Staunton spectator, and general advertiser. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 183?-1849, 1845-10-09
GOVERNMENT PATRONAGE.

Review" The last number of that nerod;cal
contains an article specially devoted to this sub
ject !
II appears that the General Government al
Washington controls the appointment, OF about !
fourteen thousand pos,-mas,ers, about fourteen !
thousand deputies, or clerks, about three thousand
mail contractors and agents, and about two thou
sand revenue and lighthouse officers, making in
all some thirty-three thousand public dependents,
whose duties are local, ID whose residences are
scattered through every township and village in
our country.
Every State Government, it is estimated, has.
IN addition, patronage averaging a, least two
Thousand appointments Of a similar character,
making ffty-four thousand, which, added to the
shrty-three thousand already mentioned, make
eigh,y-seven thousand men. This is of course
entirely exclusive of all Cabinet officers, State
and national, and their troops of clerks and de-
pendents; OF the army and navy lists, embracing
their thousands; OF the whole diplomatic and
consular corps; the registers, receivers, survey
ors, and other officers connected with the admin
astrat,on OF our public land system; the Indian A.
2eacses, and OF most potent, and, perhaps,
more numerous class, the jobbers and contractors
upon government works, and the providers un-
0et government contracts. Exclusive of these
iast' we md e:ghty-seven thousand men distri-
outed over our country, more or less dependent
upon public pa'roDage, or, rather, upon those by
whom It Is dispensed. This figure includes no
women or children. 1t refers only to men arrived
at their political maturity, and in the yieor of
manhood. Supposing every such man to support
three persons-and this is moderate estimate of
she product OF every mans industry in society
these eighty-seven thousand would represent the
capital, the social and political substance of TWO
hundred and sixty-one thousand inhabitants.
Besides the actual ncumben,s of office, the
number OF those applying for office and expecting
lt Is too great uat IN,
dwells upon the evils resulting from this state of
things and sums them up:
"But 1t Is idle to multiply objections to the
prevailing systems of appointment to Office Ii
Will be sufficiently conclusive upon all who es-
TEEN the end of government to be the welfare of
me governed mat cenlralizing power by patron
age In the hands OF executive officers tends,
l. 10 interfere with and obslruct the fair rem
resentatlon of the public will.
by organizing and disposing an army of in
nuen'ial men about the country, interested in per-
Petuatlng a particular governmental policy from
other motives than the public good.
2-by aggregating the people into large par
Ties upon few questions OF common interest bv
which all minor and local interests are swallow
ed Ups and in The name Of party fidelity the cil-
zen Is sacrificed to the partisan.
III. That 1t leads to the selection of incompe-
tent and unsatisfactory public officers.
l-Because an Executive can have no adequate
opportunity or means to investigate the claims of
Inc various applicants, and
q. lie is under continual temptation to Sc
iect available instruments to serve his own poljt-
lcal ends rather than competent officers 10 serve
those OF the public.
III. mat II creates temptation to multiply
oihces Tor the purpose of creating or rowardInp
political or personal friends.
~. mat 1t tends to bring into dscredit the
character and reputation of men who have fairly
Of 4
rity and capacity as men and as statesmen, and
also
". follower the standard of the public SER
vice ny creating an interest favorable 10 the Sc
iecllon OF INSCRIPTIONS officers.
VI. That 1t tends to interfere previously with
the liberty OF opinion and Of discussion by SUBJ
]ecling the political sentiments of all classes to
the most unrelenting party tyranny"
For the evils aud the inevitable corruption thus
set forth, what remedy is prescribed The Re-
view. hnds It's panacea in the representative prin-
ciPle-ihat is, 1t would make all public officers e.
lectlve immediately by the people. What an inef-
ficent remedy!
1t must be apparent that the eager competition
ior once which now spreads so far and wide, pro-
duclng excltements and conflicts i'm society.
would not be at all essened if every Office now
IN the gilt OF the Executive authority were made
Immediately elective.-The probability that il
would be Increased, and made more general and
more violent, amounts almost to a certainty. Nor
is there any reason TO suppose that better men
would be put In office; the presumption is the
o'her way. Whether it is more corrupting to
nolo once by Executive appointment, with the
dependence implied thereby, or to obtain it by
playing The demagogne to the people, is ques-
ton which the Review itself may determine.
fuoiic virtue, high integrity and competent abil-
lily are not necessarily implied in either case.
full Illustration of tho elective system and
ats results Is given in hsiory--for it is not now
Tor the hrst time that democracy has existed in
the world, In connection with ullraisms. In the
republic of Athens the absorption of power by
the mass of the people became so complete that
even the military commanders were elected by
Inc populace. On one occasion when set Of
men were made generals because they had made
themselves demagogues, grave philosopher pro-
posed that by decree OF the people donkeys
should be made horses--a thing quite as much in
their power as to create able generals by merely
calling them so. The reform in the Athenian ju-
dietary was likewise on The most democratic ba-
Sis. Not only were the judges elective, but they
were CHOSEN specially for every important case !;
and Inc people In crowds Surrounded them while
the trial proceeded, in order to aid the decision Of
the bench by prompt infusion of their essential
sovereignty.
1t any mode can be devised by which grea-
ter amount OF true patriotism can be generated
and made active, by which men could be made
as sensitive to the obligations of their duties as
they are Jealous of what they consider their rights
and c!aims-it there were more regard for the
general good and less for individual professions,
1t is very probable that the workings of our polit-
zeal machine would go on without needing 10 be
constantly tInkered. 1t appears however that
evils from Time TO time are developed, and then
this remedy is tried and then another; and the
body polite does not seem to be in healthy con-
dltlon after all. But the uis medicairir nature
will no doubt yindicate itself at last, and by the
force of its own vitality throw off the maladies in