American telegraph. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1851-1851, 1851-07-12
81 For teegrapho reports and correspondence, SO
third page.
THE DEPARTMENTS AT WASHINGTON.
NUMBER SIX


THE DEPARTMENTS AT WASHINGTON.
NUMBER SIX.
There should be TENURE to all the ofhces
in the Departments. The reasons why there
should be must be obvious to all who will reflect
upon the subject. The principle itself is po-
litical axiom. No officer should be retained in
office forever; and, on the other hand, no man
ought to be asked to accept an Office to-day,
and be liable to removal from it tomorrow, at
the mere caprice Of another who happens to be
higher in authority than he. Both the Govern
ment and the officer have an interest which is
periiled by such uncertainty. There is certain
labor to be performed, requiring the skill, the
attachments, the experience of officers schooled
in the routine and details of the business of the
Departments, which none but veteran in the
service can well perform. Time is requisite to
the attainment Of that knowledge. And yet
that officer should not be retained SO long in
Office as that he should cease to remember that
he is one of the people, and until he actually
believes he holds by right of prescription, much
less by right divine
This should not be. His commission should
at least expire, that his merit if he have any,
may have an opportunity to suggest that no is
one of the indispensables! 1t is sadly true that
there are too many useless fixtures attached to
the Departments, remaining there more for
ornament than use, and who would at least be
liable to be swept out at the general renovation,
to give room for more substantial furniture. 1t
is the interest of the Government that all its |
officers be active and efficient. To have such, |
the terms should not be too short, nor yet too
long. If the period be too short, the Govern
ment would suffer by the apprentices leaving
just as he has acquired his trade; if too long |
the Government would suffer by retaining at |
journeyman's wages d superannuated dotard, |
mere stipendiary, !" for the good he has done
in his day !''
The Government should avoid both extremes.
1t would greatly promote its own interest, as
well as the interests Of the officers, by employing
such only as are efficient, and by remunerating
them, SO that its dependents" may retire upon
competency ere they arrive at that age and
infrmity which render them mere pensioners,
mentally and physically unable to return the
guild pro quo, the equivalent for the money they
draw from the Treasury.
No government, or, at least, no republic,
should be 80 ungrateful as to ask one Of it's
citizens to accept an Office to his own injury.
A tenure to the Office is necessary to indem-
nifty him against this hazard.
To illustrate, we viii take clerk in one Of
the Departments. Clerks are taken, as every
body knows, as they should be, from every part
of the country If he is as competent as he
should be, he makes great sacrifices in business
at home; and is, besides at considerable ex-
pense before he finds himself settled down in
Washington. All this he does upon the most
tickle Of all assurances-the political fortunes
Of his party, or the continuance Of his friends
in power; he being liable, without adequate
cause, to be thrust out Of Office the next day,
or the next week after entering upon his Off
cial duties, when he again has to sell off his
furniture at q sacrifice, and, if he can raise
sufficient means, take up the line of march, and
retrace his steps, to renew what has by loss of
time and former advantages become O hopeless
competition in whatever profession or enterprise
he may engage.
The term Of Office fixed upon in our article of
yesterday may not be unobjectionable. 1t seems
to be rather long, yet, in making q practical
classification, it would be difficult to fix upon
shorter period without great detriment to the
service, which would arise from putting out
more than one-third of the whole number of the
clerks engaged, at the same time. Each incom-
ing administration having power to place in the
Departments one-third of the whole number,
even the seeming objection is overcome, in
great measure, by the reflection that, to pre-
serve the continuous and uniform practice of the
Departments necessary to the proper perform
ance Of the duties, ii is essential that very
large proportion of the old clerks be retained
We expect to advert to this part of the SUBJ
ject in, another number, in connexion with other
reforms proposed; and may, if it is not belabor-
ing point already self-evident, prove that the
want of this feature in the Offices Of the Depart
ments is an anomaly even in the appointing
power.
A BEAUTIFUL SURGICAL OPERATION. Samuel
Vane, q free black man, from twenty to thirty
years old, was taken to the Washington infrm-
airy on the 9th of May last, entirely blind, one
eye being totally destroyed, and the other
closed from intense inflammation Of the iris 1t
was thought to be q hopeless case, but Pro-
feseor STONE knowing TINT II afforded tba onl,r