The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1853-05-19
THE REPUB LIC.
WASHINGTON:
THURSDAY MORNING. MAY 10. 1853.
Biographical Favoritisn


| A Washington correspondent of the New
York Courier and Enquirer, under date of thu
18th instant says:
1.-THE total number of dismissals from Office a
Washington since March 4th has been two hun
bred and fifty. The indications still are tina
| there will be complete renovation on or befors
the first of July. One of the abuses which hal
crept into the appointment system here is to be
especially aimed at. This is the local or geogra
phical favoritism which gives an undue share Of
the Offices to Maryland, Virginia, and this District
| Maryland has seventy-one clerks, while by popu-
| lation and representation she should have but
! twelve. Ohio, with more than four times her
white population, has but thrty-four clerks in
Office. Virginia, entitled by white population to
| about half the number due to Ohio has over a
hundred in the several branches of public ser.
vice in this city. A few years since had occa.
sion to investigate this matter and found that
one-half the persons in public employment here
belonged to the Federal District and the two ad
joining States.''
The writer does not tell us in what sense
these men ''belonged to the Federal District
and the two adjoining States" If because of
being born therein, his statement is incorrect.
The Federal District and the two adjoining
States are the homes of all persons who enter
upon clerkships here, and must necessarily be
SO until the perfection of Mr.. RuFus PoRrER's
erial steam car, by means of which a clerk
may travel thousand miles with facility to
his work before nine in the morning, and re-
turn in time to dine after three in the afternoon,
Inasmuch as but few succeed in outstanding
very ample fortune out of three or four dollars
day, in two, three, or four years, and iras-
much as the public business is not believed to
be better executed by new than by experienced
clerks, it is quite possible that in the future, as
in the past, many will be continued for
longer period than single administration.
This being admitted, it follows as further
probability that convenient homes in :" the
Federal District and the two adjoining States"
will still be found by many of these persons,
and that some of them will not scruple even
to exercise the rights of citizenship in these
their places of abode. To voluntarily refrain
from doing so would be very unjust in them,
and to prevent their doing so would be equally
unjust in the Government.
The city of Washington must either
profit by the presence of the General Gov
eminent or not exist. 1t was founded with
reference to that very thing. No product
i've surrounding country called for its crea-
ton; no great converging thoroughfares i'm
perceptibly formed the nucleus of city; no
deep harbor and natural wharves suggested
the idea of commerce upon the adjacent banks
of the Potomac. The site was chosen rather
because of the absence Of these advantages;
and thus far but little has been done toward
improving and extending the city that has not
had special reference to its continued existence
as the National Capital.
An eminent American jurist, indeed, once
replied to proposition to remove the seat of
Government, that upon the contamination of
such project every property holder and every
man of business in the city of Washington
would in equity be entitled to indemnity for
in establishing himself.
Prominent among the advantages this city
Possesses as the National Capital is that of
Comprising among its citizens the intelligent
and numerous body of men who fill the subor-
dinate offices of the Government; and in their
adoption as citizens there appears to be pc.
culiar fitness, from the fact that abstinence
from the turmoils of partisan politics enjoined
upon Office holders by the spirit of our institu-
tons and the recommendations of all our wisest
statesmes, is necessity under our exclusion
from the elective franchise in national contests.
1t is true that, except in the simple act of
voting, this exclusion has not Of late wears
been observed but the modern usage is the
result of the very evil against which we are
now contending.
This new idea adds still another to the
many forced reasons for eternally tampering
with the machinery Of Government and keep
ing the business of every Department in dis
order and confusion. A constant succession of
changes, the frequently recurring rewards for
oft-repeated services, the tenure of office upon
the uncertain caprice of the appointing power
these appear to be the ideas of our political
perfectionists. Not only must A be dismissed
to make room for B, because A sympathzes
with the minority for the time, and B with
the majority, but c, who is of the majority
must be dismissed to make room for D, who is
on the same side, because G is guilty of taking
unto himself a wife and having children born
to him in the Capital city of his county,
city that has thus become endeared to him as
home, and in which there are for him but
few opportunities of earning a livelihood, aside
from his accustomed employment in Gov
eminent office.
In the cities of Boston, New York. Phila
delphia, Baltimore, &c., commerce and the
mechanic arts, which are the prevailing pur-
suits, afford opportunities to all; in certain
maritime towns, in which the Government has
public works in progress, there is no crime in
claiming ones abode, or even his nativity; and
where the strife of warfare arises, an army is
raised without the whisper of an objection
based upon the local residence Of any of its
constituent members; but in the city of Wash
ington, where each laboring clerk must have
his residence, and where his compensation and
prospects together are at the best not superior
to those of the generality of men in other pur
suits in other communities, to be worthy of
retention in anV pOsition one must he shle IN