National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1875-10-20
SECRETARY CHANDLER.

There are few, if any, true Republicans
in the country who will not hail with de-
light the announcement we make this
morning of the appointment OF ex-senator
Chandler, of Michigan, to be Secretary of
the Interior. However much his enemies
and the enemies of the Administration may
attempt to detract from his reputation as a
statesman, the public will recognize in him
a man who has served the country and the
Republican party faithfully for a long
period of years, during which time not a
single breath of suspicion has been proved
against him. In short, while other public
men who have held Office cotempora-
reously with him have fallen victims to
the tongue of SANDER, and while some Of
them have been deservedly retired to pri-
vate life as a punishment for their corrupt
practices, he has preserved a spotless repu-
tation, free even from the slightest imputa-
ton of evil inclination. At the same time
he has earned the just reward of honest
and courageous devotion to principle, and
never during his entire career have his
friends been called upon to apologize for
any act of his official life. In the Senate
he was always looked upon as one of the
firmest and most consistent members of the
majority party. When others faltered he
was always found in the vanguard bearing
aloft the emblem of undying principle and
uttering the encouraging rallYing cries
which served to bring less fearless and
sturdy men forward to the front ranks in
the battles against the common enemy.
During the war the cause of the Union and
the soldiers of the Union armies found no
more earnest and patriotic advocate than
he proved himself to be. Ever ready with
his purse to advance the interests of good
government, his name has been connected
with some of the most prominent public
and private enterprises, as well as chart
ties, in the country.
But above all things he will bring to the
discharge of the complicated duties of his
new Office an ability as an executive officer
which will enable him to fill it with en-
tire acceptability. He will not hesitate to
surround himself with competent and ex-
perienced assistants, and it will be his
pride to manage the affairs of the Depart
ment in such way as to add to the wide
repute he enjoys as careful and success
full business man. With this determine
ton, sustained by the assurance that he
will receive the respect aud confidence of
the people at large, he cannot fail to do
justice to himself to the Government and
tn all thnse who NAV hava huainees with
him.
1t is known that he did not accept the
Office without due hesitation and consider
alton of the fact that it has hitherto proved
to be the maelstrom in which the fair
names of many of his predecessors have
been engulfed. He accepted the trust,
however, knowing that it had been rendered
to him as reward for his fidelity to prin-
ciple, and because the President, in his de-
termination to surround himself with
capalle administrative officers, selected him
on account of his plain straightforward
ness, as we'll as his sterling personal and
political integrity. And right here it may
be proper TO explain that Mr.. Chandler
was not, as it has been charged, Second
thought by the President" The office
was rendered to one other'person, and one
only, before it was offered to him, and it is,
perhaps, due to him to state that the Presi-
dent is undoubtedly better satisfied with
his acceptance of it than he would have
been if the first tender had been favorably