He was the confidential friend, the eloquent eulogist, of Henry Winter Davis, and had by service in both House and Senate won general recognition as a man of ability and great moral courage.
These four appointments met with general approbation.

If their names had not all been anticipated, they were nevertheless welcome to the great mass of the Republican party.

Two other nominations created general astonishment.

Alexander T.Stewart, the well-known merchant of New York, was named for Secretary of the Treasury; and Adolph E.
Borie of Philadelphia, long known in that city as a man of probity and wealth, was named for Secretary of the Navy.

No new nomination was made for Secretary of War, and the hope with many was that General Schofield might be continued in a place whose duties he had so faithfully and so successfully discharged.
The President was very anxious to have Mr.Stewart in his Cabinet, and was therefore surprised and chagrined to find, after he had been nominated, that under the law he was not eligible to the office of Secretary of the Treasury.