The Evening critic. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1881-1885, 1881-10-27
TYNER,s RESIGNATION.
The Tender, the Acceptance and an


ing correspondence shows.
WASHINGTON. ID. O., oct 20, 1881.
Hon. Thomas Il. James, Postmaster Gen
| erdti
your letter OF the ilth inst, my resignation
| of the Office of First Assistant Postmaster
General, to be delivered to the President
on the condition That the request for - Is
| not based upon charges against my official
honor or integrity, especially In conncc-
ton with the alleged star-route frauds
either by direct net , or NEGLECT nS OF DUTY
II Il proper that they should be clearly
stated, and that 1 should have the oppof:
tnnity TO reply to them; believe ne and
JANIS N. TYNEn.
The Postmaster General replied as fol-
lows:
WAsHINoToN, Oct. 20, 1881.
SIR: have the honor to acknowledge the
receipt of your resignation of the office of
| First Assistant Postmastcr-Ge neral, which
have just handed to the President.
| In reply 10. your inquiry / have {, say
that the request tor your resignation was
personal Or official intcgrity Very re.
| spectfully, THOMAS l.. JAMES,
| POstmaster.G General.
| The Hon. James ". 7yner.
Mr.. Tyncr says that he has not recently
tried to hold the office for the sake of the
place, but only to protect his reputation.
Tho President directed that the letter re-
questing his resignation should be sent
quietly without publicity. upon the repre-
sentation to him that the relations existing
between the Postmaster General and Tyner
were unfriendly, and that the latter de-
sired to be relieved. That statement was
correct, except that Tyncr feared that re-
tircment pending the Star-routo investiga-
tion would expose him to misrepresentation
aud scandal, just rs 1t has DONE The de-
sire of Mr.. James to have him go out was
in consequence of the existence of ill-fecl-
ing between them. Mr.. Tyner thinks it
originated with meddlesome persons, and
as the Postmaster-General states that the
request for his resignation was not based
upon any reflections upon his personal or
official integrity it is evident that the honor
of neither was involved.
Recent newspaper attacks mako it neces-
sary that he should answer them. The
attacks were based on information that
could only have come from the Depart
ment's records and employees. He says
that the charge that some of the most in
defensible transactions of the contract office
occurred while no presided over it and was
Postmaster-General is misleading. He was
always opposed to expeditions, and very
rarely ordered or consented to them and he
thinks that the sixteen months of his term
in that Office was freer from unnecessary
expenditure than any similar period Of
late years.
Regarding the report on Star service that
he made to Judge Key after his return from
the Pacific coast in 1879, he says he made
the investigation upon Keys written order,
submitted the report to him, and called his
attention to what he believed to be unnec-
essary service. and to the remedies which
he proposed for the evils of the Star.route
Ia 10 tn ,t,Ir Lit -,
ton on this report. When it was alluded
to recently a doubt was expressed as to
whether it had ever been submitted to the
Postmaster-G A high official of tho
Department is reported to have recently
said that he didn't believe Key ever saw it.
The injustice of this suspicion is put to
rest by Keys late interviewing, which he
says he directed that it should not be pub
lished, but held as private paper. Tyner
insists that to have it. made public then
would have been incxcusable. To the
suggestion that he afterward acted as Post
master General, and did not discontinue
the service he reported upon, he replies
that he afterward so acted only for short
time, and that he was not justified anyhow
in disturbing it. Key says that he APP
proved the service after the report was
made. That removed it from the action of
anyone else afterward. Will the present
head of the Post-oilice Department say that
this subordinate shall override him and
undo his work in that way? Such doc
trine puts the responsible chief at the
mercy of an assistant not charged by law
with the responsibility. and would render
it risky for the chief to ever leave his desk.
The insinuation that this report was sup
pressed and afterward captured by Mr..
James is unworthy of anybody engaged on
the Star-route investigation. The POstmas-
ter-General did not know of its existence
1t was the subject of n conversation with
President Garfield before Mr.. James heard OF
it, and was handed to the latter at the
Presidents request. On receiving it Mr.,
James agreed that it should be seen only
by the President and himself. 1t had been
kept from the files of the Department by
Keys order, and was private paper.
Mr.. James was told SO at the time he re.
ceived it. Afterward he told Tyner that
the Attorney General had it, and he would
not treat 1t as private paper. He then
asked leave to print it, assigning as rea.
son that Brady had called him liar in the
New York Herald, and he wanted ito quote
Tyncr ON Brady" AS tho object did not
relate to the interest of the public service,
and as the publication would not elucidate
the issue between them, Tyner did not give
his consent. 1t afterward appeared, how
ever, in the columns of leading newspa-
per without consulting him.
To the charge that he INSTRUCTED the
Star-routc investigation Tyner says that the
business of his office and that of tho Con-
tract Office are as separate as If they were
in different Departments. He could not
obstruct without ofiicious intermeddling,
and no one in the Department will claim
that he ever did that. His business was to
appoint postmasters.
Mr. Tyner says that he has never failed
, to furnish any information about Star
routes or anything else when called upon to
do so nor has he omitted to volunteer
such information. At the commencement
, of Mr.. James term he offered his services
freely and unresorvedly, and, as his resigna-
ton was based upon the condition that no
charge existed against him for "nellect OF
duty, " he claims that the acceptance of 1t
is the admission that his duty was well
performed or, at least, not neglected,
What, then, becomes of the statement APP
, parently inspired by the Department that
, the Postmaster-General could not prosecute
his reforms unless Tyner was out of the
road?
Mr.. Tyner does not believe that President
Garfield had determined before his death to
remove him. They had three or four inter
views about the Star-route business at the
Presidents request, in which the question
| ,llo nf non Lao Il,