Attorney-General seemed not to
admit their right to speak in regard to appointments, and that
appointments were made of which they had no knowledge, and of which
neither they nor their constituents could approve. These differences
reached a crisis when Senators (I use the word in the plural) notified
the President that they should not visit the Department of Justice
while Judge Hoar was Attorney-General. Thus was a disagreeable
alternative presented to the President, and a first impression would
lead to the conclusion that he ought to have sustained the Attorney-
General. Assuming that the complaints were well founded, it followed
that the Attorney-General was denying to Senators the consideration
which the President himself was recognizing daily.

President Grant looked upon members of his Cabinet as his family for
the management of civil affairs, as he had looked upon his staff as
his military family for the conduct of the army, and he regarded a
recommendation for a Cabinet appointment as an interference. His
first Cabinet was organized upon that theory somewhat modified by a
reference to locality. Mr. Borie who became Secretary of the Navy
was a most excellent man, but he had had no preparation either by
training or experience for the duties of a department. Of this he
was quite conscious, and he never attempted to conceal the fact. He
often said:

"The department is managed by Admiral Porter, I am only a figure-head."

In a few months he resigned. His associates were much attached to him.
He was a benevolent, genial, well informed man. His successor, Mr.
Robeson, was a man of singular ability, lacking only the habit of
careful, continuous industry. This failing contributed to his
misfortunes in administration and consequently he was the subject of
many attacks in the newspapers and in Congress. After his retirement
he became a member of the House of Representatives, and it was a
noticeable fact, that from that day the attacks in Congress ceased.
As a debater he was well equipped, and in reference to his
administration of the Navy Department, he was always prepared with an
answer or an explanation in every exigency.

The appointment of Governor Fish to the Department of State, gave rise
to considerable adverse comment. The chief grounds of complaint were
that he was no longer young and that recently he had not been active
in political contests. He had been a Whig when there was a Whig Party,
and h