National Republican., 1881-08-26
The Cabinet,

Some opponents of the Cabinet are rs
unreasonable in discussing its attitude to
present affairs as are some of its iniudi-
cious friends. The former are complain
ing that Secretary Blaine is failing in his
duty every day that he does not issue a
proclamation to which they pretend he
has procured the Presidents signature
for an extra session of the Senate, and
they clamor that he or the Cabinet ought
TO summon General Arthur to Washing
ton to take the Presidency because of the
inability of the President. The Vice
President is known to be in full accord
with the Cabinet on these matters, and it
is well understood that he and they are
entirely agreed that there is no necessity
for deciding the abstract and impractical
question Of how the fact of inability should
be ascertaincd.
If the President we're as well to-day as
he was when he left the White House on
the I'd of July there is not q single official
duty awaiting action which would ncces-
state his remaining at his post an hour.
lie could as well 60 to California and
OlNHVil iOl tNO llOblib HS ulNl Ills DTtut-
cessor during the corresponding months
oflast year. 1t seems, therefore, entirely
useless to debate now what inability is
or who shall decide when il exists. The
opponents of Mr.. Blaine who chide him
for not turning General Garfield out of
the presidential Office to make room for
q Vice-President who would Of course
refuse to enter upon its duties if urged
ever so much by the whole Cabinet are
no less absurd than his friends in some of
the newspapers who claim that he has
already usurped the Office himself, and
who then proceed to eulogze him for the
dignified manner in which he has con-
Quoted himselfas " the virtual President"
1t is due to Mr.. Blaine to say that no
man can truly charge him with any such
folly as the Chicago Tribune laid at his
door, namely, of pretending to presiden-
tial power, or of demeaning himself dur
ing thePresident's illness in any other
manner than as became the Secretary of
State and the personal friend ofthe Presi-
dent. General Arthur's friends know
that he has chosen to defer to the opin-
ions of the Cabinet as to his presence in
Washington, and that he was received by
them when here with the Kindness and
courtesy beiitting the official and pleas
ant personal relations in which all stand
to each other. There is no claim by
any Cabinet officer that the Vice-President
is their subordinate or that they can in
any manner increase or diminish the dig
mites and duties to which the people
called him under the Constitution. He
regards them as the chosen counselors
and aids Of the President, faithfully dis
charging their high trusts, and thinking,
as he does, more of the sufferings oftheir
Chiefthan of sharp pcontrivances by which
power can be diverted from his poor
emaciated hands. No one seeks to
try on the crown in the chamber
where its wearer lies on W hat
may be the bed of death. The
Cabinet has usurped no power and
failed in no duty. No issue can be forced
upon its members, or any of them, or
upon the Nice-President, as to where is
vested the responsibility for executive
action at time when there Is absolutely
nothing upon which the Executive is re-
quired to act