Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-03-30

and +. Nj. Stanton, ACKNOWLEDGEMENT.
John B. Floyd, who was Secretary of War
! until about two months before the expira-
] ton of Buchanan's term, earned the ex-
ecration of the loyal portion of the coun-
| try by his traitorous conduct in placing
the greater part of the nations arms and
munitions of war at points where they
could be seized most conveniently by the
seeding States. Cass' career has already
been outlined. Dix subsequently became
a Republican, and served term as Gov
ernor of New York. Black, at the time
of his service in the Cabinet and alter
ward until his death, stood in the front
| rank Of members of the bar. Stanton, as
Secretary of War in Lincoln's Administra-
ton, gained the reputation of being the
greatest military organizer and administra-
tor since Carnot, of the French revolution
AIRY era.
The ministerial council chosen by Abra-
ham Lincoln was notably illustrious Con-
spicuous among its members were William
III. Seward, Secretary of State; Salmon p
Chase, Secretary of the Treasury; Simon
Cameron, and subsequently Edwin NJ
Stanton, Secretary of War, and Edward
Bates, Attorney-General. Caleb Smith,
for time Secretary of the Interior. and
Gideon Welles Secretary of the Navy,
also did good work. There were other men
in the Lincoln Cabinet, and the one over
which johnson presided, but those here
named were the ablest and most conspicu-
Gus. Two of them Cameron and Chase
held exalted posts after leaving the Cabi-
net, Cameron in the Senate and Chase on
the Supreme Bench. All the men here
mentioned are dead now. except Cameron,
who completed his Goth year of age on
March 9th.
Hamilton Fish, Secretary of State, and
Zachariah Chandler, Secretary of the Int
rior, were the best known names on the
roll of the Cabinet at any time in the
eight years Of Grants service as President.
Fish held that post during the eight years
| except a week at the beginning, when the
office was filled by EIihu B. Washburne,
while Chandler served about year and
half in the latter end of the second term.
Fish is still alive although in retirement.
Chandler, after leaving the Cabinet re-
entered the Senate, where, about ten
years ago: he delivered the stirring and
celebrated speech denouncing jeff Davis.
A few months after he was found dead in
his room in Chicago, whittier he had gone
to make political address.
In President Hayes Cabinet, also, there
was dearth of great names. Will
lam NJ. Evarts, Secretary of State, and
John Sherman, Secretary of the Treasury,
both of whom are now in the Senate, are
the only men of ability and high political
standing who were in the Presidents off
cial family at any time between 1877 and
1881, with the sole exception of Carl
.Schurz, Secretary of the Interior
James G. Blaine, Secretary of State, and
VIM. Window and Chas. J. Folger who
successfully held the portfolio of the Treas
ury, were the only men who served in the
Cabinets of Garfield and Arthur who will
be remembered by the average reader.
Both Blaine and Window hold, in the
Cabinet which has Just be created, the posts
which they held eight years ago.
In Clevelaud's Cabinet Thomas F. Bay,
ard stood highest intellectually and in the
service which he had previously rendered
the country. As an administrative official,
however, he was surpassed by Danial Nam
ming and Charles S. Fairchild, Secretaries
Of the Treasury, and William C. Whitney,
Secretary of the Navy.
Here are the most distinguished men who
served in the Presidents ministerial coun-
ellis since the beginning of the Govern
ment under the Constitution. The list
comprises many of the ablest and most
conspicuous statesmen which the country
has known. 1t is often said by certain
class of writers and agitators that men of
the most transcendent political talents
eanno. reach the Presidency. This die
tum, of course, is false. 1t is never heard,
however, in connection with the Cabinet.
Excluding the present Administration,
there have been thirty Secretaries of State
and TWENTY-FIVE Presidents. Leaving out
of the calculation the men who have held
both posts, and the average of ability is
greater in the lower Office than it is in the
higher. John Marshall, Henry Clay,
Daniel Webster, Lewis Cass, William L.
Marcy and William H. Seward, who have
held the portfolio of State, cannot be
matched in ability by any equal number
of men who have ever filled the Presi-
dency.
The Office of Secretary of State has
proved stepping-stone to the Presidency
in three cases-those of Madison, Monroe
and John Quincy Adams. Jefferson, Van
Buren, and Buchanan also held the port
folio of State before going to the Presi-
Dental Office.
In the Foreign Office of no other great
nation of the world, in the past 100 years,
has half so many statesmen Of the highest
intellectual rank served as have figured on
the rolls Of the American Department of
State. Nor has any other country in the
world, in the same time, produced finance
Ministers or judicial officers reaching the
broad mean in efficiency and intellectual
power sustained by the Secretaries of the
Treasury and the Attorneys-General, re-
snectively of the limited States