The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-01-05
General Grant and His Relations to the
Civil Service,
Nom the N. Y. Times.

General Grant and His Relations to the
Civil Service.
From the ~ Y. Times.
The HOLIDAYS are over and the Government
machine at Washington resumes its work.
Congress reassembles to-day; the clerks
of the various departments will again be at
their desks; and, what is more important than
all, General Grant has returned to the capital.
For although he holds no official position but
that of an officer in the army, and has nothing
whatever to do with any branch of the civil
administration, no one can fail to see that he
is regarded by the country as the central
figure OF the whole nation-as the pivot on
which the Government will turn for long
time to come.
There is in the country a widespread feeling
of apprehension and alarm. Each section has,
of course, its own special reasons for misgiving
and fear. But above and beyond these local
and special apprehensions, there is a general
impression that our public affairs are, on the
whole, in a bad way-and that none but very
vigorous and resolute measures will put them
right. We have an enormous debt, aud the
steps taken to tighten the burdens which it
imposes are feeble and inadequate. The col
lection OF the vast revenues of the nation is
fttul, partial, and tainted with corruption.
Public service has come to be almost synony-
nous with public fraud. The idea of seeking
or filing Office for the honor it confers or the
reputation to be won by an able and upright
performance of its duties, has almost died out
of the public mind.
Office is sought now as means of wealth.
for the opportunities it affords for public
plunder; and the number of men seeking it
with such views, and by such means as are
required, is increasing year by year with
frightful rapidity. Tue curse which cripples
Spain in her efforts at progress, and which is
at once the attendant and precursor of cor
j.. S..NA rax,1,.
and vigorous nation. In spite of our energy
and of the boundless field for private effort
open to all, we are becoming nation Of poll
ticians. An enormous army of Office-seekers
increasing in numbers and in audacity-is
growing up among us, dependent on getting
and keeping the offices through which the
administration of the Government is carried on.
And everywhere we find new development
of the Ring" power--the power by which the
few, acting in close combination, enlistipg
support by the use of money, of position, of
patronage, and every form of public and pri-
vate influence, virtually control the action OF
the various departments of the Government
and compel obedience to their behests. In
every branch of effort depending on the action
of the Government, and receiving from it,
directly or indirectly, large sums OF money,
these "rings' are found to bs the real au-
thority. In the Indian Department, in rail-
road grants, steamship subsidies, the collec-
tion of the whisky or the tobacco tax, in the
tariff regulations-in short, in every form and
phase Of public action, these small compact
systematic organizations are found at the
sources alike OF the legislative and executive
power, shaping and controlling their action,
and constituting the real, effective government
| of the country.
The disastrous effect of such a state of things
is felt everywhere-not only in its immediate
losses to the public treasury, but in lowering
the tone OF public morals and in degrading
and demoralizing the public service. 1t tends
TO make ofice-holding the least respectable o
all positions, whereas it ought to be the mos
| honorable.
Whether with or without reason, the country
looks to General Grant to remedy this state o
things. His integrity of purpose, his single
minded regard for the public honor and wei
fare, and his complete and unique disinter
estedness inspire general confidence in hi
desire to correct the evil, while the unex
ampled hold he has on the public confidence
and the readiness of all classes and all par
ties to applaud and uphold him in every
effort he may make for the accomplishment
of that end, give him advantages for under
taking it which no other President for many
years has enjoyed.
The whole country expects to see Genera
Grant enter, at his accession, upon bold
resolute, and determined crusade against th
| cOrluptlonS ana ABUSES Ol Tue uOVernmouL
and the bolder and more reselute he makes it
the more completely will he be sustained.
But he ought not to be hampsred or fet-
tered at the outset in the measures he may
deem essential to the work. The Tenure of
Office bill-just as it is in some of its princi
ples-ought not TO stand in his way. 1t un
questionably deprives him of the power hi
needs for the reforms which the country
requires. Every department of the publi
service is filed by men incompetent for the
duties or dishonest in their performance. Bu
he cannot get rid of one OF them without the
previous assent and concurrence OF the Senate
There is no reason whatever why this stat
of things should continue, nor is there an.
good reason why the Senate should desire Il
retain this power in its hands. Under the
Constitution, the Senate has a large aud i'm
portant share in the Executive power of ap
pontment. Now that we have a President il
political accord with the Senate, that bod!
ought to be content with the power II enjoy
under the fundamental law of the land.
The Tenure-of- Office bill ought to be re
pealed. General Grant should be left entirel
free to undertake and execute such reform
in the civil service as its necessities require
II Congress sees the wisdom of making goo
behavior the sole tenure of Office, let it adop
Jenokes' Civil Service bill. But until som
general provisions of this sort are adopted
General Grant should have the full power owe
appointments and removals which the COnsti