The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-02-09

withdrawn his confidence and is willing to |
Lumilinte Boutwell,, is his support of General |
Pltasanton In his jealous efforts to procure a |
repeal of the income tax. 1t appears, from
General Pleasantons own account OF the
matter. that be consulted the President on
this snbject, but did not consult Boutwell,.
The President, knowing Boutwell's strenuous
opposition to a repeal of the tax encouraged
and abetted Pleasanton in bis attempt to
override the policy OF his official chief. If
Boutwell, were not sordid aud mean spirited,
be would have resigned as soon as
this fact came to his knowledge 1t
is a kind of affront which DO man of honor at
the head of the Treasury could submit to.
To be sure, the President is entitled to his
own views on this or any other public mea-
sure; but when he dssented from the Secre-
tsry of the Treasury, the courteous thing for
him to do was to make frank explanation of
the difference to the Secretary himself, and
if he could neither convince Boutwell's judg-
mept nor yield his own, to tell him that he
was expected to forbear all active opposition.
Instead of this considerate course, the Presi-
dent encourages one of Boutwells subordi-
mates to make public demonstration of hos
tility to his views; and Boutwells, refusing
to take the hint and smarting under the in
dignity, vehemently appeals to Congress
against the policy of the President. All
right-thinking minds regard Grants snub-
bing discourtesy and Boutwell's stubborn
mutiny as an official scandal, which must i'm
pair the public respect for an administration
thus divided against itself, and hanging out
its dissensions to the gaze of the world.
All men with reasonable sense of decorum
will say that Boutwell, ought not to submit to
the treatment of Grant, nor Grant to the in
science of Boutwell,. If Boutwell, does not
resign, and Grant, on his failure to resign,
does not turn him out, both will be contemp-
tible. Grant is evidently manoeuvring to
force a resignation; but Boutwell, not only
refuses to take the hint, but makes display
Of characterization and resentment. This is
the unlikeliest expedient he could adopt for
recovering the confidence and consideration
of the President. He is only putting off the
evil day. and making it certain that if he does
not go out of the Cabinet voluntarily he will
be forced out He has been surprisingly
slow in taking plain hints. When the
President tried to have a new execu-
tive department created to be called the
Department of Revenue, with a new Cabinet
officer at the head of it, Boutwell, might have
seen that he had lost General Grants conf
dence. 1t was proposal to strip the Secre-
tary of the Treasury of all his effective
patronage and make him a mere disbursing
officer and custodian of the public funds.
But this roundabout, strategic method showed
that Grant feared Boutwell, as we'll as disliked
him; and from this symptom of fear the latter
took encouragement. He drew the inference,
not unwarranted by the circumstances, that
if Grant dared to remove, he would not thus
undertake to circumvent, him. He has there
fore held on, in spite of the Presidents
obvious wishes
Boutwells strong point with the party, and
and the ground both of his confidence and
the Presidents jealousy, is the use that has
been made of his debt-paying policy in the
elections of the last year. IL is the only thing
of which the Republicans have ventured to
make an electioneering boast. On every
other point the supporters of the administra-
tion have been on the defensive and it must
have mortified Grant to find that the only
topic of eulogy was matter with which he
had nothing to do. Moreover, some of the
public journals have talked of Boutwell, as a
possible candidate for the Presidency, and
the last thing that General Grant is dis
posed to tolerate is man in the
Cabinet with Presidential aspirations. But
the general chorus of praise raised by the Re-
publican journals on the publication of each
monthly statement of the public debt renders
Boutwell's removal difficult, and explains the
Presidents attempts to extort a resignation
by affronts and humiliation. The income tax
demonstrations must have so widened the
breach as to render it irreparable, and the
alienation of feeling makes it impossible that
Boutwell, should remain long in the Cabinet.
1t is essential to Grants prospects that the
enormous patronage of the Treasury Depart
ment should be in the hands of staunch,
jealous friend; and unless Boutwell, thinks
few months salary an object he had better
submit at once to his doom by voluntary
resignation.