Do not understand me as desiring to say anything to the prejudice of General Harlan. I know him enough to like him personally and to esteem him highly. I should think he would make a creditable Secretary of War or of the Interior. You probably know better than I do whether in a professional point of view he would come up to the standard which with regard to the Attorney-Generalship should be adhered to. That place has within the last eight years suffered some degradation, and it would, as I venture to suggest, be well to fill the position of the first law officer of the Government once more with the first order of legal ability, so as to lift it up again to its true level of dignity and usefulness. His recognized standing as a jurist should give to the opinions of the Attorney-General the weight of high authority. This office may become of particular importance in your Administration, since, as I learn from good sources, Tilden has become a sort of monomaniac on the Presidency and seriously thinks of resorting to quo warranto proceedings after the verdict of the Electoral Commission has gone against him. Considering all this, it might appear advisable to have somebody in the Attorney-General's office coming as near as possible to Mr. Evarts in standing and ability, and perhaps Mr. Evarts himself might render there more useful and important service even than in the State Department.
The more I consider the circumstances surrounding you and the task before you, the necessity of getting at once a strong hold upon the confidence of the best elements of the people, and the adverse influences you will have to encounter, the more desirable does it seem to me that your Cabinet should contain the greatest possible amount of positive strength of character, reputation, ability and purpose, in the direction of those aims the attainment of which will be the real success and merit of your Adminis-
