Year: 1869

| good impression left upon the French Emperor,
Empress, Court and people by General Dix.
But the Cabinet settlement is the question
before US. Of Hamilton Fish as Secretary
OF State we need say nothing more than
this: that from his education in the law, his
experience in public affairs. his cool and
sound judgment, ripened by study, time and
observation, and from his intimate knowledge
of the consequences to American commerce Of
English neutrality and belligerent rights, we
may expect that he will prove an efficient in
strument in behalf of the foreign policy fore
shadowed in General Grants inaugural-the
policy Of settlement with England--not ac
cording to the instructions of Mr. Seward, or
the protocols Of Mr.. Reverdy johnson, but ac
cording to the American example of Andrew
Jackson. We see, at all events, In this ap-
pointment that there was something more than
the courtesy Of private call on Mr.. Fish in
General Grants last visit to New York. -
Massachusetts, gets the most important and
responsible position with the Treasury De-
partment, and to make her cup Of joy run
over she has the Attorney General to boot.
We have passed through great revolution.
What South Carolina was, they say, Massa-
chusetts is in the government, in Con-
gress and in the Cabinet. The .chivafry have
gone down and the Puritans are in
the ascendant. II seems to be under
stood, however, that Mr.. Hoar will
remain in the Cabinet only for q short
time, in fulflment Of General Grants original
idea that no State shall have more than one
member. Meantime Mr.. Boutwell, for the
Treasury, while satisfactory to the leading
politicians, is regarded as man qualified in
high degree for the practical duties Of his
department He is represented as having no
affiliations or sympathies with the whiskey
rings or Wall street money changers, and as
inancier thoroughly drilled in the financial
policy foreshadowed in the inaugural. Best
of all, as he is not engaged in trade or COM
merce, he does not fall under the ban of the
Treasury law Of 1889.


General Rawlins General Grants favorits
chief of staff for the War Office means that
there is yet vast amount of work to be done
in the reconstruction Of the affairs and ma
chinery of the department and the army, and
that soldier possessing the fullest confidence
of the President and the largest knowledge of
his military views and plans is required for
this service. In the same view Admiral
Porter is made the active general manager
under Secretary Borie Of the professional bust
ness of the Navy Department.


General Grant has evidently labored in his
appointments to secure competent and devoted
assistants in his administration and to avoid
at the same time quarrel with Congress or
its ruling politicians. He has certainly, in the
reconstruction Of his Cabinet, made to Mr..
Sumner fair bid for the repeal Of the Tenure
Of Office law, and it Is probable that the repeal
will now be carried. The temptation on the
part of the Senate to retain this law is still
very strong, as the law gives to the Senate the
next thing to absolute power over the spoils.
But the House has made this discovery, and,
impatient for a voice In the distribution Of the
Offices, Is becoming anxious for the repeal But
whatever may be done with this obnoxious Ten
ure Of Office law, we may be sure that when
General Grant begins to get thoroughly into his
retrenchments and reforms we shall have dis
cords and mutinies, and clashiug cliques and
hostile factions breaking out in the republican
camp in the general scramble for the spoils.


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