The Dalles times-mountaineer. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1882-1904, 1899-05-20
OUR SECRETARY OF WAR

If there is any man in public life in
the United States who is more gener-
ally detested than the secretary of war
1t is not known. OF all America he is
the least respected of any, still he is
retained in the cabinet for reasons
probably better known to President
Mckinley and Senator Hanna than
anybody else still he is retained, and
there seems TO be no hope that he will
be removed. Why he was elevated to
q cabinet position has ever been a
mystery except that he bought his way
in during the campaign of 1896. there
by creating certain obligations that
the president had to recognize,
for certainly he had never done
anything to entitle him to be placed at
the head of the war department. His
record in the civil war was anything
but enviable, and it could not have
been anything he did there that actu-
ated the president to elevate him TO a
cabinet position, unless he considered
Alger's case as he did Eagan's-that an
Incompetent man should be rewarded
and appointed him secretary of war
Eagan on full pay after court-martial
had found him guilty. And for this
reason he may have appointed Alger,
believing that coward and a rascal
should be honored by the administra-
tion because he could not receive hon
ors elsewhere.
Alger's record during the civil war
has been looked up by his own partisan
papers. and the Oregonian among the
number gives brief history of 1t that
cannot be considered creditable. The
particular features os his record that
are especially unfavorable are as fol-
lows:
1t was in September, 1854, that
General Merritt presided over the
military court that recommended r.
A. Alger's dishonorable dismissal for
cowardice in absenting himself with
out leave from his command when his
regiment was in face of the enemy.
The official records show that Colonel
Alger, of the Fifth Michigan cavalry,
on August %, 1854, "played sick" and
asked for leave of 20 days. As this
was not the first time that Alger mad
..played sick" in the face of the enemy
and asked for leave of absence when
he was fit for duty, General Custer,
who, with all his conceded faults of
manner and temper, was a soldier OF
splendid spirit and courage, refused to
approve Alger's application for leave.
In other words, Custer believed that
Alger was afflicted with the intermit-
tent cannon fever" that assails some
soldiers Invariably whenever they
have reason to believe that their regi-
ment is sin for a fight"
General Merritt, the division COM
mander, forwarded General Custer's
report to General Torbert, the chief o
the cavalry corps of Sheridan's army
of the Shendoah, who at once recon-
mended the dismissal of Alger from
the service, and General Sheridan ap-
proved the action of Torbert. Alger,
who had deserted his command on the
28th of August, knew, of course, that
he had made himself liable to dismissal
from the service for continued absence
without leave, so on the 9Th of Septem-
ber he sent his resignation to the
secretary of war, and on September
18th the very day that General Custer
made his report, he filed another resig-
nation, which was accepted, and he
was discharged from the service
September 10. 1854, the very day
when his regiment, in General
Custer's brigade, helped win Gem
eral Sheridan's great victory of
Ohequan. The preparations for the
battle of the 10Th doubtless delayed
the transmission of General Sheridan's
recommendation for the dismissal of
Alger; for otherwise it is not likely
that Secretary sStanton would have
allowed Alger to resign to escape
punishment for desertion of his COM
mand in face of the enemy. General
Merritt at the time knew all these
facts, and has again and again ex
pressed contemptuaus opinion of
Alger's conduct in resigning to escape
military punishment for cowardice.