City councils, legislatures, mayors, governors, Congress, and presidents were drawn into the maelstrom of commercialism.It is not surprising that side by side with the new business organization there grew up a new political organization, and that the new business magnate was accompanied by a new political magnate.The party machine and the party boss were the natural product of the time, which was a time of gain and greed.It was a sordid reaction, indeed, from the high principles that sought victory on the field of battle and that found their noblest embodiment in the character of Abraham Lincoln.
The dominant and domineering party chose the leading soldier of the North as its candidate for President.General Grant, elected as a popular idol because of his military genius, possessed neither the experience nor the skill to countermove the machinations of designing politicians and their business allies.
On the other hand, he soon displayed an admiration for business success that placed him at once in accord with the spirit of the hour.He exalted men who could make money rather than men who could command ideas.He chose Alexander T.Stewart, the New York merchant prince, one of the three richest men of his day, for Secretary of the Treasury.The law, however, forbade the appointment to this office of any one who should "directly or indirectly be concerned or interested in carrying on the business of trade or commerce," and Stewart was disqualified.Adolph E.
Borie of Philadelphia, whose qualifications were the possession of great wealth and the friendship of the President, was named Secretary of the Navy.Another personal friend, John A.Rawlins, was named Secretary of War.A third friend, Elihu B.Washburne of Illinois, was made Secretary of State.Washburne soon resigned, and Hamilton Fish of New York was appointed in his place.Fish, together with General Jacob D.Cox of Ohio, Secretary of the Interior, and Judge E.Rockwood Hoar of Massachusetts, Attorney-General, formed a strong triumvirate of ability and character in the Cabinet.But, while Grant displayed pleasure in the companionship of these eminent men, they never possessed his complete confidence.When the machinations for place and favor began, Hoar and Cox were in the way.Hoar had offended the Senate in his recommendations for federal circuit judges (the circuit court was then newly established), and when the President named him for Justice of the Supreme Court, Hoar was rejected.Senator Cameron, one of the chief spoils politicians of the time, told Hoar frankly why: "What could you expect for a man who had snubbed seventy Senators!" A few months later (June, 1870), the President bluntly asked for Hoar's resignation, a sacrifice to the gods of the Senate, to purchase their favor for the Santo Domingo treaty.
Cox resigned in the autumn.As Secretary of the Interior he had charge of the Patent Office, Census Bureau, and Indian Service, all of them requiring many appointments.He had attempted to introduce a sort of civil service examination for applicants and had vehemently protested against political assessments levied on clerks in his department.He especially offended Senators Cameron and Chandler, party chieftains who had the ear of the President.
General Cox stated the matter plainly: "My views of the necessity of reform in the civil service had brought me more or less into collision with the plans of our active political managers and my sense of duty has obliged me to oppose some of their methods of action." These instances reveal how the party chieftains insisted inexorably upon their demands.To them the public service was principally a means to satisfy party ends, and the chief duty of the President and his Cabinet was to satisfy the claims of party necessity.General Cox said that distributing offices occupied "the larger part of the time of the President and all his Cabinet." General Garfield wrote (1877): "One-third of the working hours of Senators and Representatives is hardly sufficient to meet the demands made upon them in reference to appointments to office."By the side of the partizan motives stalked the desire for gain.
There were those to whom parties meant but the opportunity for sudden wealth.The President's admiration for commercial success and his inability to read the motives of sycophants multiplied their opportunities, and in the eight years of his administration there was consummated the baneful union of business and politics.
During the second Grant campaign (1872), when Horace Greeley was making his astounding run for President, the New York Sun hinted at gross and wholesale briberies of Congressmen by Oakes Ames and his associates who had built the Union Pacific Railroad, an enterprise which the United States had generously aided with loans and gifts.
