Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 October 1887 — Grant, Sumner, and Stewart. [ARTICLE]

Grant, Sumner, and Stewart.

A. T. Stewart, the New York merchant prince, made large sales to the Government during the war for the suppression of the rebellion, and he displayed his gratitude by making Mrs. Lincoln handsome presents. He was also a large contributor to the fund of SIOO,OOO raised by the merchants of New York for Gen. Grant as an acknowledgment of his war services; and when the General was elected President, Mr. Stewart was selected by hiir as the man to reorganize the Treasury Department, prune off its excrescences and reform its abuses. Mr. Stewart was delighted with the offer, and had a suite of rooms in the Ebbitt House, with a private entrance, fitted up for his occupation until he could go to housekeeping. A few days before the 4th of March he came to Washington and occupied these rooms, with Judge Hilton as his companion and adviser. After the inauguration he was nominated by Gen. Grant; but Senator Sumner, who had been consulted as to the formation of the Cabinet, interposed his objection to the immediate consideration of Mr. Stewart’s nomination. Late in the afternoon of that day a rumor got abroad that there Was a law, understood to have been really written by Alexander Hamilton while Secretary of the Treasury, prohibiting an importer in active business from holding the position of Secretary of the Treasury. A newspaper correspondent obtained a copy of the law' bearing on the case and carried it to Gen. Butterfield, who conveyed it to Mr. Stewart and his legal adviser, Judge Hilton. They consulted Chief Justice Chase, and he confirmed the view which had been taken of the law by those who first brought it to Mr. Stewart’s attention. Mr. Stewart then Sroposed to retire from business and evote the entire profits that might accrue (taring the time that he should hold the office of Secretary of the Treasury to charitable objects. But this was decided to be something which would not be proper, eithter for him to carry out or for the Government to accept. Immediately after seeing Chief Justice Chase Mr. Stewart and Judge Hilton drove to the White House and laid the facts and opinions before the President, who, on the next day, wrote a message to the Senate, asking that the law of 1788 be set aside so as to allow the candidate to hold the office. This the Senate declined to do. It was a very natural ambition for a man of Mr. Stewart’s tastes and training to desire to be at the head of the Treasury, and it is not unlikely that the disappointment was a very severd one. This was the beginning of the “unpleasantness” between President Grant and Senator Sumner, which finally resulted in an open rupture.— Ben: Perley Poore, in Boston Budget.