Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 March 1885 — MR. CLEVELAND'S CABINET. [ARTICLE]

MR. CLEVELAND'S CABINET.

The narrow, restricted, and provincial character <jf Grover Cleveland is significantly shown in the selection of his Cabinet, the official announcement of which confirms the list precisely as given in yesterday's Journal. The Alleghenies seem to be the boundary of Mr. Cleveland’s horizon. The territorial distribution of his ikl- - even more than the question of their characters and capacities, wulatonce arrest attention. No such Cabinet, we venture, has been constructed sintfe Mr. Jefferson's Northwest Territory has become the real heart of the nation and continent, with its vast resources, its teeming millions, its pressing demands, its supreme political importance; and its steadily increasing greatness. To the entire territory of the country west of a line drawn north and south through Baltimore, making a debouch on the 35th parallel to take in the “South,” Mr. Cleveland has assigned ono man. Col. Vilas, who is known to the country simply and solely because of a speech he was fortunate enough to deliver at a banquet in honor of Gen. Grant, a man who.jfl not so known and honored, even iq his own State, as to have ever held public office, and who must be taken entirely on trust, even in the purely executive department to which he is assignea. The surprising features of the new administration —though the surprise has been discounted by several weeks’ well-grounded rumors—is that three members should be from the State of < New York. With “Dan” Manning in charge of the Treasury, Whitney of the navy, and the President as chief executive, all from the same State, it has an appearance es centralization not often seen. These three will undoubtedly constitute the poweT of the executive branch of the . Government. We do not separate the President from the others, for the reason that the arrangement is undoubtedly a personal one, above all other considerations. The “chums” will work in harmony, and with the palpable advantage of having one of their number to cast the decisive vote, Of Mr. Manning little can be said, for the reason that but little is known beyond the fact that he has been “offensively active in partisan politics. ” He is better known because of his manipulation of State polities, and latterly of Mr. Cleveland’s interests, than for anyjjiing else he ever did or undertook. But for his prominence as a political manager he would probably never have been dreamed of in connection with the Treasury portfolio—a recommendation fitting him equally well for appointment to the court of St. James, or for the head of the army in the field. What is true of Mr. Manning is largely true of Mr. Whitney, the obligations of chumship, added to the known influence of Mr. Tilden, overriding all other considerations. We have, therefore, two principal places—places to be of unusual and extraordinary importance—filled without special regard to the demands of the duties pertaining thereto, and quite evidently as personal compliments from a confidential friend, just as one might ask either to act as ticket-taker at one's benefit.

The 6election of Mr. is more in conformity with the fitness of things. Ho went “with his State” in favor of section; but he stopped “with his State” justjphort of open treason. His appointment is, therefore, to be credited to the “South.” While Mr. Bayard has a good reputation as a sound, conservative, and honorable man, he has never been regarded as a great man. His name is not associated with any important public act or measure; he is a respectable gentleman, has made a good average Senator, is in harmony with the high-stock, silk-stocking traditions of the aristocratic elements of his party and State, and that is all that can fairly be said of ‘ him. The history and legislation of the Country will be searched in vafo for any act of his that lias made a ripple in the current of events. The State Department will be kept in the same rigid respectability it was under the grandfath-. erly care of Mr. Frelinghuysen. Mr. Endicott, for the War Department, is an eminently respectable man—a kind of Massachusetts “Mr. Litimer”—a man whose ancestors came Over in advance of the Mayflower, so that, if possible, his respectability overshadows the respectable respectability of the most respectable respectables of the Bay State. It is to be presumed that ho will make ai respectable and acceptable man far the place. Vilas, for the Postoffice, is, as has been said, the only bit of sop thrown to the ‘rowdy West.” McDonald, one of the ablest, stanchest and most consistent Democrats, was passed over, presumably because of the jealousy and fear of his more adroit and less scrupulous “ friend, ” Thomas A. Hendricks. By this division of honors, New York, with a plurality of 1,200, gets two places, in addition to the President, while Indiana, with a Democratic plurality of nearly 7,000, gets nothing except ridicule and contempt for the better elements the party here. If there be any doubt of this, one needs but look at the following that Mr. Hendricks has at Washington, and then at the--men mortified by the treatment accOfded Mr. McDonald, from the time his name was suggested for the Presidency and the machinery of the party in the State was Operated to his discomfiture, the crank by the hand of Mr. Hendrioks. personally, at Chicago. ' The remainder of the Cabinet, containing some of its most important elements and functions, is given over to the “South.” The Interior Department is placed in charge of Senator Lamar, a representative Southern statesman of the first class. Since at least one place must of necessity go to the “solid South,” it is hard to see how Mr. Lamar could possibly have been set aside for any other man from that part of the country. Yet, when the duties of the office are taken into consideration, demanding, as they often will, the keenest business tact and discernment, the thought occurs that Lamar, of all men, is least fitted for it. For while Ids scholarship and culture, and even the excellence of his deliberate judgment, are readily conceded, he is too much of a dreamer, too impractical, to make the ideal officer to fill that important position, and he may consider himself fortunate, and the country may be congratulated, if he succeeds in getting through the term without seriously impeding its functions. Of his scholarly attainments and moral worth, however, there is no question. lie significance of the selection of Senator Garland for the Department of Justice is not so great as it might be. Some things, it is believed, have Been settled since last the laws of Hus nation were in the keeping of the Democratic party.' But the appointment of Garland puts the supervision of the national authority in its relations to elections into the hands of the South, and that is practically a nullificatipn of any official effort tcKsecure to the ffeedmen a free ballot and a fair count For the new Attorney General it may be said that be is an able man, well equipped for the discharge of the duties pertaining to the office. The Cabinet is made up of “blue bloods,” and aristocrats, and “chum*,” and it is sectional to a degree never before equaled. Three of the seven come from the immediate vicinity of New York and eastward, three are chosen from the old stave States, and but one, a man comparatively unknown, is selected for the vast territory west and northwest—the center of population, the sea{ of national empire. It is to be a close communion of

millionaires, “chutes” and “gentlemen, sah, ” with the greatest portion of the nation hopelessly and insignificantly in the 1 minority. Tlhe a mistake of overlooking Mr. McDonald *is growing significantly apparent, anti it may be remarked that Indiana Democracy is strangely constructed if it is to be soothed in this most extraordinary manner. By exactly the same course of reasoning, it may be inferred that Democrats of this State would be gratified to even a greater degree should the President continue to ignore Indiana and the West while passing around the good things now supposed to be at hand. The great interests of the West ate practically without adequate representation in the new administration. Mr. Hendricks, now shelved for four years, will be of no value whatever in determining the course of public affairs; the East and the South have their feet in the trough, and there is little show of any intention to let any of the feed get away in this direction. — Indianapolis Journal.