The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1872-04-13
C;yyI, SERVICE REFORM.

The proposition to appropriate $50, 900 to
carry out the plan of Civil Service Reform,
recommended by tho commission, was lost
in the House on Thursday by a very decisive
vote. The discussion was very warm, and
largely participated in by members of the
House. The plan Of the commissioners
seemed to be generally condemned, even
by those who favored an appropriation to
help on the work Of reforming the service.
The Democrats made the discussion an &C.
casion to snarl and bark at the administra-
ton, but they made no hearty fight on
either side of the question. The measure
failed from general conviction on the part
of the Republican members of the House
that its adoption would be construed by
the departments and the country into an
endorsement Of the plan Of the commits
sion. The interest felt by the most saga
cious leaders of the Democracy in securing
the adoption of that plan may well induce
on our part the most searching scrutiny
into its effect upon the organization of the
Republican party.
Tho honest application of that plan,
opens the civil service equally to both par
ties. 1t is useless to deny this fact, or
blind ourselves to its consequences. The
commission recommends that political
opinions aud sympathies should not be con-
sidered in making appointments, but only
intellectual qualifications and moral charac-
ter. We have before discussed this matter
at length. After hearing an extended and
exhaustive discussion of the matter in both
Houses in Congress, we have seen no reason
to exchange our views from those expressed
some weeks since. We believe that the
existence of the Republican party is essen
tial to the safety of the nation. We should
esteem its disarmament the signal of
anarchy and retrogression. Born of the
great revolution, which it has organized
AMI guided so far to benefcent issues, we
feel that the time has not come when it's
work can be safely RENTED to mex
perienced and unskilled hands, especially
to those hostile to its principles. That
party to which the people entrusted the
safety and honor Of the country, in
the greatest civil war Of modern times,
cannot safely admit to equal participation
in the government, the party which made
the war and whose leaders still cling to the
principles and traditions for which they took
up arms to divide the country. ..-...
Whatever may be the case with in
diyidual members, the controlling influences
Of the Democratic party are as hostile to
the exercise Of National Powers by the
Federal government in behalf of the rights
of its citizens to-day as they were, in 1860,
to the use of the war power to preserve
the nation from destruction. Their lead
ing papers TEEN with denunciation and
abuse of every law made to secure rights
to the citizen where state laws are made
quate. Their orators denounce General
Grant as a tyrant, and claim that he in
tends usurping the government by force,
because he uses the army to protect the
innocent against murdsrous conspiraces
too strong for the state authority, and
which where organized to intinidate the
citizen from voting as he pleased.
We are not in favor of admitting such
party to power. What Republican is?