The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-06-17
HON. AMOS TAPPAN AKERMAN, THE
NEW ATTORNEYG GENERAL

PRESIDENT GRANT astounded the country not a
little at the outset by some of his Cabinet ap-
pointmente, but the crowning surprise has been in
his last astselection-that of the Hon. Amos Tappan
Alderman, of Georgia. whose name was sent to
the Senate yesterday Attorney General, in
place of Hon. Ebenezer r. Hoar, of Massa-
chusetts, resigned.
Mr.. Alderman is a native OF New Hampshire,
having been born at Portsmouth, in that State,
in the year 1922. After receiving q thorough
preparatory education, he entered Dartmouth
College at Hanover, in his native State, in 1888,
and graduated in 1S42, at the age of twenty.
In the following year he left New England and
took up his residence at Elbertson, the county
seat of Ebert county, Georgia, about seventy
miles to the north of Augusta. Here he entered
upon the study of the law in the Office of the
late Hon. John NJ. Berrien, lawyer of great dis
tinction, who had served as Attorney General in
the Cabinet of President jackson, from 1929 to
1884, and also as United States Senator.
From all the accounts that have reached
U.S. Mr.. Ackerman soon attained high reputa-
tion as a lawyer and man of unquestioned
personal integrity and pursued the successful
practice of his profession until the outbreak of
the Rebellion, without material interruption
and without taking any prominent part in poll
tics. He acted, however with the Whig party
as long as that organization remained intact,
and does not appear to have affiliated with the
Democracy at any period in his career except
during the Rebellion.
Mr.. Akermans exact status on the secession
question is ct matter of doubt, fact however,
which in itself will tend greatly to disturb the
equanimity of the people. We are told that in
common with many of the leading men of the
South, he opposed the secession movement at
fba nd II
position became futile, when he yielded to the
pressure of his surroundings and 'went with his
State." This much appears to be reliable, but
the extent to which he favored and promoted
the cause of the Rebellion is not so clear. ga
report" say the Washington dispatches, 'that
he served in the Rebel army is probably correct
and 1t is even asserted that he served upon the
staff of the Confederate General Toombs during
the greater part of the war, without, however,
figuring prominently or attaining any distinction.
1t is also asserted that he acted as counsel for
Toombs when he was arralgned before court
martial in 1864. Until these reports are
cleared up, and it is proved beyond doubt that
Mr. Akerman did not even play at the hazardous
game of treason, the country will be apt to
regard his appointment without much enthu-
siasm; and if the fact that he did countenance
the war upon the Union, even to the small ex
tent of lounging about the headquarters of
Toombs, the blatant paper soldier, should be
established, the great mass of the Northern
people will look to the Senate to vindicate the
name of loyalty and rescue the nation from the
burning shame of condoned treason in the
Cabinet, by an instant and uncompromising
refusal to confirm his nomination.
Mr.. Akerman's career subsequent to the war
is not involved in as much doubt as clouds the
previous portion of his history. He at least
accepted the situation promptly and without
reservation, and, although not making at the
outset any very positive professions of Republi-
canism, recognized the irresistible force of the
great popular movement which carried General
Grant into the Presidents chair, having pre-
viously urged the people of his adopted State to
accept the Congressional policy of recon-
struction and do their utmost towards the
rehabilitation of the South. By this course he
gained the confidence of the reconstruction
party in his own State, as well as that of such
of the Republican leaders of the North as were
personally acquainted with him. We find his
name at the head of the Grant electoral ticket
in Georgia in 1868, circumstance which proves
that at that time, whatever may have been his
course during the war, he had become thoroughly
reconstructed in sentiment and soon after the
new administration came Into power his political
ulSaUlullee WeIc IculONtu ny SOuSTeeS, anu ne
was nominated by the President and confirmed
by the Senate as United States attorney for the
District of Georgia. position for which his
high legal attainments fully qualified him, even
if his advocacy of secession should morally dis
qualify him from holding seat in the Cabinet.
He was leading member of the convention
of 1867 by which the present Constitution of
Georgia was framed, and, it is said, made an
earnest effort to have incorporated in the funda-
mental law of the State a pro-
vision which would place the right
of the colored people to hold Office be-
yond doubt or dispute. Mr.. Akerman, however,
has not affiliated with the extreme radical wing
of the Republican party of Georgia, but has
been firm opponent of the Bullock regime, a
circumstance which is to be put down to his
credit. Last winter, when ex-AtLorney-Gen
raj Hoar was rejected by the Senate as Justice
of the Supreme Court of the United States and
the President endeavored to meet one of the
objections urged against his first appointment
by selecting a Southern man for the vacancy
it is said that he had fixed upon Mr.. Akerman
for the position as the best and most available
person to be found, in case the nomination
of Judge Bradley of New Jersey should encoun-
ter fate like that which met the aspirations of
Mr.. Hoar.
Such, as far as can be ascertained, has been
the record of President Grants new appointee
to the responsible position of Attorney General,
and it must be confessed that it is anything but
satisfactory to the country. Unless it should
appear that Mr.. Akerman did not serve in the
Confederate army there can be but little doubt