The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1915-11-04
CABINET QUARRELS.
Have Been Few i'm the History OF the
United States.

The recent precipitate withdrawal
of Secretary of State William Jen-
nings Bryan from the cabinet calls
attention to the fact that there have
been comparatively few American
cabinet crises, situation Wnlch
shows the strength of the American
institution as compared with the
, cabinets of Europe, says the Balti-
more Sun.
There it is frequent occurrence
for a crisis to be projected by one
mans attitude, a situation that. mas
resulted in the entire reconstruction
of cabinets, France and England have
known scores of such instances OF
wholesale vampings of the portfolios.
Here cabinet descriptions have
never occurred. Men have resigned
frequently from the presidential
boards, but none however, has caus-
ed the upset of the cabinet.
s s. There have been few serious
cabinet quarrels, secretaries at odos
with one another, and in one case
feud between president and Sec
iretary, but none of quite the Phase
of the Bryan break.
Of all probably the most Interest
ing was the Stanton affair, when
briefly, Secretary of War Edwin NJ.
Stanton was ''fired" by President
Andrew Johnson, although at first ne
refused to be "fired,' persisted In
holding Office and gave up only when
the collapse of Impeachment proceed
ings against President Johnson con-
cluded the matter.
81 There was a tense situation Great
ed in Grants administration, with
the virtually enforced resignation OF
Secretary of War Belknap. Grant
was too much the soldier to scent
the ways of the politicians, and fol-
! lowing a period of incessant rumors
and counter rumors he suddenly
realized that the war department had
been overrun with graft on hun
dreds of army contracts. Belknap's
prompt surrender of his portfolio
ended situation that proved bitter
to Grant and eventually caused the
defeat of the Republican party.
A somewhat similar situation
arose in later years, when another
member of the cabinet, and this time.
a secretary of war also, Secretary
Alger, was compelled to step down
I from the Mckinley war cabinet. The
embalmed beef scandals that involv-
ed Commissary General Egan and the
ouartermaster's department general
4ly on charges of Inadequate and ne
glectful handling of the supplies OF
the armies invading Cuba and Porto
Rico reacted eventually on the war
secretary and he retired broken
man.
But of the three only Stanton's
resignation comes the nearest to the
Bryan case. Both times were mo-
sment because of the
great question, possible war with a
foreign nation, that precipitated it;
sStanton's because of the situation it
created, resulting as it did in the
only presidential impeachment in
our country's history.
johnson, pulled and hauled in the
irving reconstruction days, asked for
.Stanton's resignation. All of the
Lincoln cabinet had held over when
johnson succeeded the martyred
president, and there was soon grave
internal dissensions. Johnson, first,
had not the insight and foresight Of
Lincoln, to whom. the cabinet had
become endeared: and worst of all,
he did not realize it and lacked tho
tact to meet the situation.
His greatest trouble was with Stan
ton. Stanton, ever a determined
man, brusque and Napoleonic in his
decisions, practically refused to toll
crate Johnson's methods. Stanton
ran with the Republican congres
sional feeling, that the Confederate
States had gone beyond the pale in
their secession and must work out a
long period of grace before they
could be taken into the fold again.
Johnson's position was that the
war was merely an extreme and pro-
stracted uprising with which the
president alone should deal and not
congress. The feeling between the
two became so acute that days passed
without either speaking to the other,
though they met frequently in the
cabinet discussions. Finally Presl-
dent Johnson asked for Stanton
resignation. Stanton promptly, al