The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1872-08-06
CARL sgMURZ.
He veRtiiatcS GraaI's Bogus Civil
Service Reform,
The New York Custom House
Frauds.

aRe "a cW u 6rk eElS10 I'm Ill OtlSe
@ Frauds,
Sale of Arms to France to Kill Ger
a"' man Soldiers.
Frauds in The Navy and war De-
partlnenis.
Extract from Senator Carl schurz's Speech
| f- at st. Louis, July ".
Civil service reform and this admins
itFatieaAe The Lord deliver u.s. Thepen
which wrote the message laying before
Congress the new civil service regula-
tians, was Eet dry vet when it signed an
other paper ordering their suspension.-
The old traffic in offices continued with
out blush. For months and months
and from one end of the country to the
other the whole official force has been
engaged in pulling wires to dragoon the
party into the denomination of the Pres
lident. And this very moment the whole
civil service Of the country, from the
cabinet minister down to the meanest
postmaster, is employed with view to
the re election of the President, from
Maine to Oregon The Secretary of the
Interior has now become stranger to
the walls of his department; the Secre
tary of the Treasury has taken the stump
in North Carolina, to sing the praises of
| his master; the Secretary Of the Navy,if
| am rightly informed, will soon give his
chief, in like manner, the moral support
OF his guns, and the money Of the Gov
eminent, as we are assured on good AL
thority,is poured like water into the con-
tested States to effect what the urgency
OF Cabinet Ministers cannot accomplish.
need not tell you Of the business the
subordinate officers of the Government
are now so ardaously engaged in. Woe
TO the unfortunate place holder who
dares to call his soul his own and to ut.
ter doubt as to the perfections of his
master! He viii soon learn that men
car be reformed out of office as quickly
as iato it. '-1 assss ~.
Civil Service Reform! Never have
worthless favorites or political agents
been kept in profitable and responsible
places in bolder defiance OF principle and
public opinion. Never has the political
conscience of the office holder been more
despotically controlled Never has the
hand of the National Executive through
the patronage been more insolenuy
thrust INTO the business of legislation,as
well as the local politics of the State-ot
which we here in Missouri have an inter
esting tale to tell Never have the off
cers OF the republic, appointed to the
service of the country, more generally be-
ecome the servants of party and OF 8
man. And when uuder such circumstan-
ces we hear of the civil service reform
inaugurated by this Administration, we
have hight to call it an impudent mock
cry of the popular understanding; a
barefaced Jugglery attempted upon an
intelligent people; the prostitution of a
great cause. j trust the American peo-
pie will show their appreciation of it by
commencing the reform at the top.
Andayet, bad as all this may be, it is
by no means the worst feature of the
case. Bad as that policy may have been,
which, throwing aside those moral agen
eies apt to bring forth a fruitful co-ope,
| ration of the best clements in the South,
and to reunite the country in national
feeling, delivered the Southern people
over to their plun6erers and tormentors
bad as the frauds and abuses may have
been, which disgraced our public service;
bad as the management of the patron
age may have been, which in the highest
place seta tlemoralizing example of sell
lfsRness,; strove to corrupt legislation,
and transformed the whole service into
avast political agency; bad as the con-
tenipt1o of law and the violations of the
Constitution may have been, which have
gro wn into most dangerous habit un-
der this Administration-fa worse, OF
finhhitely more alarming import is the
4 circumstance, that the Republican, party,
the party once so noble in lis sFimpulses
aud so fearless ini its action, has been SO
completely spbjugate6 by the Admins
tratiou and its political managers as not
only to lose its ability 20 rise up against
such misdeeds and abuses, but even the
spirit to discriminate between right and
wrong and to call things by their right
names. Whatever wrongs and abuses
| may exist, they can be corrected as long
as we have the courage to speak the
truth and tc recognize it. But a politi-
cal party which fails to recognize abuse
as such has lost the moral ability to
correct them. Its very ascendencY will
thenceforward stand in the way of true
reform. s.&
Is that the condition of the Republican
party under the present Administration I
Let us see Some Republicans under
took,i conspicuous place,to denounce
the abuses of the Government, and to
bring about their correction. You have
heard, perhaps, of certain debates in
Congress, last winter, which greatly dis
turbed the equanimity of the party man.
ayers. Flagrant wrongs in the New
Custom House were revealed, and an in.
Ivestigation insisted upon, What hap.
Ipened? The men who denounced the
abuses were villified and denounced as
enemies, and traitors to the Republican
tparty. But the voice of the people made
itself heard, and after much manevering
and wraneling the Administration lead.
ers perceived that to refuse an investiga-
ton would be dangerous, and it was
kgranted. But not one of the men who
had denounced the. evils was put on the
lcommittee. The investigation was made
A mass of testimony put the existence
of these evils beyond doubt. The eff.
forts of members who virtually consti-
ted themselves the attorneys of those in
power, were in vain. The truth could
not be entirely smothered. 1t was clear
lily and beyond cavil established, that
bribery and corruption had prevailed On
a large scale; that the Cuitom House,
with its legion of officers, had in the most
Inscriptions and tyrannical way been
used as a machinery to control the poll
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