t is a
political position and he knew nothing of politics."[1348] The
sacrifice of the best men among his cabinet advisers added greatly to
this unrest. In one of his letters, Lowell, unintentionally
overlooking Hamilton Fish, declared that E. Rockwood Hoar and Jacob D.
Cox were "the only really strong men in the Cabinet."[1349] After the
latter's forced resignation and the former's sudden exit to make room
for a Southern Republican in order to placate carpet-bag senators for
the removal of Sumner, the great critics of the Administration again
cut loose. "How long," asked Bowles, "does the President suppose the
people will patiently endure this dealing with high office as if it
were a presidential perquisite, to be given away upon his mere whim,
without regard to the claims of the office? It was bad enough when he
only dealt so with consulates and small post-offices; but now that he
has come to foreign ministers and cabinet officers it is
intolerable."[1350]

[Footnote 1347: New York _Tribune_, April 13, 1872.]

[Footnote 1348: Cary, _Life of Curtis_, p. 213.]

[Footnote 1349: _Letters of_, Vol. 2, p. 57.

"There was undoubtedly great corruption and maladministration in the
country in the time of President Grant. Selfish men and ambitious men
got the ear of that simple man and confiding President. They studied
Grant, some of them, as the shoemaker measures the foot of his
customer."--Hoar, _Autobiography_, Vol. 1, p. 197.]

[Footnote 1350: Springfield (Mass.) _Republican_, November 12, 1870.]

Under these conditions Republicans had been losing strength. In the
election of 1870 their numbers, for the first time since 1864, had
fallen below a two-thirds majority in the national House, while the
Democrats gained four United States senators. In the same year Carl
Schurz, with the assistance of the Democrats, had carried Missouri on
the issue of universal amnesty. As the disaffection with the
Administration became more pronounced, this faction, assuming the name
of Liberal Republicans, met in convention at Jefferson City on January
24, 1872, and invited all Republicans who favoured reform to meet in
national mass convention at Cincinnati on May 1. This call acted like
a lighted match in a pile of shavings, prominent Republicans in every
State, including many leading newspapers, giving it instant and hearty
response. Among other journals in New York the _Nation_ and the
_Evening Post_ guardedly approved the movement, a