Secretary of The Interior
Cox was appointed Secretary of the Interior by Ulysses S. Grant upon his inauguration in March 1869, serving until November 1870. He was an effective advocate of civil service reform and introduced a merit system for appointees. However, after President Grant failed to back him up against party politicians, who thrived on the patronage system then rampant in the Interior Department, Cox resigned. Grant's own view on Cox's resignation however was that, "The trouble was that General Cox thought the Interior Department was the whole government, and that Cox was the Interior Department."
Read more about this topic: Jacob Dolson Cox
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