himself
the _de facto_ Secretary of War.

The selection of Mr. Mallory, of Florida, for the Navy Department, was
more popular and was, as yet, generally considered a good one. His long
experience as chairman of the committee on naval affairs, in the United
States Senate, and his reputation for clearness of reasoning and
firmness of purpose, made him acceptable to the majority of politicians
and people. Of Mr. Reagan the people knew little; but their fate was
not in his hands, and just now they were content to wait for their
letters.

The Treasury Department was justly supposed to be the key to national
success. It was at least the twin, in importance, with the War Office.
Mr. Memminger, of South Carolina, was a self-made man, who had managed
the finances of his state and had made reputation for some financiering
ability and much common sense. He had, moreover, the advantage of being
a new man; and the critics were willing to give him the benefit of
common law, until he should prove himself guilty. Still the finance of
the country was so vital, and came home so nearly to every man in it,
that perhaps a deeper anxiety was felt about its management than that
of any other branch.

The Attorney-General, or chief of the Department of Justice, had a
reputation as wide as the continent--and as far as mental ability and
legal knowledge went, there could be no question among the growlers as
to his perfect qualifications for the position. Mr. Judah P. Benjamin
was not only the successful politician, who had risen from obscurity to
become the leader of his party in the Senate, and its exponent of the
constitutional questions involved in its action; but he was, also, the
first lawyer at the bar of the Supreme Court and was known as a ripe
and cultivated scholar. So the people who shook their heads at him--and
they were neither few nor far between--did it on other grounds than
that of incapacity.

This was the popular view of that day at the new Capital. The country
at large had but little means of knowing the real stuff of which the
Cabinet was made. It is true, four of the six were old and thoroughly
broken party horses, who had for years cantered around the Washington
arena, till the scent of its sawdust was dear to their nostrils. But
the people knew little of them individually and took their tone from
the politicians of the past. So--as it is a known fact that politicians
are never satisfied--the Cabinet and Congress, as tr