National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1881-03-12
Observation-Disclosures.
Gath's Sketches of Three Members of
GarGeId's Cabinet.

The Secretary of the Interior is a ma
tive of Maryland. He comes from the western part
Of Hartford County, and when boy had 10 go TO
court at Belair, where a not uncommon sight was
old Junius Brutus Booth and his father, Richard
Booth, who lived on a little old farm few miles
from town. In those days Ohio Scott was the big
lawyer of Hartford County, and Hugh J. Jewett was
little Quaker boy, living at a little tannery and
hill on Deer Creek. Hartford was frontier county
ofMaryland but the pro-slavery feeling was very
gtrong there and it furnished suitable contingent
to the rebel army during the war, as well as the
Union Governor of the State, Bradford.
In the lapse of time we find Kirkwood the Re-
publican Secretary the Interior one of the most
extraordinary Departments in the Government of
the world to administer. He may be stOrmei at
by impatient people on account of the conServa-
tiveness of his methods and his incapacity to make
short cuts Yet it will be rather singular for such
a man, enjoying :he absolute confidence of his
State, and highly mentioned in all the States in
which he haslived, 10 fail i'll Dcpartmcnto fwh:ch
he must know every feature.
omitted TO mention Judge Hunt as Cabinet
officer. Here is man born in South Carolina. end
matured i'll New Orleans, Who without any effort
apparently, walks into the Court of Claims: and,
without much mention there goes into the Cabinet
with very hearty response from every person
quaintad with him Good manners, tone, ability.
and mOdcsty much recognized here as if there
had been no sectional difference. Those men in
the South who, without being self-SeekerS, have
been called to place recently enjoy very full con-
idence. South Carolina has always been the
younger and better part of Virginia in the drama
ofGovernment with slavery. The material spirits
OfVirginia finding that slavery with them was
barely profitable, went 10 South Carolina, and from
that standpoint they saw on one hand the impor-
lance of breeding negroes in Virginia, and on
the other the great field for working them in
Louisiana. In those days Louisiana comprised
everything on both sides of the Mississippi River
from Illinois TO the Gull. II took capital to buy
The negroes in Virginia and the land in Louisiana.
The greatest Of those slave planters Was thegrand-
father of Wade Hampton.
Naturally slen of polite education also moved
from South Carolina to Louisiana to do the law and
professional business. Among these were the
Hunts They had taste sufficient to see that South
removed from its relations to the North and the rest
ofthe world would speedily tumble into disorder;
and, therefore, by merely observing the results of
slavery around them, many of these educated men
leaned upon the Union their social salvation.
In this way Judge Hunt at the close of the war;
though under very indifferent conditions, took up
his lot with the Union element. Put into quiet
Federal Office at Washington, he abStained from
business, and people who came in contact with
him observed fine looking man. with superior
address and good manners below. ] am pretty
sure that this appointment may be laid to
General Sheldon. Hardly man from the South
could have been taken up as satisfactory to both
sections. The War Department might have gone
to Longsreet if he had not been rather objection
able Oh account of past politics. and from his rela
ton 10 Grant.
The Postmaster General is, like Garfield himself,
triumph of the unfriended, unsupported young
man. We have had many pOstmasters in New
York, all with the same opportunity of Colonel
James; butthey all yielded TO the temptations of
their place, and the Office was an injury TO them.
He came in almost unknown, and at once saw
that his only hold was in making good post-ofiice
He had no enemies, and yet was nObody's creation.
The merchants and business people liked him.
The politicians rather suspected him, because Of
their nraiSa