by making appointments on bust
ness principles, we believe the country
would have hailed it with delight, and have
supported him firmly. Declaration or no
declaration, however, it would have stood
by him in trying to do right had he trusted
it. But he lost heart very early in the fight
a novel sensation for him of all men, whose
courage on more terrible fields has usually
grown as his fortune seemed to wane. He
| apparently could neither make up his mind to
| work with the politicians nor to break with
them, so he tried compromise, and it has
met with the usual fate of such attempts.
| The politicians at first assaulted the depart
'ments openly, and attempted to carry them
with rush. Finding this unsuccessful, they
sat down before them and opened regular
siege. They became 'cool" with the Admin
istration, disregarded its suggestions, rejected
its nominations, and affected to treat 1T as of
little account. They spread abroad through
the country reports of its failure and "weak-
ness" and, having produced a certain
amount of Generalization at the White
House in this way, they began openly
| to point out to the President the
injury Hoar was doing him by his ''brusque-
ness, or Cox by his inhexibility or his new
tangled notions, or that he was doing himself
! by his failure to consult practical men"
who could show him how things were
managed 'inside politics." This, of course,
gradually produced its effect. Hoar was
sacrificed first, by direct dismissal; Cox is
now sacrificed, by refusal to sustain him in
the execution of his reforms. Fish, we VEN
ture to predict, will not last much beyond
December, and for the same reasons; and
then we shall have the reign of the old
schemers fully restored in all the departments,
and-this is the worst of managing a Pre-
sident totally unfamiliar with their arts aud
totally unable to detect even the worst of the
snares into which they are sure to try to lead
! him.
Now, what is the diseases from which
| American politics is suffering? Is it not
the corruption and dishonesty of the great
body of persons who carry on the Govern
ment? Suppose this evil removed or greatly
diminished, what else is there in American
polity to cause anybody to be disheartened or
disturbed human nature being what it is
What is it that makes these persons corrupt !?
| Is it not the fact that office-holding is the
only business in the United States, producing
regular income, in which a man needs
neither character nor capacity, and into
which a man can get without possessing
either character or capacity Supposing we
barred the entrance to the public service TO
this class of persons, what is there in politics
that would make the game worth the
candle to the great army of adven-
tuIers, aud ignoramuses, and gamblers,
| and tricksters who now make it