American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1872-10-12
A Call for Reform.


If further argument in favor of estab-
fishing the One Term Principle were
needed, it would be found in the present
demOraliZed condition of the public ser
vice. Everybody knows what a prOstitu-
ton of public means to private ends is
likely to follow a determination to re-
elect an INSCRIPTIONS Administration /;
but we doubt if the most responding ever
dreamed that there would be such an
abandonment of decency in the Govern
ment as we see now. Perhaps, in the
natural prominence which personal char
acter and personal unfitness for office as
sumo III any canvass, we are in danger OF
overlooking the causes which lie behind
vile officials. Who suppOses that we
should see such decentralization of the
public service; such a diversion of the
functions of the government from legiti-
mate uses, if the President were not try
ing to re-elect himself? Here are the Sec
rotary of the Interior, the Secretary of the
Treasury. the Attorney General, and 9th
er high officers of the Government, for
saking their seats and neglecting their
duties in order to add their individual and
official forces to the reelection campaign.
Their example is commended to and 1ml-
tated by their subordinates the Execu-
tive Departments are managed by out
siders, and the country is covered with
office-holders clamoring for the reelection
of their chief.
The spectacle is not edifying nor en-
couraging. But this is only a superficial
view Of the case, after all the example is
bad enough, and the practice is one to be
condemned by those who want to see dig
nifty and craftsmanship where we only see
mob of chattering, selfish politicians.
But the worst feature of the whole moral
60 10 ff1n izo
public service. When selfish, narrow
man in the Presidential chair resolves to
be rechOsen, if he can, he is bound
to corrupt every officer OF thRGovern-
ment, directly or indirectly. Took at
the innumerable host of postmasters
throughout the land; they represent in
every town and hamlet the Administra-
tratiOn which controls them, as it desires
to control the votes of the people with
whom they hold such intimate and deli
cate relations. So these agents of a widely
ramifying system lay their hands on the
threads Of influence which run into every
family and penetrate every household.
Tine mails are abused in the interest of a
partisan service, and postmasters are
made the distributors of partisan appeals
and Misrepresentation. The service of
the pOst-Offfce is turned into political
machine, not only to work the works of
the party in power, but to break down
and hinder, if possible, the honest and
lawful labors of those who fall under the
displcasure of the ruling ring. How long,
we would like to ask, would our mer-
chants stand perversion of postal facili-
ities which should embarrass their own pri-
vate business through the mails, and fur
nish the names OF customers and cores
pOndents to their competitors in business?
And yet this is just what is now done
by Grant post-masters at the bidding OF
political committees supposed to have
the making and unmaking of postmasters
in their hands. Men who are not special
ly harmed or moved by such a monstrous
outrage-such shameful invasion Of pri-
vate rights as this-may smile wait I'M
til the growing evil has reached you 1t
is certainly reaching for you; it only
needs little more time and public apathy
and your business Is touched.
And what is true OF one department. of
the public service is true..0fall. tits in the
natural order of things that power in
trenched in the public offices, striving to
keep there indefinitely, should use all the
resources of the Government for its self
ish purposes. An immense coast nne,
stretching from the Bay of Fundv nearly
to the Caribbean Sea, is studded with
custOm-houses of more or less Importance;
stealthily and slowly these have been in
creased in number and cost until hun
dreds of them contain attachments OF
mere political employees maintained at
cost ten times greater than the amount OF
revenue collected at those points. The
navy-yards cost more in time OF peace
than in war. Nobody pretends to justify
this waste of the public money. which is
generally confessed; but the Grant poll
ficians chuckle over it and the easy good
gstNfhe .Mhich g se6h h9 81 e. a aaEhbAe
ing Sign of the times.
In truth we shall never see refOl ma
ton of the public service unless the peo-
pie do perceive the danger of the insidious
disease which is now corrupting 1t. Ad-
ministration journals and orators talk flip
attention from real issues by personal,
vulgar abuse. But the evil is spreading,
and that which is this year an infection
that breaks out sporadically in Sub-Treas-
ury defalcations, postal abuses, and pay
masters thefts, will, if unchecked, by
and by corrupt the whole social and po-
litical fabric. The Liberal movement is
In the interest of just such a reform as the
times and this state of the country de-
mand. For four years the Grant people
president, brothers-in-law, cousins, and
fiunkies official, have had absolute pos
session of the Government. They have
treated it as no administration ever be-
fore treated it. They have seemed to con-
slider that the whole public service was a
private property, to be farmed or given
out at the will and pleasure of the pro-
prietors. Let us have the books over
hauled and the long-concealed, half sus-
pected defalcations, deficits, and malap-
exhibited. The men who
shirk their part of this investigation, who
are content with fat place in which they
get good prices for their work and wares,
may as well take warning now. Honest,
fair, able and popular government is
worth more than a mere temporary per-
sonal prosperity, and even this prosperity
will not last much longer If we allow the
selfish rule of faction to go on with its
misuse of power and prostitution of the
If ever there was a call for
reform it is now, and suddenly.-N Y.
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