Huntsville gazette., 1894-12-15
AN UNWlSE CHOICE.
Cieveland's Unit Head OF tho Treasury
Department.

Cieveland's Unit Head OF tho Treasury
Department.
Even II the reports Of disagreements
between the president and the secre-
tary OF the treasury about financial
matters should turn ont to be false, the
president must undoubtedly have real
izcd before this time that he made an
unwise selection for that post Mr..
Carlisle during his service in congress
evinced considerable knowledge of
most of the great political issues of the
day, and he was. in addition, honest.
courageous and popular. He had, in
deed. attained. or almost attained,
the altitude Of a presidential possihil-
ity. Throughout the whole Of his sec
ton he was the one man whose name
had, since the war days, been coupled
seriously with the presidential can
didacy. Like John c. breckenridge
until the Charleston convention split
and the secession conflict destroyed
his political prospects, Carlisle in the
four or five years immediately pre-
ceding his entrance into the cabinet
began to be looked at In the light Of
man OF destiny within whose reach
were about to be placed the highest
prizes OF politics.
But all these fair prospects have
been darllened by his year and three
quarters service in the cabinet. This
change has happened because he has
been out of place in his present post.
There is a chance that he might have
been success as secretary of state
or an attorney general, although The
proba ability is that his talent did rot
extend beyond legislation. At all
events he was conspicuously unfit for
the post OF head of the treasury. His
record as a free silver man was fatal
to his chances on rendering acceptable
service in that Office. 1t is true lie
seemed during the last year of his leg
islat service 10 have abandoned
the free silver heresv. and the
president undoubtedly thought that
the conversion was genuine and last
ing or else the appointment would not
have been made. But this BELIEF was
illusory before he had been six months
in Che cabinet. When the first test Of
mis- financial faith came up in the sum
backslider, and showed that lie was
firmly joined to his free silver idolq.
When the gold fund was FIRST down
near the danger line in 1898 it was
learned that Carlisle intended to pay
out silver for sherman notes instead
Of gold, SO as to avoid the necessity Of
buying gold to protect the reserve.
That policy, which would quickly have
produced scare that would have sent
the country to silver basis, the presi-
dent promptly prevented. Later on
he was known TO be in favor of the
coinage OF the silver seignioragc,
which the president vetoed. The
seigniorage coinage, of course, would
have been less destructive than free
coinage, in the same way that the
poison which lays the patient on his
back for five or six weeks or months
is less harmful than that which kills
him, but the fact that the head 0f the
financial arm of the government ia
vored it gave a shock to business
which IL did not recover from for sew
eral months. Some persons arc opti- :
nistic enough to assume that even the
moot perverse and besotted silverite
would be cured Of his folly by bring
ing him face to face with the finance
problem in it's practical and vital as
rect. bat some allowance ought to be
made for the age Of the sinner. There
may be chance Of reclaiming him IL
he is caught young, but Mr. Carlisle.
at the time Of his appointment, was
Beyond the age at which he could
learn to forget anything in financial
matters. This selection contrasts
strongly with the admirable appoint
nlcnts of treasury chiefs which Mr..
Cleveland made in his first ndministra-
tion. st Louis Globe-Democrat