The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-10-31

early edition.
RESIGNATION OF SECRETARY COX.
ALL further controversy with regard to the
reasons for the exit of Secretary Cox from
the Cabinet has been silenced by the publ
cation of the letter of resignation and the
Presidents reply to it. This correspondence
has been given to the public, it is understood,
by Mr.. Cox himself, and in reading it the re-
fusal of the President to sanction its publica-
ton is not difficult to understand, for the rea
Sons assigned by Mr.. Cox for his retirement
are well calculated to make the chief execu-
tive officer of the nation feel heartily ashamed
of himself. Indeed, the most promising sign
about the whole transaction is that the Presi-
dent is still capable of being ashamed of a
mean and oowardly action that is doubly dis
graceful and damaging to his administration
from the fact that it was done at the dictation
of such men as Senators Cameron and Chand-
ler, two of the most notorious political job
bers in the country, who have long lost every
claim to the consideration of honorable
men. Mr.. Cox plainly and unequivocaly
assigns for rendering his resignation as
Secretary of the Interior De-
partment the same reasons that
we did, with the single exception that he
mentions no names, but it requires no Daniel
come to judgment to tell us who were the prin-
cipal agents in banishing him from the i'm
portant post that he has filled with so much
honor and credit to himself and with so much
satisfaction to the public. The following
words of the ex-Secretary deserve to be pom
dered not only by the President but by all
patriotic men, who now view with the most
serious apprehensions the corruption that
disgraces our national politics.
"When Congress adjourned in the summer was
ereditably informed that systematic effort would
be made before their reassembling in the winter
force change in the policy we have pursued % in the
service from the sphere OF ordinary political
nTens mas m bsS aas n
enable you to carry your purposes out success
py sny 81 os in e
same department. My views OF the necessity of
or less into collision with the plans of some of our
active political managers, and my sense of duty has
obliged me to oppose some of their motives OF action
through the department. have no doubt whatever
that public sentiment WILL sooner or later, sustain
the efforts at what regard as needed reforms but
ought not to overlook the fact that for the present
they involve opposition which it may not be for the
interest OF the administration to provoke, and as
personal tendency is to be rather more than less
persistent in the course to which am committed,
deem it my duty to place in your hands my resgna-
ton OF the office OF Secretary OF the INTERIOR to take
effect as soon as you can conveniently determine my
successor"
The acceptance of resignation couched in
these terms means nothing more nor less
than the surrender of the President to the
Indian ''ring," a discontinuance of any
further real efforts on the part of the Execu-
tive to reform the civil service, and tacit
consent to, if not an open endorsement of,
the thousand and one corrupt schemes that
nine-tenths of those who voted for General
Grant expected he would fight to the bitter
end. 1t is useless for the Presidents apologsts
to contend that he has been compelled to
yield to tricksters of the Cameron and Chand-
Ter stamp because they have it in their power
to embarrass him by refusing to confirm his
appointments in the Senate, by refusing to
support his measures, and by interfering in
innumerable ways with the machinery of the
Government, with view of giving him an
neyance and bringing his administration into
discredit; for if the President were the right
kind of man, and inhexibly de-
termined upon carrying out reforms
that he knows the nation desires,
all the opposition he would meet with in
Congress would only increase his popularity
and render his reelection certain. No man
who has sat in the Presidential chair since
Washington has had greater opportunity to
mould the destines of the nation than Grant,
and no one except Andrew Johnson has shown
less tact in dealing with those who have been
thrown in contact with him. He has dis
played a singular disposition to insist to the
verge of obstinacy upon matters of no par
ticular Importance, while in things of the
greatest consequence he has submitted to the
diotation of politicians who have long ago
lost every claim to the regards of honest men.
Senator Cameron has doubtless impressed
the President with the idea that he Game
ROM is all-powerful in Pennsylvania. and
that by acceding to his wishes the admins
tration may certainly count upon the support
of this State and the future success of the
Republican party If the President had
been as well posted as he ought, he would
have known that Cameron has absolutely
no influence in Pennsylvania except such
rs he obtains by the expenditure of ready
cash, and that the fact of such man as
Cameron having the ear of the Executive is
calculated to do more to peril the future sue
cess of the Republican party than all the
efforts of the Democrats would ever be able
to do. That the President will in due time
find out much more than he wants to know