Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1872-03-25
A GROWING EVIL.

great evil which the country has unfor'
tunately to endure 1t asserts that
the hunger for office, the greedy deter
mination to hold il when once gotten.
constitute the great evil of this country.
Every outrage upon the Constitution
and upon public liberty perpetrated by
the government is due to this predomi-
nant vice. We should never have seen
the Southern people by force of arms
placed under the domicion Of strangers
(called carpct-baggersj and barbarians
but for that; we should not have seen
those afflicted people hunted and perse-
cuted and treated as suspects, had not
the party in possession of the offices con
sidered that cruel policy the best means
to fortify themselves in their position.
This great evil not only is the source OF
all our misgovernment, but 1t de-
moralizes the nation. 0ffice-holders,
office-hunters and their friends, com
pose the geeat bulk of society.
The holders and seekers embroil
their friends in the general war for office,
and the entire country is drawn period
ically into bitter strife the main issue
of which is office. Men are raised to
look for support out of the public treas
ury. They become party hacks and
hangers.on and lose all energy and indie
pendence. They become drones, and If
they have families they are left to fate;
and thus are the walks of dissipation
and vice in q great part steadily replen-
ished. Arepnblic with this cancer upon
II cannot long be republic. We have
lived long enough to care very little
about forms Of government What all
people want Is good administration
ii Is n sad thing 10 see men fight
inr and cutting one 2n0thsrs 5
iilrOats Hb8uf fnrms 81 government,
only 10 lind thai the new system for
which they shed thsI- blo1d So freely IS
NO bstiar fhnn the Gid They have
faurin f1r libersy, and they get Il mi
they huve f1uEh f0r III honest admins
irasinn nj the lnEs AND Ii economical
nss 81 tIs paBpis + mgDsE. ERo they srs
Iisaa1Inniulal. They faHEh4 10 bald up
a f-st. BInsz EDn Elr-uDuK EgFsr1 1sui-
1.nT Il n zurnA6 1u-D tyranny and e9r-
rr,zrEn. TbsF brlE xE- temple. ard
= . 1u-nsE lr1s 6s1 q thieves Al
sA4s u pEiHfEl. Int i-Ess A-5 whs1 the
zs1-oS.sholss-z i1Esigh zgzinsi the
gOvsrRmsnf and demand reform in the
manner Of appointments 70 OE6ee and
the tenure OF Office. they DO not exAg
gerate the evils they would abste. But
the trouble is that the Ofice-holders and
their friends will never unite with them
in their effort at reform, and it will re-
quire great unanimity to make any real
change in the government on this point.
The error is in the Constitution. That
gives appointments to the Executive
and does not prescribe the tenure Of
Office to be during good be-
havior and competency. 1t will take
vote of three-fourths of the States to
make an amendment in the Constitution,
aud the ofice-holders and their friends
are strong enough to prevent that. So
we do not see any probability Of an
amendment that will take away the vast
patronage now possessed and abused by
the chief magistrate, as it has been, we
may say, by every administration for a
half century. What then? Why, as
has been said often by some Of our great
est statesmen, the office holders will be.
come stronger than the country, and
subyert the government. This has been
already done indeed; but the subversion
has been partial geographically, and the
government wears the exterior forma Of
"A republic, while its inner life, as trans
cendalists would say, is as little like a
true and pure republic as that of fallen
woman is like the pure and spotless be
ing that she might have been"