The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-02-09
WHY DON'T BOUTWELL, RESIGN


From the NJ Y. World.
The two most important officers in the
American Cabinet are the Secretary of
State and the Secretary of the Treasury.
There has never been an instance in which
other Cabinet officers have exerted O marked
influence on the policy of the country. The
duties of other officers are merely administra-
tive and ministerial whereas the heads of
the State and the Treasury Departments
often control, one the foreign, the other
the domestic policy of the Government To
go no further back than the administration
of President Lincoln, it is in everybody's
recollection that the course of the Govern
ment on the Trent difficulty, respecting the
empire of the ill-fated Macmillan, and on
our relations with Great Britain during the
trying period of the civil war were controlled
by Mr.. Seward; while the finances and fund
ing system Of the war, including the esta-
blisbment Of the national banks, was the work
of Mr.. Chase, Just as in Washingtons ad-
ministration the foreign policy was Jeffer-
sons and the financial policy Hamiltons.
These are the only Cabinet officers who
have any pretensions to be rivals of the
President under whom they serve, for the
succession, or who ever become objects of
his jealousy.
In the present Cabinet, General Grant has
no jealousy of the Secretary of State, but he
has long been looking askance at the Secre-
tary of the Treasury. Mr.. Fish is a states
man who is singularly devoid of vulgar ambi-
tion. Although he makes an excellent Secre-
tary OF State, he never coveted, and has long
been anxious to resign, the position. The
thought never entered his loyal and candid
mind OF making this Office stepping-stone
to the highest place in the Government He
accepted it from a sense of public duty, and
althoug gh we have never had Secretary who
filled the social requirements of that position
with so much propriety or so tasteful a hos
pitality, it adds nothing to the eminent social
consideration which he previously enioyed,
and he has long been wishing to escape from
it as a burdensome bore. There is no trace
OF demagogism in his composition, and
nothing but the urgency of the Presi dent has
prevented his earlier retirementto the private
me which his virtues are so we'll fitted to
adorn. 1t is generally understood that he
VIII soon give place to Senator Morton.
Inc secretary of the Treasury is man of
very uineTene stamp. If Mr.. Fish had
stood In Boutwell, shoes, he wouId have
peremptorily resigned many months a0o Of
late, Boutwell, is perpetually snubbed and
thwarted by the President. He is moor and
the salary Of the Office is important to him.
he is ambitious, and shrlnks from the ire
trievable obscurity into which he would sink
by forced or voluntary withdrawal from
the Cabinet; he is stiff and opinionated, and
is unwilling to see his policy overruled after
it has been the sole theme of praise for the
present administration in the recent cleo
tions. But it is nevertheless evident that he
cannot stay in the Cabinet without losing his
self-respect by submitting TO indignities
which no high-spirited man would consent to
endure.
J The latest proof that the President has