The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1871-02-16
NUMBER SO

mediation. And here the element of per-
sonal knowledge enters but rarely.
What must the consequences be2 Con-
slider our Senatorial duty to act in a judi
cial capacity on the corf ton or re-
lection of nominations " "a we our
selves, without personal knowledge of
the individual have aided in procuring.
and then look AT q case which haupcned
TO myself All the solicitation of a friend
on this floor I put my name to a recon-
mendation, in good faith, and on the
strength Of that paper, bearing many sig
natures, the President nominated the ap-
plicant; and when his name came before
the Senate, and we had to pass sentence
upon him, I learned things which, had
known them, would never have permit
ted me to join in the recommendation.
But there he was; and possibly my own
signature, together with those of other
Senators, had induced the President to
nominate him. What should we do when
called upon to confirm or reject the nom
nation? Reject nomination we our
selves had induced the President to maker
Or confirm it against the dictates of our
own consciences? q? Do you perceive the
conflict between duty and fairness which
the present way of doing things is so apt
to bring upoRus2 And I venture to say
that no session passes by without the oc-
currence of many similar cases. There,
then are recommendations with and with
out personal knowledge, extorted and
freely given, honest and dishonest; and
these are the things which are to guide
the appointing power in that most i'm
portant and difficult operation, the sud
den and hurried disorganizaticn and re-
organization of the whole of the admins
trative machinery. And. sir, this is not
the worst feature of the business. have
known instances where a regular Office
brokerage was established, and where
member of this Senate, not now here, a
gentleman of the most honored character
was induced by so-called friends to sign a
recommendation for a third Individual,
by which that third individual was to
obtain an appointment in one of the de-
partments. the "friend" having exacted
and obtained fee of 500 to procure the
signature of the Senator. The Senator
would have kicked that friend out Of his
presence had he any suspicion of the dis
honorable traffic. But 1 ask you, can
you tell, or can 1 tell, if we are facile
enough to sign papers at the request of
outside friends, that we have not fallen
into the same snare, and that yours and
my signature have not been sold by an
ofice-broker for money! Now. sir, you,
as an enlightened citizen of the world,
observing these things, find this rather
wild way in which the affairs of this great
republic are carried on at Washington.
You are somewhat bewildered, and you
extend your inquiries further, to ascer-
tain whether the same wild way prevails
everywhere else. You so to New York.
You visit the custom-house; you know
of the magnitude of the interests admin
istered there; you know that the reve-
nues of that Custom-house are now far
larger than were the revenues of the
whole government not great many
years ago; you notice how complicated
that tremendous machinery is, teeming
with weighers and gaHgers and inspectors
and appraisers and examiners and clerks
of all descriptions. A new collector has
just been appointed to direct and control
that mighty engine He is a sort of a
President on small scale. Being new
man you find him perplexed with the
greatness, variety, delicacy, and response
bility of his duties; duties new to him,
duties which, in their complexity, he will
not be able clearly to understand, much
less successfully to perform, without care
ful study and close application. And yet,
what is he doing? The same thing which
you found the President to be doing, and
the members of the Cabinet; he is dis
tributing offices. He Is overwhelmed
with applications. He has received in a
few days about fifteen thousand of them,
and the pressure of applicants and their
friends bids fair TO drive him crap. He,
> too, is obliged to take to pieces the whole
machinery of the Custom-house and to
reconstruct it again in a hurry You ask
him, why all this? He will tell you it is
: political necessity A political necessi-
ty, sirl Is not the first political necessi-
ty the conscientious and efficient collec-
ton of the revenue2 No. sir. He will
tell you that there is a political necessity
far above that, of much higher order
and you discover that the great Custom
house at New York is essentially a po-
litical machine. 1t is to control, as much
as possible, the politics of the City and
State OF New York in the interest of the
ruling party. Now, sir, what are the in
tiuences pressing upon that unfortunate
potentate, the collector? We heard the
, Senator from New York (Mr. Conkling)
, say the other day that he had carefully
abstained from making any reeommenda-
! tions for Office in the Custom house I
Certainly believe this assertion and all
honor to him for it. But 1 am sure that
: here we may behold not the rule, but an
exception: You may think that in New
York, things were in bad condition, but
at other places they would present them
selves differently. Go across the CONT
nent % Sanfrancisco, and you will find
exactly the same system working there,
leading to similar results. You will be
told there that under the prevailing sys-
TEN five collectors went out of Office as
defaulters to the government. You will
be told that under the law, officers are to
be examined before they are appointed
and yet the very heads of those estab-
lishments will at the same time, inform
you that the examination is mere farce
that as soon as the examining board
knows whom the collector wants appoint
ed the favorite candidates will pass the
examination without the least difficulty.
And SO you go from place to place, you