American telegraph. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1851-1851, 1851-07-02


As- For telegraphc reports and correspondence see
third page.
THE DEPARTMENTS AT WASHINGTON.
NUMBER THREE.
The duties required of each bureau are more
important than persons unacquainted with the
public service are apt at first to believe. The
humble title of clerk is by no means indicative
of the nature of these duties nor should the
meagre attainments of some who are foisted
upon the Departments be taken as a standard
of qualification. Officers of this description are
indeed sometimes placed in the higher POSITIONS
where it is notorious that the subalterns under
them must both direct and execute the duties
The qualifications required are very varied, and
the responsibilities always call for the exercise
of great judgment, intelligence, and prudence.
The clerk, also, while he should officially and
socially hold intercourse with the most intelli-
gent members of the community, and Of those
who visit the national Capital, can, under ex-
listing circumstances, hope for no elevation in
his position or increase in his income, but must
toll increasingly, insecure even in the place he
occupies, and live upon more limited means
than do any Of his equals and associates in
society.
Professional clerks in all other situations in
the country have their eyes upward, and from
year to year derive increased recompense on
account of increased efficiency, or exchange the
place of the employed for that of the employer.
1t is by no means an uncommon thing to hear
/, the declaration made by men Of ample expert
ence, that five hundred dollars, with the pros
poets of merchants accountant in CONNER
cial city, are preferable to thousand in the
service of the Government with all its uncer-
tainty of tenure, and the almost certain inabil-
ity of ascending to higher grade
Why then, it may be asked, are these places
sought? Why, we ask in response, are men un-
fortunate Why do able men make occasional
false moves and become so Frustrated in the
very zenith of their fame and usefulness as to
be obliged to seek with avidity any possible
means of sustaining their families in respecta-
bility and independence? Are we to take ad-
vantage of their necessities, and to receive them
into the public service but to dispirit and de-
grade them?
Among the ordinary clerks in Washington
may at this moment be found men who have
been prosperous and able merchants, lawyers,
physicians, editors, mechanics, judges, repre-
sentatives in Congress, and even governors of
their States; and yet every species Of knowl-
edge they possess is daily brought into requisi-
ton in the Offices they occupy, and it is often for
tunate for the Government that the light of the
experience of such men can be obtained in its
10 md - oil 10
them as mere operating scribes; many of them
are called upon to perform far higher duties
and all should be adequate to their performance.
These things are pretty well understood in
Washington, and it has grown into proverb,
that they who labor for the welfare of the Gov
eminent are but earning fame for the idle and
inefficient who are placed over them.
We are aware of the existence of very gen.
eral belief, that all efforts to disconnect the
public business from political intrigue and per-
sonal favoritism will be unavailing yet, when
it is considered that Congress, in its individu-
atty, has but triing interest in these respects
to subserve, and that that interest, in most
cases, involves more Of hazard than Of benefit,
it would seem that the higher duty Of promot-
ing the public good would encounter no obsta-
Gle from that source; and it is difficult to be-
lieve that our Government has made such
mighty strides in corruption as that already the
executive arm controls the legislative SO that,
in any view that may be taken of the subject,
we think it is only necessary to show to Con-
gress the evils which now exist, and the prac-
ticabihty Of remedy, to insure q speedy and
efectual corrective, as far as legislative action
can supply it.
The prevailing habits Of exclusiveness on the
part Of Secretaries, the unreasonable distance
placed between them and their clerks, the arbi-
trary power of appointment and removal, and
the great number of lesser dignitaries found in
the existing organization, constitute, in our
Judgment, some of the prominent evils to be
corrected
Upon the first of these we shall not comment,
further than to set it down as a consequence
flowing from power and patronage.
The second, being more important to our pre-
sent purpose, will need some elaboration, and
shall form the topic of our next article on this
subject.
A SINGULAR CAsE.-Within couple Of weeks
past very nne-looklng Ilsn peolar, Wen
known in the neighborhood, was found nearly
Naked and dead, on the road between Harper's
Ferry and Lovettsyille, in Loudoun county, Va
The persons who found him somehow took up
the notion that he had died of smallpox, and
forthwith dug grave near by and buried him
A few days since, some of the neighbors re.
opened the grave and examined the body, wher
it was found that he had died by violence. W.
are further informed that articles, identified q,