Sacramento daily record-union., 1888-12-17
SOME POLITICAL HISTORY.
Presidential Customs in the Selection of
Cabinet Officers.

fresidentiai Customs In the Selection of
Cabinet Officers.
WASHINGTON. December 10Th. - Three
United States Senators sat around an open
fireplace in the library of another Senator
on Saturday night discussing politics, and
the various rumors ahoat respecting the
formation of President-ele Earrisonis
Cabinet. The host suddenly walked to
book case, took therefrom volume bound
In sheep, and said Il wish TO read Won
an extract from Mr.. Biaine's Twenty
Years in Congress- The paragraph begins
on page 2S3 of volume one. Ii is as fol-
lows:
Mr. Lincoln constituted his Cabinet in man
ner at least unusual, II not unprecedented. 1t
had been the general practice of Presidents
from the first organization of the Government 10
tender the post of Secretary of State to men
considered 10 lie the next in prominence to
himself in the party to which both belonged
In the earliest history of the country the
expected successor in the Executives of.
nee was selected. This was, indeed,
for so long period the uniform custom that the
appointment to the State Department came to
be regarded a designation to the Presidency
In political phase this mode of reaching the
coveted place was known as easy accession
By its operation Madison succeeded Jefferson
Monroe succeeded Madison, and John Quincy
Adams also succeeded. After a successful ap-
plieation for a quarter of century the custom
fell into disfavor, and, by bitter agitation into
disuse. The cause OF its overthrow was by the
appointment of Henry Clay to the state Depart
ment, and a baseless scandal of bargain and sale
was invented to deprive Mr.. Clay of easy
accession. After a few years, when National
Conventions were introduced, it became the
habit OF the President to tender the State De-
partment to his leading or prominent competi-
tor for the Presidential nomination. Thus
General Harrison offered the post to Mr.. Clay,
who declined, and then to Mr.. Webster, who
accepted. President Polk appointed Mr..
buchanan, President Pierce appointed mr..
Marcy, President Buchanan appointed Mr..
llnfy yVfrf int ffac NJ.
now invited his chief rival, Mr.. Seward, to the
State Department, but his courtesy did not stop
here. He was generous beyond all example to
his rivals. He called Salmon p Chase to the
Treasury, appointed Simon Cameron TO the War
Department, and made Edward Bates of Mis-
souri,, Attorney General. These were the three
who, next to Mr.. Seward, received the largest
votes of the minority in the Convention which
nominated Mr.. Lincoln. The Cabinet was COM
plsted by the appointment of Gideon Welles of
Connecticut as Secretary of the Navy, Caleb B
Smith of Indiana, as Secretary of the Interior,
and Montgomery Blair as Postmaster General.
"Mr. Lincoln effectually disposed of all
the prominent candidates i'll his own
party" said this Senator, laying down the
book, "by giving them Cabinet positions
He was nominated for a second term with
practical unanimity his chief rival in the
Cabinet, MIR. Chase, having abandoned the
fight when the Ohio Legislature passed
resolutions in favor Of Mr.. Lincoln. The
members OF General Grants Cabinet were
never formidable candidates for the Re
publican nomination. Ia Hayes Admin
istration John Sherman was an aggressive
candidate, but with all the patronage of
the Administration at his disposal, and
record as Secretary OF the Treasury un-
paralleledin the financial history OF the Gov
ernment, he was unable to attain his am
bition: Mr.. Blaine, who was General
Garhelds Secretary of State for the few
months nF fla T1nrIpre1 prasfAa,tfo
Administration, was nominated by his
party, only to meet with defeat
at the polls. Bayard, who has
been as regular candidate for the nomi-
nation Of the Democrat tic party as has Mr..
Sherman in the Republican ranks, was so
completely overshadowed by Cleveland that
his name was not mentioned at the St. Louis
Convention, although for years Mr.. Bayard
had discharged the duties of his office with
less direct interference on the part of the
Executive than has been felt by any other
member of Cleveland's Cabinet The prin-
cipal candidates for the Republican nomi-
nation at the last Chicago Convention were
Sherman, Blaine, Alger, Allison, Depew,
McKinlev, VIM. Walter Phelps and Jerre
Rusk. Harrison captured the prize. Sher-
man, Blaine and Alger are the most promi-
nent of those nominated for appointment
as members of Harrison's Cabinet. 1t
Woulu De interesting 10 KNOW, III tne Ilgnt
of Mr.. Blaine's brief sketch OF the failure
OF Cabinet officers to realize a higher po-
litical ambition, whether he thinks Lin
coin was simply an astute politician in
forming Cabinet composed SO largely Of
his political rivals, or whether there is an
adverse fatality that attends the aspirations
of the men who during the last fifty years,
have attempted to make the Cabinet a
stepping-stone to the Presidency"