Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1872-04-26
.UR. WILLARD O.V' TIgE CSI'TL
SRRg'ECE REFOY.U.

House, in earnest and unninchng support
of a movement so important to the politi-
cal purity and well-being of the nation.
No one who has taken part in the debate
talks moro cloquently, more earnestly, or
more boldly than Mr.. willard. The dan
! ger Of delay in the Inauguration Of reform
was well presented by him in a speech de-
| livered a few days since. He said:
Reform has rested only in the vague gen.
eralites of resolutions and good dctermin-
ations long enough. II has been used as
| a fair pretense quite as long as such a pre-
tense can mislead intelligent men. Those
who mean reform when they say reform,
have reached point where they believe it
is desirable to ascertain who is willing to
act as we'll as to talk in favor of it. 1 will
not stop TO consider whether the presidents S
adherence thus far 10 his determination has
| quite equalled our expectations. If he has
come short of what we hoped, / am cbarit-
able enough to believe that the fault is in
finitely less his than that of the Congress
which ought to have given him an encour-
aging response long before this, aud of
some sef-appointed leaders of the republi-
can party who, while eulogizng Gen. Grant
have nearly strangled the measure which
he so cordially and fully edorsed.
I do not rest my belief of the necessity of
some reform in the civil service alone up
on any array Of defaulting and swindlng
officials; upon any parade Of figures show
ing the grand aggregate of the money
wrongfully taken from individuals under
color of collections for public use, and
fraudulently and ieloniously put into pr-
vate pockets; upon any list of schemes
pressed in Congress and state Legislatures
which, under pretense of the public good,
pour into the Golfers of rich corporations
| and into the private boards of uuscrupu-
lous men, the wealth rung at last from
those who can i'll afford TO contribute of
their scanty substance to gild the palaces
of the strong. The evil is not merely in
administration. 1t is not alone that here
and there our method of administering
government gives us an incompetent or a
dishonest official; it is that this system is
at war with every principle of free govern
ment, and if not torn up by the roots and
utterly destroyed, will destroy the govern
ment itself.
If the spois of single state produced a
Tweed and Hall and Barnard in that limit
ed field of operation, what alarming proper
tions of villainy might not be developed
when the spois of four hundred millions
of revenue are turned into private aud par ty
channels, and 'the whole unbounded con-
tinent' gives scope for the expansion of
sch hemes of plunder? We shall have more
Tweeds until we stop sowing the seed from
which they sprung. So far as the republic
can party permits such practices while it
has control of the government it deserves
to be condcmed; al1 If ii cannot reform it,
! self, and Danish from its administration of
affairs the pestilent and infamous doctrine
of the spoils, it will sooner or later be dis
owned by the people, and will meet, as it
will merit an overthrow as signal and as
crushing as that which has befalen Tam
many.
The New York clstom house ii appears
had two collectors, the nominal collector,
Mr.. Murphy, and the real collector, Mr..
Clinch. Mr.. Murphy WAS republican,
and could manage primary meeting or
convent IN satisfactorily to his employer,
and Mr. Clinch was democrat, and could
attend to the business of the office and be
"a great relief and cJmfort to the collector"
Nh. Murphy had a salary and perquisites
of an indefinite amount, and Mr.. Clinch
had salary of $4,000 annually. Mr.. Clinch
administered the law and Mr.. Murphy the
politics of the Office. Mr.. Clinch has re-
manned in the office thirty years, and is
probably now no richer than when he first
took the position, and in the mean time
very likely score of political collectors
have got rich out of the place. When Mr..
Murphy was asked if Mr.. Clinch was "per-
mitted to serve tho public and yet main
tain his personal independence, he an
swered without concealment, "Yes, sir he
is an exception to the general rule" 1t is
possible Mr.. Murphy believes the 'gener-
al rule" a trihe more extensive in its oper-
alton than it really is, but he certainly gave
| ii as he understood it. The general rule is
that a person must agree politically with
the party controlling the government, and
with the particular faction of the party in
| power, or he is removed from office, no
matter what may be his fitness for the po-
sition. Mr.. Clinch fortunately is not the
only exception TO this rule, as many de-
partments of the public service can show
similar instances. Many such valuable
public servants hold their places while ad-
ministrations come and go, and they hold
them not as personal favors but because
their experience and knowledge cannot be
spared the heads of bureaus and depart
ments would not know what to do without
them. And if Mr.. Clinch should not bC
lg..
for being a Democrat, an "enemy of tho
government" is there any good reason
why any one should be removed from of
flee for that reason? And If Mr.. Clinch is
the real collector of the port of New York
so far as the business of the Office is con-
cerned, can any one give good reason
why there is any need of a political collect
or at all?
Let the next republican national conven-
ton announce as the first article in its
creed. "to the vlctors belong the spols," "
and see what progress they will make in
the campaign. Let observations be made
as to the number of honest voters in New
Hampshire, or Connecticut, or Pennsylva-
mia, who will rally enthusiastically at that
bugle-call. Let them call their campaign
clubs, auxiliary branches of the great
"bread-and- butter brigade" OF which we
heard something in President Johuson's
time. Lot them organize their army with
the bummers and camp-followers, the men
who are after the "plums' aud "moieties'
and commissions" aud other generator
der business at the f.ont-not The post OF
danger, but the post OF proht-and then
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