The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1875-04-27
CDIsVJMl:Bl,I,A.S.C.
Tuesdey Morning, April 81, 1876.
Otssolvinp,

Dissolving. i
The intination given out some days
ago, that Attorney General Williams was
about to surrender his portfolio, has been
confirmed by the announcement that he
has resigned, and his resignation will
take effect nthe 18th May. It has been
telegraphed about that his private bust
ness has been 80 much neglected in con-
sequence Of important public duties, that
in Justice to himself, he is now COM
PEELED to devote some attention to his
own affairs, This is one of the things
said, sad 6 stsll more improbable make
believe is, that he resigns in order to re-
turn to Oregon and enter into the. con-
test for the United States Senatorship.
There Is no vacancy till March, 1877, and
Oregon, since it has been rid of Will
liams, has become Democratic State,
and the Republicans there have grown,
it II TO be hoped, beyond the proportions
of men who have to put up with such a
person az he to represent their honory
character and brains. He leaves the
Cabinet not because Of these things, but
because the President cannot afford to
carry him any longer. No doubt this il
excruciating to his feelings, for less than
year and o half ago, he nominated him
for the Office of Chief Justice, and strug-
gled hard to have him confirmed to that
position. Another resignation of the
same kind, now expected, is that of the
interior Department. by Secretary De-
aano. What prstense he will set up to
excuse his going, has not transpired, but
it seems that knowledge of and share
in some disreputable transactions in the
Indian Bureeu have been traced home to
him. Mr. John Delano engineered the
sswindle. It is said, but the father was the
real party tothe fraud. An investigation
will be ordered as soon as the Democratic
House Of Representatives assemblies next
December. It Is well for the Secretary
to retire under these circumstances, and
his friend, the President, will thus let
him down ''easy," and let him go. He
cannot afford either to remove Williams
because he is failure and fraud, nor
Delano because he has been q corrup-
ZIONIST in office. He is compelled to deal
gently with these dishonored members of
his Cabinet, because he does not feel or
care q straw about either the incompe-
tency Of the one, or the money-making
frauds Of tho other. ~
What is patent is that the President
begins to realize that, having staked hea-
vily on Connecticut, he has lost heavily.
The significance Of the elections is max
ing an impression upon even his enor-
nous self-conoeit and self-oomplacency
The judgment of the country is q thing
that he sees coming, and he is anxious to
arrest + He must do something, If pos
sible, which will turn the tide back. Il
is particularly desirable that the State of
Ohio shall be carried by the Repubh-
cans at the next election, which will. oc-
cur during tho present year. Upon this
will depend their chance of carrying the
next Presidential election. Without this
success, they may hang their harps upon
the willows and cease to sing. Now the
Republican politicians of Ohio feel that
there is no possibility Of their carrying
the State with Williams and Delano con-
tinuing in the Cabinet. So they must be
thrown overheard. The New York Herald.
which presents this view of the cause of
the designations. ~ fortifes it by refer
ence to the language of the Cincinnati
Gazette, q devoted adherent of Grant and
the leading administration paper in Ohio.
''It is to be hoped" it says, in an
nounoing that Secretary Delano was to
go out, ''thnt this will be real change
in the administration of that department
rather than q succession of the same
sort. Not only the administration at
Washington, but politics in Ohio weuld
be the healthier for it."
According to the Herald, Williams re-
moval, under the color of resignation,
does not result from his bad advice on
the Louisiana question, and the sorapes
into which he has led the President on
the. Southern problem. 1T is conse-
quence of his profuse and corrupt ex-
penditure Of money in the Southern
States, under a pretense Of carrying out
the enforcement laws. This part of the
Attoznsy-G Generals conduct will not bear
investigation, and the President thinks
1t better 70 get rid Of the officer than to