The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-09-18

bic deficiency of sound Judgment. AS
first constituted, the Cabinet had put
one man. who possessed national fepu- |
tation This was Mr.. Sherman, of ONO,
distinguished financier, widely K1oWn
as Senator and Secretary of the Treas
ury: but he was put in the wrong place
AS they say, the right man IN the
wrong Dlace-for Mr.. Sherman had 10
peculiar fitness for the State department.
And soon he was pushed from that
stool. But the Treasury was reserved
for n Chicago banker, unknown TO the
great public-thOugh doubtless wen
known as a rich banker, to banking
men.
OF Alger. I had heard something be-
foro no was nIaced at the head of the
War Department-he may have been
member of Congress. at one time or an
otber and so have some thousands or
very obscure men. who voted as they
were told to vote when their names were
called. and went home and to oblivion at
the end of the session. l understand
he has grown very rich in the lumber
trade. What / do remember about Alger
is, that he won distinction at National
convention of the Republican party, some
six or ten years ago, by the liberal prices
he paid for negro and other votes for the
nomination.
OF Mr.. Long, the Secretary of the
Navy. / have a faint remembrance, be-
fore he came into the Cabinet; and
now I shall remember him for having
made Sampson an Admiral for being
absent while Schley was destroying the
Spanish fleet. This is the only memoir
/ able act Of his life Of which | am cognl-
zant. As to Mr. Wilson, Of the Agri-
cultural Department. and Mr.. Bliss, OF
the Interior; Mr.. Griggs, of the Depart
ment of Justice, and the rich banker,
| Mr.. Gage. Of the Treasury, | could al
most be willing to take n book oath that
| | never heard of them until they came
! here as Cabinet ministers. And Mr..
| Day, the eminently respectable country
| lawyer, from Canton Ohio. or there
abouts, who succeeded Mr.. Sherman,
must put down in the same category.
The tissues of my brain bear nc record
of him until his friend the President
| brought him here three or four months
ago. And as | have been n dligenr
newspaper reader a good many years, |
am apt to think that what l don't re-
member about men who have figured in
public life. no one else remembers. They
are doubtless very distinguished in their
neighbOrhoods. But I have written down
all these Cabinet names now, from the
Congressional Directory, and l propose
to get them by heart. as the boys say.
The late war with Spain has been
a National war. The Republican Admin
istratiOn which declared it, has not been
more cordially sustained in It by The
Republicans and by the North, than
by the Democracy and by the South.
The President and his friends have
shown some recognition Of the fact; but
with some misgivings as to the cOnse-
quences of their magnamity, | asked
n retired Army Officcr--a fighting Gen
eral in his day, and an hereditary Re
publican, how it was that General FltZ-
hugh Lee had not been sent to Cuba
He replied. "They are afraid of him"
notice also, that although the Silver
Democracy, as shown in the vote for
Mr. Bryan are nearly half the people
of the country, and a good deal more
than half the white people, the Presi-
dent, in making up the Peace Commits
sion, has placed but one Democrat Of The
five upon it, and he gold Democrat
Judge White to whom the place was
at first offered. is also Il gold man.
In view Of this state Of facts rs to Pres
Dental magnanimity. and to the further
fact that the biennial Congressional
election is near at hand, / cannot but
doubt whether the name Of any man
who is suspected of harbOring a suspi-
cion of the wisdom of Ayers administra-
ton of theWar Department. will be found
ON the investigating committee. A buck
ct of white-wash is the thing most needed
just now.
=. DANIEL r. GOODLOE.