New-York tribune., 1872-06-21
(. JUNE 81, 1879.
venticn say Eve favor the reform of the sys-
"tem by laws which shall abolish che evils OF

"tem by laws which shall abolish the evils OF
" patronage, and make honesty, efficiency, and
I" fidelity the essential qualifications for public
}" position - yet even here they remembered
that Gen. Logan had denounced the reform
"a an insidious attempt to create an arlstoc-
raey. and they add tbs phrase-wbich, II "
means ANYTHING. coraadicts what went Deiore-
{. -;,lo,,, ,,roct;csdy creating life-tenure OF
% ,f,,oon lea civil servant is blameless In the
5;oohoro. of his duties and chooses to retain
Lis ,,,sition, why should he not remain In 1t
.n his lfe7 Still, it is easy to see how such
an idea would be regarded with horror in q
convention of offce-seekers.' The whole arti-
Gle is one of the camcst pieces OF efront-
orv in recent politics. This Conven-
tion has the audacity to talk about
Civil Service Reform, when it was
sent to Philadelphia to renominate the Presi-
dent who, more than any one of his predeces-
sors has treated the public service with con-
tempt, who sent bis tinker-cousin to Guate-
mala as Minister. and his worthless brother
in-law to Copenhagen as Minister, and another
brother-in-lav to New-0rleans as Collector,
and biHeted on the Treasury dozen more
near relatives; a President who made
Thomas Murphy Collector at New
York, AMI when public indignation
had driven lin from his place, still gave him
his full confidence and sympathy. The gentle
men who irew up that hypOcritical article
doubtless imagined that people had forgotten
who supported and who opposed Civil Service
Reform in the last Congress. Whenever the
subject aro.e the trusty henchmen OF Grant
in both Houses, men who never open
their mouths but by his order, made
haste to attack it. Gen. Butler said the men
who sustained it were the foes of the Presl-
dent. I'm he Senate the Household Troops
headed by Conkling and Carpenter lost no
opportunity to denounce and ridicule the plan
of reform, while the men who supported 1t,
Schurz and Trumbull and Fenton, were the
men who looked not to the White House but
TO Cincinnati for relief from the disgraces and
cOrruptions of patronage.
Almost every article of this platform ex-
hibits this breezy disregard for the memory or
the intelligence OF the voting people. Nothing
could be more tranquil than to see a COnven-
ton which belonged to Mr.. Fish and Mr..
Grant declaring that "the Government
should protect its citizens everywhere,
"and sympathize with all peoples who
strive for greater liberty" The death
cry of Speakman and of Wycth, the clanldDg
chains of Houard, are sufficient answer to
this empty claim. Our foreign policy seems,
in this remarkable platform, to be regarded as
"our strong suit" "Menacing foreign diff
culties have been peacefully AMI hon0rably
compromised, and the honor and the power Of
"the nation kept in high respect throughout
"the world.r After the treatment to which the
President and Mr.. Fish have subjected us in
Cuba, in the Corea, in Russia, in England, In
Italy, muddling our pleasant relations to such
a point that our Ministers are nowhere safe
from insults, and our ColSuls not everywhere
secure from hanging, it would at least have
been decent for the Convention to have held
its tongue about our foreign affairs.