Year: 1874

appointment OF Dir. Blaine a. secretary OF the
Treasury would look like retreat by the
President from tho bold position taken In his
veto. But Blaine's skill as political manipu-
lator may be thought worth purchasing at o
high price. President Grant probably cares
little for the Reciprocity treaty, and Mr..
Blaine's views on that subject would be
deemed no serious objection to putting him at
the head of the Cabinet. He understands the
temper of Congress better, perhaps, than any
other man in the country, and could exert
more influence In procuring such Legislation
as reconstructed Cabinet might think deSir-
able. Mr.. Blaine would be strong accession
to any Cabinet which undertook to mould
or recast the politics of the country and a
great contrast, in this respect, to every mem
ber of the existing administration.


We think, however, it would have been
wiser stroke Of policy for the President to
have carried out his first idea of recalling Mr..
Washburne. Washburne is not so adrot and
shifty politician as Blaine and might have less
influence with the only Congress the republi-
can party will control during the remainder
of General Grants term; but as an old and
tried friend he might be expected to give more
disinterested advice, and he would naturally
have stronger hold on Western public
opinion. But Mr.. Blame has courted the
West as far as he could without forfeiting the
confidence of the East, and if President
Grant is to change his Cabinet he has a right
to make his own selections. II Blaine is
more acceptable to him than Washburne rs
Secretary Fish's successor, if Mr.. Fish
should retire, the HERALD will be too
glad to see greater political vigor in the Cabi-
net to make any captious remonstrance. 1t
was favorite saying OF the first Napoleon
that imagination rules the world. A change
of Cabinet would have an inspiring effect on
the hope and courage of the republican party,
not only by acting on it's imagination, but by
the solid, visible advantage Of giving the
political tools to men who can handle them.
Mr.. Fish, with his training and experience,
would doubtless conduct an important nego-
tiation more ably than Mr.. Blaine; but there
are no important negotiations in prospect,
and Mr.. Fish cannot be compared with MIR.
Blaine TOR shrewdness in home politics, the
quality in which the present administration is
most wanting, although the salvation of the
republican party depends upon it.


A change is indispensable in another view,


if the President wishes to retire from his great
trust with honor. There is an odor Of fraud
hanging about several of the public depart
ments, and although President Grant has no
completely with the alleged breaches of trust
he cannot be ignorant of the charges some of
which come very near home to persons en-
ioying his official confdence. BY thorough
change of his Cabinet he would break up these
disreputable connections if they are real, or
break up the damaging associations in the
public mind if they are fictitious, and in
either case he would relieve his administra-
ton of q heavy load OF imputations. He
needs not only to strengthen and purify the
public service, but to disinfect and sweeten
the popular imagination, which last cannot
be accomplished, even if the first could, with
out personal changes fitted to arrest attention
and make figure in the public mind.