Interior, and Judge E. Rockwood Hoar of Massachusetts,
Attorney-General, formed a strong triumvirate of ability and
character in the Cabinet. But, while Grant displayed pleasure in
the companionship of these eminent men, they never possessed his
complete confidence. When the machinations for place and favor
began, Hoar and Cox were in the way. Hoar had offended the Senate
in his recommendations for federal circuit judges (the circuit
court was then newly established), and when the President named
him for Justice of the Supreme Court, Hoar was rejected. 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