The Presidency and Secretary Morton

THE field of the greatest political activity in America the last twenty years has been the administration of cities, and the cardinal point in political thought has been the divorce of city government from politics. Here is an apparent contradiction which indicates the elasticity of the term “ politics.” Like “ religion,” which is made to do service for visiting the fatherless and widows in their affliction and for increasing the number of orphans, “politics” in the mouth of one man may mean the conduct of the state in honesty and sobriety, in that of another a job at the city hall. The fact remains that attention is centred on the problems which confront us in the administration of cities, and the drift of political thought has been steadily in the direction of concentrating power and responsibility in the hands of the mayor. Mr. Shepard’s article upon The Mayor and the City ¹ clearly shows that the several great cities of the country, in attempting to solve the problem of administration, have diminished the legislative and strengthened the executive function. And behind all the contrivances of organization stands always the need of a man in whom the city may have confidence. It may be said with almost equal certainty that the elevation of the mayoralty in power and responsibility is attracting toward the office a high type of citizenship.

It does not follow that this application of political principle extends to the offices of governor and President. One of the most important discriminations is that which holds the city to be a corporation, the State an organism ; and though the functions of the mayor and of the governor are sometimes nearly identical, it is very clear that the qualifications for the one office are not necessarily the same as those for the other. To put it broadly, a man with a first-rate business training may make a most efficient mayor; he might make an incompetent governor. Nevertheless, those qualities which make a man a good administrator in the government of a great city do constitute an admirable reason for supposing he would make a good governor; and we have had in recent political history more than one capital illustration of the natural progress of a political career along these lines. Governors Greenhalge and Russell of Massachusetts are instances of men who have been tested in municipal office, and have owed their governorship largely to their success in city government. President Cleveland is an instance of a public man who has passed by successive steps of administrative office from the lowest to the highest, without entering the legislative service at all. It is not unreasonable to suppose that in the specialization which is all the while going on a sharper distinction will take place in public life, and those men who have aptitude and training in legislative or judicial practice will less frequently pass over into the domain of executive work, while the men clearly gifted with powers of administration will find their training in offices which bring those powers into exercise. The probability of such a general law is increased when it is considered how the operations of a political organism like our own, where the several functions of legislative, judicial, and executive authority are defined not only in the written law, but by an increasing body of precedents, tend toward a discrimination and a jealousy of encroachment one on the other.

Meanwhile, the scope of the executive function is steadily enlarging, not by the assumption of powers belonging to the other departments of government, but by the natural enlargement of the held of normal activity. A familiar illustration of this may be found in the extension of the Cabinet of the President. Theoretically, the Cabinet is the division of the presidential function ; and whereas at first it consisted of four officers, it now consists of eight. The PostmasterGeneral was not, at the beginning of the government, a member of the Cabinet. The Department of the Navy was a bureau of the War Department. The Department of the Interior was not created till 1849, and the Department of Agriculture, the latest of all, was erected in 1889. This process of subdivision is still going on. The Department of the Interior, especially, has several very active bureaus, and when we take into account the several commissions, as well as the Department of Labor, and consider how frequently, of late, there has been a demand for a Departmentof Transportation into which the Interstate Commerce Commission shall pass, it is evident that the central administration at Washington is assuming a greater significance with each decade.

Now, all these departments, with their increase of organization, are amplifications of the presidential office, and with the extension of the merit system in the civil service there is a tendency toward stability and the routine order of business. Moreover, with the release of the Cabinet officers from the vexatious task of paying political debts incurred by the party, there will be a more constant application of energy in administrative work, a larger field for the public man of ability, and, it may be added, a greater freedom for the exercise of the higher political functions. In a word, the expansion of the President’s office gives greater opportunity for statesmanship, and there are many signs that in the future the President’s Cabinet will have larger importance and dignity. A significant step was taken after the death of VicePresident Hendricks in 1885, when the presidential succession bill was passed, providing for the advancement to the presidency, in case of the death of the incumbent of that office and of the vicepresidency, of members of the Cabinet in a designated order.

The influence of the several members in public policy is undoubtedly dependent in some degree upon the temperament and disposition of the President himself. His specific action is not legally controlled by the council which he calls about him, and there have been instances in our recent, history where the Cabinet has not been influential with the President. Nevertheless, besides that each member has very large control in his own department, the tendency is toward the greater weight of the Cabinet. The increase of power and responsibility in the separate offices calls for abler men, and nine men cannot confer on public questions month in and month out without attaining a certain community of judgment. Discord, under these conditions, is more likely to be followed by rupture than by subjection.

We have dwelt at some length on these considerations, because, aside from the intrigues of political managers, there is a natural association of ideas between the office of a Cabinet secretary and the presidency. Supposing the President himself not a candidate for reëflection, there is no unreasonableness in looking to his closest political and administrative associates for the man to be his successor, if his party is in the ascendency. Such a man will have had the experience which comes from having had an active part in the exercise of presidential functions and from having been in the administrative council. Whatever other training he may have had or may have missed, this will have been significant. Moreover, his position will have tested somewhat his capacity for filling the more comprehensive rule of the President. and his conduct in office will have disclosed, with more or less publicity, the stuff of which he is made. To be sure, there are degrees of conspicuousness in the Cabinet. Mr. Olney, for instance, who has been successively Attorney-General and Secretary of State, and had no prominence as a public man before entering the Cabinet, would seem to demand an inquiry, if we are looking for a successor to the President in his own political family; or Mr. Carlisle, who has been long in public life, and whose office is most closely connected with concerns of national welfare, But we pass these by, and select for our consideration the member ot the Cabinet whose department was the latest to be created, and who, though well known in his own State of Nebraska, may be said to have entered upon the arena of national politics when Mr. Cleveland sent his name to the Senate as Secretary of Agriculture. A good many Congressmen asked then, Who is Julius Sterling Morton ? and his personal history is not now so generally known as to make a brief recital of it here superfluous.

He was born in Jefferson County, New York, in 1832, of parents English on one side, Scotch on the other. He was educated at Union College and the University of Michigan, was married soon after graduation, and started in the fall of 1854 for the newly organized Territory of Nebraska. Omaha was then the outpost of civilization, and the young couple went about fifty miles to the south, and chose for their homestead a site on the second lift of the intervale of the Missouri, two or three miles from what is now Nebraska City. They built their log cabin in pioneer fashion, and the spot has ever since been Mr. Morton’s home. His wife died twenty years after their first coming. Four sons have grown to manhood, and are now heads of families. Ostensibly a farmer and stock-raiser, the young college graduate had a leaning toward journalism and public life. He at once took a lively interest in territorial affairs, and became a member of the territorial legislature. Before going to Nebraska he had lived a short time in Detroit, and there became a protdg^ of General Cass. It was through Cass’s influence that President Buchanan appointed Mr. Morton secretary of the Territory in 1858, an office which he held until 1861 ; and during a portion of that period, from September, 1858, till May, 185D, he was acting governor. In 1860 he was a candidate for Congress, and received a certificate of election from the governor ; but in the fast-and-loose game of that period his opponent contrived to secure another certificate, and. reaching Washington before him, presented his certificate and took His seat. Mr. Morton. as contestant for a seat in a House which was overwhelmingly Republican, had small chance of success, and returned from Washington to Nebraska, made up his case, and awaited the result. He was unsuccessful, and this was the beginning of a series of defeats. He was the candidate of the Democratic party for governor in 1866 under the first state constitution, and was defeated. He ran for Congress the same fall, and was defeated again. In the long contest over the question of statehood, he was persistently opposed to the erection of the Territory into a State under the conditions then existing. Since 1866 he has been three times the candidate of his party for the governorship, and has been the standing candidate for a seat in the Senate ; but during his entire political career the State has been steadfastly Republican, and it was not until 1893 that he came into power as a member of President Cleveland’s Cabinet.

Meanwhile, his political activity found constant expression in writing and speaking. He started the Nebraska City News in 1855, and edited it for many years. Having formed a connection with Mr. Wilbur F. Storey, editor of the Detroit Free Press, when Mr. Morton lived in Detroit, he became a contributor to the Chicago Times when Mr. Storey assunetl control of that paper, and held a semi-editorial position on it. His writings, at first somewhat turgid, though charged with a rude wit and humor, became more direct as he developed in intellectual force, but have always suffered from a tendency to diffuseness. The subject to which he has given his most earnest thought has undoubtedly been political economy. He is a straight and unconditional free - trader of the school of Cobden, but he can scarcely be regarded as a mere doctrinaire ; the temper of his mind and a strong practical sense forbid this.

Indeed, his entire course of public life, with a single exception, has been characterized by an uncommon independence of merely popular and superficial movements in their crude efforts after results at the expense of sound economic laws. In a paper on some unpublished letters of Thomas Jefferson, in the Transactions of the Nebraska Historical Society, of which Mr. Morton has been president for many years, he gives his ideal of the public servant in these words: “We need men of mental and moral courage, who shall study what they can do for rather than what they shall get from the commonwealth. Public affairs call persistently for public men who shall have fixed economic views, for which they are willing to forego offices, in behalf of which they are ever ready, with reason and fortitude, to face popular clamor, and if need be meet popular defeat. Men who esteem it more honorable to adhere to principle and meet disaster than it is to trim, to pander to popular vagaries and compass victory by deceit, will at last be honored in history.” Mr. Morton applied this characterization to Jefferson, but he was thinking under his breath of himself, and he had justification for such thought.

It was not long after his settlement in Nebraska that the Territory was attacked by one of those fevers of speculation which leave the unhappy sufferer an easy prey to financial quack medicine. Mr. Morton was a member of the Assembly, and at once took a position hostile to wild-cat banks and fiat money. He was made chairman of a special committee to which was referred a bill incorporating these banks, and brought in a minority report, which was evidently very heartily condemned by the majority, as it was denied a place in the house journal, though it appeared in the newspapers at the time. A period of artificial prosperity followed the establishment of the banks and the neglect of industry, and this prosperity was inevitably succeeded by disastrous hard times. The young apostle of sound finance to a reluctant community made a speech at the first Nebraska Territorial Agricultural Fair, September 21, 1859, in which, among other capital things, he delivered himself of this plain truth : “The scheme for obtaining wealth without labor, prosperity without industry, and growing into a community of opulence and ease without effort has been a complete failure. . . . If there are fortunes to be made in Nebraska, they are to be acquired by frugality and persevering exertion alone. The soil is to be tilled and taxed for the support of the dwellers thereon ; and out of it, and it alone, is all true and substantial independence to be derived.”

That was in 1859, and from that time to this, save once when, like other men, he fell under the fascinating influence of Pendleton and gave his adhesion for a brief period to the greenback heresy, he has never flinched from the maintenance of sound financial belief, and that in the midst of a perverse and untoward generation. In Nebraska, in 1892, he almost alone in the Democratic party resisted the efforts of the free coinage element to stampede the party into the fold of Populism. How courageous he could be in the support of an unpopular position appears from this incident. Early in January, 1893, just as the new legislature of Nebraska was assembling, and upon the eve of the election of a United States Senator, there were suggestions made that a coalition should be formed between the Democrats and the Populists with a view to electing Morton. A considerable crowd had gathered in the rotunda of the principal hotel at Lincoln, where this talk was going on. Suddenly Mr. Morton stepped out of the crowd, and, ascending two or three steps of the main stairway, spoke substantially as follows : —

“ It has come to my knowledge that there is some discussion as to the possibility of my election as Senator by the vote of a combination of Democrats and Populists; and as to this it seems to me proper that I should now say openly, as I do positively, that under no conditions will I accept an election to the office of Senator by the vote of the Populist party so long as it adheres to its vicious financial vagaries.” And yet the dream of this man all his days had been to be Senator.

Upon other public questions in which his own State was more definitely involved Mr. Morton has not gone with the crowd. That he should have been in the employ of the Burlington railway as a pamphleteer, during the popular attack on railways which found expression in the Potter laws, does not intimate that he sold his principles, but that he was a paid advocate on the side which he believed to be in the right. From the time of his speech at the Agricultural Fair, already cited, he has been a consistent supporter of the policy of state development through the improvement of its natural resources. Upon his own farm he has made costly experiments, for the purpose of introducing improved breeds of horses, cattle, and swine into the country. One of the sayings quoted from him and current among the farmers is, “ A well-bred sow is to the farmer an inconvertible bond, her porkers the annual coupons,” and by pen and voice he has untiringly aimed to promote the agricultural interests of his State. The most notable single exploit, and the one of which he never wearies in the telling, is the suggestion of Arbor Day in the schools, and the pursuit of this idea, with the result that the movement has extended to every State in the Union with the possible exception of three. At least a billion forest trees and many thousand fruit trees and vines in Nebraska may be said to have started from the seed which he planted and nourished in the public mind, and what was a treeless waste is dotted with vigorous forest growth.

It was unquestionably this devotion to agriculture and forestry, coupled with his unflinching support of Democratic doctrines and his reputation as a man of character and ability, which led Mr. Cleveland to call Mr. Morton to the head of the Department of Agriculture at Washington, in spite of the fact that Mr. Morton had from the beginning of Mr. Cleveland’s presidential career been a bitter and unrelenting enemy of the President; for Mr. Morton, with all his heartiness, can be a vehement hater, and the attitude which Mr. Cleveland at the outset took toward the West could readily excite the animosity of a man whose temperament is not unlike Mr. Cleveland’s in respect to positiveness. His career at Washington has been marked by two notable stands which he has taken. They are notable as illustrating the courage and the open-mindedness of the man. The first relates to the economical management of his department. Out of $5,102,500 appropriated for his branch of the government since July 1, 1893, he had saved and turned back into the treasury, down to July 1, 1895, $1,126,000, or over 20 per cent; and this had been done while the department had developed greatly, and the work of all its bureaus had been expanded and improved. There was expended in 1895 for purely scientific work 52 per cent of the total amount paid out as against 45 per cent paid out for the same class of work by his predecessor in 1893. The saving has been due to the reduction of the cost of carrying on the department, and especially to the stoppage of waste. Believing that the promiscuous free distribution of seeds by Congressmen was only a stupid abuse of a law originally passed to provide a new country with “ rare, uncommon, and valuable" plants for cultivation, — the words of the statute, — Mr. Morton early set about its abolition. It was very characteristic of the man that, after appealing in vain to Congress to drop a wasteful appropriation, he went to work to execute the statute, providing for the distribution with a thoroughness and vigor that had never been equaled. For two years he scoured the known world, through special and consular agents, for rare and uncommon seeds, plants, etc., and purchased everything that seemed to be of the slightest use to this country. He supplied to Congressmen, it is said, ten million more packages of seed than they had ever received before. Of course the great bulk of them were of no use to our people, but the secretary accomplished his purpose. After advertising in all known markets, and buying and distributing in two years all the rare and uncommon seed left in the world, he stopped the business, and notified Congress there would be no more seed. No seed under the terms of the statute being found, no seed could be bought. So rural Congressmen must go seedless back to their constituents, or buy their electioneering grains and tubers themselves.

The other illustration of character drawn from the secretary’s official life is in his attitude toward civil service reform. He began with a disbelief in it; he has come to be one of its most sturdy supporters. During his administration of the Department of Agriculture, only six out, of its twenty-four chiefs of bureaus and divisions have been changed by death, resignation, or removal. Secretary Morton tilled five of these places by promoting skilled and experienced men in this department. The only question with him has been, M here can the best qualified men be found ? and other things being nearly equal, lie has given the preference to the men already in the service. At the head of the three new divisions established by him, lie has appointed in similar manner three experts who were connected with the department under previous administrations. The same wise and benignant rule has been followed in filling all minor positions. The statistical and animal industry bureaus, which have been heretofore almost entirely given over to the spoilsmen, have been completely reorganized and brought under the civil service. As a result of his steady work for this cause, the whole department is now subject to civil service rules, except two positions filled by presidential appointment, and the four clerks of the secretary and assistant secretary.

Such, in brief, is the public record of Secretary Morton, nearly forty years in the opposition in Nebraska, with slight experience in political administration, for three years a member of the President’s official household in Washington, and an administrator of public business. It is not surprising that he has acquired the habit of mind of one always in the opposition, which for a man of courage readily takes the form of recklessness of speech. He has worked out the greater problems in a somewhat theoretical fashion, so that his convictions are not always based upon large information and experience ; and once possessed of a conviction. he is undeterred by possible consequences from delivering it with an uncompromising earnestness. Uncalled upon during a long career to put his political principles into practice, he has had small need to adjust them to existing conditions ; but when he has been required to act, his practical sense has been fortified by Ins speculative studies. With an active and alert mind, he has been open to new influences, and would not unlikely, if placed in a position of great responsibility, reason and act too quickly ; but his frankness and open-mindedness would not make him an easy follower where principles which he had reached in his studies were assailable. No amount of pressure would move him. His strong, well - set physique impresses one who meets him with an agreeable sense of the man’s vitality and vigor. His hospitable nature is evident at once, and he makes friends quickly. Indeed, there is an outflow of sentiment and cordiality which may produce a little uneasiness in the mind of a cautious observer, and such an one would not be surprised to learn that this genial host could nurse with a vindictive energy a hatred which he had conceived of this or that man. The astute politician who wishes to shape Mr. Morton to his own ends will encounter a difficulty in the honesty and shrewdness of the man. Mr. Morton himself is not an astute politician, and he never will manage conventions or intrigue for power. He is not built on those lines, and he will not be wanted by the Democratic party. Nevertheless, he has in him the sort of stulf out of which better Presidents than presidential candidates are made.