Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 July 1899 — MR. ALGER RESIGNS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

MR. ALGER RESIGNS.

• r JI ' THE SECRETARY OF WAR QUITS M’KINLEY’S CABINET. - > ■ * .. *. - ■ Vice President Hobart the One to Convey the Request of the President— His Retirement Is Asked to Pat an End to Friction. Washington special: Gen. Russell A. Alger Wednesday morning called upon President McKinley and banded him his resignation as Secretary of War, to take effect at the pleasure of the President. There was no comment except that the President asked if he wished to go at once, and the reply of the Secretary that he would remain until the assistant secretary returned, if his successor should not be chosen at once. The story ot the resignation is closely guarded in administration circles, but it is said that the President indirectly requested the resignation, and as soon as the Secretary was informed that the President wished him to retire he returned from Long Branch to Washington and placed his resignation in the hands of Mr. McKinley. The politicians have for some weeks been anxious to get Alger out of the cabinet. The Pingree alliance was the excuse. They feared it, and they feared the hostility of Senators McMillan and Burrows if Alger remained in the cabinet. They urged the President to get rid of Alger, but McKinley said he could not ask for Mr. Alger’s resignation with

such an excuse. President Lincoln had refused io accept Secretary Chase's resignation from the cabinet, even after he knew that Chase was scheming to be a presidential candidate against him. President McKinley said he could not ask Mr. Alger to leave the cabinet because he had announced his candidacy for United States Senator from Michigan. The members of the cabinet were more open to the argument of the men who wanted Alger out of the way of the success of the administration. They agreed that the Secretary of War must be sacrificed, and they expressed their views to the President. At this stage in the developments. Attorney General Griggs was sent as a messenger to Vice-President Hobart, to ask the Vice-President to advise Alger to resign. Mr. Hobart agreed to undertake the delicate mission of saying to (Jeu. Alger what the President and other members of the cabinet would not say to him. He telegraphed Secretary Alger, inviting him to spend a few days with him at his Long Branch cottage. When the Secretary arrived and the two men had an opportunity to talk freely, Mr. Hobart advised Alger to resign, saying that the country was against him and that he might as Well recognize that he must be sacrificed. Gen. Alger asked if the Vice-President spoke only for himself or at the suggestion of others. Mr. Hobart had to tell him the whole story, that the President wanted his resignation, but did not wish to ask for it: that Attorney General Griggs had been the messenger of the President and the cabinet to him, and that he (Hobart) was merely the agent of the administration in advising Alger to retire. Gen. Alger remarked that he would hand the President his resignation as soon as be returned to Wellington. He said he had supposed that he and the President were on terms of friendship justifying frankness regarding this situation. but all he desired was to know the President's pleasure. He returned to Washington and handed his resignation to President McKinley.

GENERAL B. A. ALGER.