The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-04-13
THE CABINET VETERANS.
MEN YET LIVING WHO WERE
PRESIDENTIAL ADVISERS.
Where the Statesmen now are and
What They are Doing-Some of Them
Forgotten and Others Yet in Public
E4nm the Ne,c York Graphic.


nlace in the Cabinet of the President
Of this country has always been considered
ONO of the most honorable positions in this
nation Men have frequently and gladly
laft the Senate, resigned Governorships and
thrown up lucrative offices of all kinds to
accent the poorly paid but honor-bringing
citation as one of the constitutional advisers
Of the Executive of the nation. True there
orc some occasionally harassing and not very
.,Ioasant duties attached to their places, but
aftor all there is not so much labor con-
7ected with a Cabinet officers daily routine
as the newspapers would sometimes make
tbe outside world believe. While they may
occasionally feel the full force of the
troublous political life that surrounds them,
+bev still have the satisfaction of its COM
pensations.
They are veritable sovereigns in their de-
partments, and the patronage they dispense,
whilst very frequently given out under the
cover of the Presidents name, is in the
greatest number of cases controlled by the
Personal likes, dislikes and Judgment of the
Cabinet officer under whose special Jurisdic-
ton the appointment may come.
They live pretty long, these magnates of
the official Washington world, and as gem
eral thing they live well while the glamour
of the capital surrounds them. Those who
have held such places have not usually died
Young, though a glance back at the records
NAV establish the fact that some of them
who are yet living have been long since for
gotten The death of Benjamin Harris
Brewster at the age of 70 calls up the names
of some of the men who, like him, and most
of them prior to his day. were a power in
the councils of this country.
THE OLDEST IN POINT OF SERVICE.
Most people of the present generation
have no idea that the venerable George
Bancroft, the historian, who is now in his
8Sth year, was in his early days quite a
Democratic politician. Not only is this
true, but he is to-day the man whose service
as Cabinet officer dates farther back than
that of any other man now living. In 1914
Mr.. Bancroft was the Democratic candidate
for Governor of Massachusetts,, but George
N Briggs, whom the Wings supported, beat
him by some $1,000 votes 1t was the
year when James X Polk was elected Pres
ident, and when he was making up his Cab
met he selected Mr.. Bancroft as Secretary
of the Navy He filled the place for near
ly two years, and then resigned. All then
who were at the head of the Navy Depart
ment for nearly twenty-five years after Mr.
Bancroft withdrew, are long since dead.
The living men who have been its Secreta-
ries are George NJ. Robson, who served
under President Grant from 1869 to 1878,
and is yet a stormy petrol in Republican
politics in New Jersey; the "Anchient
Mariner of the Wabash" Richard w.
Thompson, who was three years with Presi-
dent Hayes, and is now President of a rail
road company; Nathan Golf, Jr., who sue
oeeded Dick and is now a member of
Congress from West Virginia, and Senator
William E. Chandler, OF New Hampshire,
who was Arthur's Secretary of the Navy
for the last two years of that Presidential
term.
THE WAR DEPARTMENT.
jefferson Davis follows next to Mr.. Ban
croft as regards the faraway date of his
his Cabinet service. He was President
Pierce's Secreta y OF War. and held Office
during the four years of that term, from
1853 to 1857. Many of the men who have
since held that place are dead, but some are
yet among the living. The great Pennsyl-
vania commoner, Simon Cameron, is the
Oldest of them, and he was in office in 1861.
Gen. Belknap whose fair face and grayish
whisxers are often seen about New York, is
another. He was Grants Secretary during
his first term, and old Judge Alphonso Taft,
who filled out most of the term after Belk-
maps resignation, is occasionally heard from
IN Ohio politics. George W. McCrary, of
Iowa, another forgotten statesman, went
into Hayes Cabinet as War Minister in
1877, but soon left it to take place as
United States.Judge of one of the Western
circuits, and he is there yet. Robert I.
Lincoln was the last of the Secretaries of
this department under Republican regime,
and he is practicing law i'll Chicago.
THE POSTAL SERVICE.
Ex-Postmastmaster General Horatio c.
King is another of the Cabinet officers of
old days. He was in charge of that depart
ment during the closing days of Buchanan's
administration in 1861 and is yet a leading
spirit in the social circles of the capital.
John A. j. Cresswell who was Grants
Postmaster General from 1859 to 1873, is
living on his farm over in Maryland and
has faded out of public recollection, and
James N. TYner, who filed out the end of
Marshall JEWELS term, is somewhere in
Indiana and long since out of public life.
Thomas l.. James, who's made the depart
ment a success under Hayes, is president of
the Lincoln National Bank, which the Van
derbilts own. Walter .. Gresham, who
succeeded Timothy o. Howe during Ar
thurs term, is a Judge of the United States
Court, and Frank Hatton, the last and one
of the best of the men who managed that
important department while under Repub-
hcan control, has gone back to his old love
and is successful editor once more.
SOME OF THE TREASURY PEOPLE.
The other day the papers told about the
celebration of the anniversary OF Hugh
McCulloch's wedding at Washington, and
good many must have been surprised to
hear that he was yet living.
He was Secretary of the Treasury under
Lincoln and Johnson, from 1865 to 1869,
and George S. Boutwell,, who followed him
In Grants first term, is now gray-haired,
stoop-shouldered lawyer in Washington.
William A. Richardson, another of the
Secretaries under Grant, is Judge OF the
Court of Claims in the national capital, and
Ben Bristow, who was his SUI cessor, is
practicing law in New York. John Sher-
man, who directed Hayes financial policy,
Is, of course, too familiar a character to re-
quire comment, and his old friend and at
one time fellow Presidential candidate, ex-
Senator William Window, of Minnesota,
who was in Garfields Cabinet, is growing
rich and dignified as one of the business
magnates of the country.
THE VETERANS OF THE STATE DEPARTMENT.
Up in his quiet home on the Hudson the
venerable Hamilton Fish, who during all
The eight years of Grants Presidency so
honorably and ably managed our foreign
relations, yet lives in the honorable retire
ment which his great public services merit.
lie bears the weight OF his four score years
with sturdy healthfulness, and takes as
much interest, in quiet way, in public
affairs he did nearly ffty wears AFRO.