Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1882-08-23
THE B0TTeM FACT.

While the purpose OfStar-R Route Dor
sEY in publishing some of his CORE
spOndence with GARFIELD, may be q
little obscure, the special object he had
in view in urging the appointment OF
FoLGsR to the Cabinet does not, in the
view taken by the New York Herald,
admit OF much doubt.
1t appears that it was upon this one
appointment that DORSEY became Sc
riously exercised and went from perSua-
sion to bulldozng in his efforts to ac-
complish.
In the letter ofFebruary :, which has
elected so much comment about its
tone, DORSEY writes:
81 have repeatedly urged upon you
that there is but one appointment you
ought to make from New York, and that
is Chief Judge FOLGER to be Secretary
OF the Treasury" Two days before, he
wrote, Judge FoLGER Is the only per-
Son have urged you to appoint" In
the last of these published letters, under
date Of February 24, when the time for
the completion of the Cabinet was fast
drawing near, DORSEY makes another
earnest and anxious appeal for FoLGER,
declares that his appointment to the
Treasury Department was the most inn
portant one to be made, and finally
warns GARFIELD that his failure to Sc
Iect FOLGER would be the "molu-
mental mistake" of his admins ration.
"Why did DORSEY concern himself
only about the representation Of New
York in the Cabinet" asks the Herald,
sand why did he press with such ca GER
ness and intense anxiety the name Of
Judge FOLGER, whom he declares in
one Ofthese letters that he had never
seen before urging him for a Cabinet
positions
The Herald thinks that an able, pure
and honest administration of the Treas
ury Department was not the object
which the Arkansas ex-senator had in
view i'm laboring to bring about the APP
pointmemt of Judge FOLGER. DOrSCys
one great and simple purpose waS to
Keep James OFT Of the Cabinet as Post
master General.
Dorsey is now on trial as one OF the con-
spirators who are charged with having
been, when these letters were written,
plundering the Government for years. The
not, rious Star Route frauds were rendered
possible and easy by the fact that the heal
OF the conspiracy was the Second Assistant
Postmaster General With q prosy, easy
.oing, easily hoodwinked old gentleman
like Key figuring as Postmaster General,
Brady was secure in his position, the job
hers were safe against exposure and tn"
plundering might go on successfully under
the autucratic diCtum, DO this, Brady
But when public opinion, after the cleo
ton Of Garfield, pointed with marked una
nimity to Thomas l.. James as the most INT
person for the head of the Postotice De-
partment in the new Cabinet, Dorsey at
once recognized in James a thurough-going,
honest, wide-awake, vigilant man, who
would quickly detect the shameful eItrava-
Eance i'm the postal service, boldly unear
the scandalous frauds that were being prLc-
Ii ed on the Government and arleSJy
move to bring the culprits to justice. lie
clearly saw that the appointment OF James
meant the detection OF the Star Route
jobbery and the exposure Of the jo6berS
Hence he appreciated the vital importance
OF preventing it, and he made every effort
to compass this end.
Accordingly, a. early as February .,
Dorsey urged General Garfield to put eX-
Governor ROutt at the head of the Post
Office Department Two days after he
wrote to the President-elcct that he wa
''tired Of this blathering talk about Jsms'
going into the Cabinet and declared tina
''such detestable rot should be smoked out
ut once" Bat as James was a strong ma
and his fitness for the position universally
recognized Dorsey evidently felt that his
only hope Of defeating the appointment.
was by the indirect means Of bring
ing about the selection of some other
Cabinet officer from New York, know
ing that two would not be chosen from
this State. Hence his earnest, persistent
advocacy of Folger, in whose ability, inteS-
rity and availability he saw his best chances
of success. In the hope Of inducing the
President elect to make the selection he ad-
Nised, urged, begged, bullicd, warned and
almost threatened General Garfield. He
went beyond all i,ense of political and per
soma friendship. His letters were as impu-
dent as they were desperate. But all his
efforts failed to keep James out al the cab
met, and just what Dorsey feared and fore
saw came to pass very soon after James
took charge Of the poStoffice department.