The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1869-01-21
THE MORAL DIFFICULTY.

A very natural but unexpected difficulty
arises with regard to the probable working of
Mr.. Jenckes's bill for securing official ability
in the civil service In the problem Of obtain.
ing the right kind of men in public employ
ments the intellectual difficulty, when COM
pared with the moral difficulty, is no more than
a molehill to o mountain. 1t is easy enough
to subject candidates to such tests as will ex-
clude from important official trusts ignora-
muses. and imbeciles. And even in the absence
Of any provision of this nature, experience
proves that there is infinitely more likelihood
of mischief in the civil service from the dis
honesty OF capable incumbents than from the
incapacity of honest incumbents. There is, to
lie sure, no lack Of impudent stupidity in the
ways where office-seekers prowl aud whisper,
or swell and vociferate But it is safe to say
that, in either the clamorous or clandestine
class of office-seekers, there are ten accom-
plished knaves for one presumptuous Ounce;
and that where one incompetent though we'll
meaning aspirant obtains place in which
the opportunities and rewards of corrup-
ton are large, fifty competent but design
ing and untIustworthy aspirants manage
to get into positions of this character. Ig-
norance, folly and fanaticism on the part of
men charged with grave public duties have
wrought, beyond question, terrible amount
of harm. But, after ALL it is the clever, I'M
principled, INSCRIPTIONS politicians ana
place hunters who are the most dangerous to
the public welfare and safety. A country may
survive civil distractions and civil conflicts
resulting from political mistakes and popular
frenzies; but it can not always withstand the
drains which chronic and increasing official
corruption stabs into its vital resources. In
the light of such reflections as these, MIR.
Jenckes's bill for guaranteeing maximum of
capacity in the civil service, is found wofully
inadequate to the emergency. You may meas
ure an applicants intellectual qualifca-
tons, but how are you to test his moral
calibre? How are you to explore those
gloomy caverns of the moral nature where
lurk, as yet spectral and impalpable,
the yonne devils of meditated and potential
crime? You may, let US suppose, be able
to put hook in the nose OF Levia.han, or
track Behemoth to his lair; but you will
never, though you bring to the task the
calcium light of the most searching exanina-
ton, be able to expose the secrets Of the
oflice-seeker's conscience aud seize and hold
up for inspection whatever undeveloped pro-
pensities to venality and peculation may coil
and slumber there. 1t is possible, then, that
the most important positions in the civil SER
vice may be filed by men intellectually quail
fed in the highest measure, but morally unfit
and unworthy in the profoundest. 1t is true
that MIR. Jenckes's plan, though it allows a
life tenure to competent and upright incum-
bents, provides for the removal of such as
may be convicted of malfeasance. Bat con-
viction Of malfeasance is precisely what the
clever rascal in Office will avoid to the last, if
it is possible to be avoided. And yet, under
Mr. Jenckes's plan, no rascal that is not
clever could gain admission to the civil
service. Once in, he might count on life
tenure of rascality, however much suspected,