Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1881-02-21
1anraster E1telE:genrer.
MONDAY EVENING. FEB. q. 1881.
The Making OF that Cabinet.

The Grant crowd haye been to Mentor
and have come back with smiling coun-
tenances, although the current belief
had been that their noses had been put
entirely out of joint and that Mr.. Blaine
had Mr.. Garfield in his pocket. Senator
Conkling went out " for to see'' after he
had been long and cordially begged to
come, according to the Philadelphia
Press, which always knows what Mr..
COnkling wants to be said about Mr..
Conkling and by the same authority
VIC were forbidden to imagine for mo-
mrnt that the great man WAS asked and
went on boOtless mission. Sen
ator Dorsey, too, went out to
grind some axe of his own,
after he had been perfumed sufficiently
for the Mentor atmosphere by that din
ner in New York given to his order and
in his honor. lie returns saying that
everything is lovely for the Conkling side
and letting us understand that Morton
is to he the secretary of the treasury.
But after all these missionaries have re-
turned authentic intelligence from Men
tor reaches us that Mr.. Garfield per-
emptGriiy refuses to appoint Morton,
because he is !, Wall street speculatOr
and a very good reason it is. And the
Sunday papers say that Chief Justice
Folgcr has now gone to Mentor, and
what has hc gone for, they ask, but to
get the treasury plum?
From Washington We hear that Mr..
Blaine lets it be known that he will not
take the secretaryship of state if the
treasury goes to New York and that
he has withheld his resignation of his
senatorial seat because of G:riield'S no
tOriOus indeciSiOn OF character. Those
who have the last word with him are the
mcst potential, and this is perhaps the
secret of the jubiia:ium with which visi-
tors to Mentor succ.S,ively leave its pOr-
tails. Onr good Mr.. Hayes has this same
faculty Gi lismissing his o!lice-seekins
friends with happy faces; it seems to be
quite an Ohio talent.
If Mr.. Blaine waits to resign his seat
until the cabinet is fixed he will be like
ly 20 hold If beyond the fourth of March.
MIR. Garfield is even more given to indie
cisiun than was Mr. Buchanan, with
whom it was Il very notable failing. 1t
will be remembered that Mr.. buchanan
did lot announce his cabinet for some
time after the inauguration, and the
country was in i great state OF wonder at
the delay. 1t was just because it had
not yet been formed the president could
not make up his mind about it. We
know, on the authority of q gentle
man who was then in his household and
his confidence, that he was very much
troubled to decide upon the membership.
eXclaiming, on one occasion, as he
walked in visible agitation the
apartment in the White House
before our informant, What shall do
about Pennsylvania - the appointment
from which state was the last and great
est of his troubles, rs it was his own
state and there was 10 one to dictate it
to him. The gentleman he addressed
named and urged Judge Black, and
the suggestion was favorably received
by the president, who ut once
sent in his cabinet nominations to
the Senate. Mr. Blaine will not
be safe until lac reads the names sent in
executive session, and prudence will
keep him in the Senate until the voice
of the last man. has been heard and
needed by the president. He will not
have tile excuse for his vacillation that
Mr.. Buchanan had, who was then suffer-
ing from the National hotel disease but
there is no failing more difficult to resist
than indecision, and as it is bred in Mr..
GarGcld's bone, it is likely to show itself
till the last hour comes for his cabinet
selection.