Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1872-03-20

bniIlJ anu COuCCuLIdL6 tue WuOlS DdlEoun-
of this Government in three hands, becaus
it comes to that, for when your three mel
may say who shall be appointed they bav
got the patronage, what then? You ar
Just concentrating this bAleful influence upOI
men which the Senator says is too much fol-
thirty.
Mr.. EDMUNDs. There would be little
force in that argu nent iC the thirty stood in
the same relation to US that the three do
Mr.. CARPENTER. Do they not ?
Mr.. EDNUNDs. Let me answer one qaes-
JIon before you ask another. There W 5ud
be force in the suggestion if the thirty acted
together the three do; but the honorable
Senator is perfectly aware that all these De-
partments and the bureaus in the are the
subjects of separate influence. | agree, u
you had all appointm eats made now by a
congress Of all the heads of the Departments
and all the heads of divisions in them, il
/ they could have time to take up and canvass
| each man, you would make great improve
ment upon the public service; but the hoa-
] Orable Senator knows perfectly well that it
| is impracticable, that the business of the
! Government requires them TO do something
else. Therefore the increase Of tie number
Of these people to thirty, if it he thar, does
not add to the Senator argument at all, be
cause each one acts Independently and sepa-
ratelY Of the Others and they exercise no
restraining or controlling influence over him
at all
As WIS stating, if you create a separate
and independent tribunal whose business it
l., under rules which are no, capriciOus, but
which are binding and absolute, u test the
capacity OF certain people 10 respect t. their
abuity - administer public affairs, thea |
submit To my honorable friend from Wisc0n-
SIN that out of one hundred men who should
thus be subjected u the test and one hundred
who should b, subjected To hIs whim or mine
OF that OF all the Sen itOrs here acting sepa-
rdtely and from the various States, the one
hundred thus selected would be much the
| best.
\ good deal h4s b,en said about the fulfill
ty Of these examinations The hoaOrabl-
senator from Illinois MIR. Logan has stated
some of them that he has found, where after
an examination improper reports have been
made. Suppose il were true: suppose you
can tni an instance, a. dare say you could
II these regulations were TO 70 into force,
out OF Il thousand you might tin1 hundred
possibly, it may be fifty, certainly ten, "a
numan nature =, whe-e there had been mi-
takes, where there hai bsen gross error or
corruption what does that prove IL proves,
according % the -nator, that YOU musJ ab H.
Ish the whole thing. Go into the State OF
" WisconsIn or Vermont, Two States where
D-llCFC tlC ADMINISTRATION ol justice y -
pure as anywhere, and look at one hundred
verdicts OF Juries in any county IN those
States, and you will lind ten OF them which
he and | on examining the testimony would
say were either corrupt or erroneous some
times both ; what then ruat We must
abolish jury trial Or must we break down
the courts because 1t happens that courts be
ing fallible and human sometimes err or are
sometimes corrupt | d. not believe that
you are q obtain a perfect service; you can
never obtain par.ect serve ans more than
anything else perfect 40 this world. ami par
cIcuIIrly You cannot OBTAIN &c the very mo
ment YOU step On it. threshold AMI b-L.u T.
try the experiment
Ny hOaOrabe trie NJ from Wisconsin with
all his law-iearning is not Ignorant OF that
sVlrulid MAXIM ct philosophy hioh ure-
c.ies the reports Of the East, mini smut est
iareat tuH et psrfect4m. nothing Is begun that
Is perfect at the same time save those mag
nthceut creations of the Fatler of Us all.
Nothing that human beings undertake to in
vent and set on foot VIII be perfect in the
ir-t place. Why. Mr.. President, you might
IS well abolish al, steam engines on the
ground that tho first faint attempt of Watts,
or OF Stephenson, or whoever It night be.
we're not altogether adequate t. the occasion;
they would be rejected nJw as utter lOOlerles !;
and yet her We are tJ re ect an experiment
IN the way of civil service re Orm and i'm
prOvcm-lt merely because 1t Is lOdnd that as
IN experiment and before 1t Is really on it,
feet t. be tarted all, particular criticisms
can be mad, upon II.
Mr.. President, 1 aIn sorry indeci that the
people OF this country represented here are
unwilling - try % put appointments to pu)
he O.fce upon the same b .-,- thar Washing
ton and Adams ami Jefferson aad Madison
put them; and that system which for forty
years, not administered by Jne sane me.han
zeal methods, but whose ultimate purpose
VA for forty years y se.est the {. 81 CITIZENS
capable Of pert JrnInS public dates without
regard % their religion )r their political
opinions, AMI - employ them ii the per
iormancc OF those duties 50 long as they did
them we'll, sloulI now again be entirely
aba adoned the moment we are u try it, upon
the ground that the machine when first
started does not work smoothly.
Mr.. President, some reference has been
made to the CONSTITUTE N about tons business,
and it has been said thlt we are trenehng
IN constitutional power. | should be sorry
To occupy the time IN demonstrating, as
think l can, that that arsu nent has NJ .Orce
We have for many years, in many ways, anu
we have from the foundation Of the Govern
nent, reLulttet the exercise OF executive
power well as Of judicial power and we
have in the one instance OF the Army Tor
many years regulated by law the meth DDS o
selection Of officers, ana regulated literally
and absolutely by law the methods OF pro-
motion in the Army.
The power OF the President to appoint and
promote IN the Army is derivei rom pre-
clsely the same clause and precisely the same
words in the Constitution that the power tG
appoint and promote in civil Offices Is. II,
therefore, the law may regulate and compe
him to promote, if he promotes at all, par
tiuclar man in the Army, may not the law
under the same words in the Consultation
regulate and compel him IN the administra
ton of his duty to promote ptrttcular man
in the civ; service, if he p omotes at all
IL is impossible t. dstingu SD. | have here
a list of more than twenty cases, and | can
swell it u fifty lrO n ths iOun1ltlOl OF the
GJvernment, where legislation has in all
manner of ways regulated and controlled the
exercise of the powers which the CInstitu-
tion repOsed in the President; and it has
rarely been, almost never, until this question
has arisen, that that power of regulation by
law of the administration Of executive func-
tons has been qLe ,tIoned.
But | DO no5 in this side debate, so to
speak, desire to occupy the attention of the
Senate and increase their ImpatIence at what
have already said, by going intoit. only
hope now, without enlarglng on this topic,
as 1 might, without g ing into these regula-
tons or into the system that under them and
before them, under the act Of 1858, has been
adopted in the Departmental only hope
that the Senate will BE- willing to 90 ON with
The confidence which they expressed in the
President year ago, AMI to enable him to
try in some way, and upon his own resp5n
slbIlity, the experiment OF making some I'M
prOvement in tue direction | have named
The END OF THE WoRLD.-To thousands
this is no fiction,-no illusion of an over