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.
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