Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-09-13
ABSENTEEISM.
HOW the Governments is Run-CuI-
pabIe Neglect Of Duty.

Row tbe Governments is Run-Cul-
pabIe Neglect Of Duty.
From the Washington Patriot, Sept. 10.
The President has now been absent from
the Capital for three consecutive months,
and regularly established at Long Branch.
He was among the very first to quit Wash
ingtCn upon the adjournment of Congress,
although the public business actually re-
auireG his presence and attention. It is
doubtful whether the brief periods Of re-
creation Of all the Presi Tents combined,
from Washington down, would sum up
total Of continuous absence equal 10 that of
the present incumbent. Certainly, no pre-
decessOr ever set the bad example of
abandoning his post formally for a whole
season, and adopting an independent resi-
dence, remote from that which the law
assigns to the Executive, aud which he is
supposed to occupy.
THIS imitation of the habits of monarchy
is consistent with other innovations upon
The simple ussges of the fathers, with which
RadicalIsm has .'een gradually undermin-
Ing our institutions, centfalizing power, and
preparing the way for change even in the
form Of government. Every rejecting mind
is oppressed with the visible revolution,
which eleven years of this rule have wrought
il the tone, practices, and principles, which
mark public and private life now, in sad
contrast with the condition which existed
before the war. If Mr. Buchanan, when
the current duties of the Executive were
Lot half so great as they now are, had de-
sered his post for month OF personal plea
sure, there would have been an outburst Of
Indignation throughout the.country. Now,
Gen Grant goes to the seashore, closes the
Executive Mansion, and is absent more
than third of every year continuously, and
yet this selfish neglect is defended by his
sccupulous partisans.
Aud the President, who does this, sends
messages 20 Congress and pirates about civil
service reform? The first clement Of any
reform is fidelity of duty. Without that
there can be no improvement. Gen. Graut
is directly and personally responsible for
the present Generalization in the public
service. He has made neglect a rule of
official practice by his own example. How
can be rebuke others for omissions, when
he himself discards all usage, defes public
opinion, and makes his own qualification
superior 10 every demand of his high posi-
ton?
What the President does, the Cabinet
initiate, and what the Cabinet do, the
Chiefs of Bureaux follow. And so the
precedent runs all through the Depart
menJs down to the very messengers.
And this is not all. Absenteeism
breeds other vices. When strict
supervision is gone and responsibility re-
moved loose ideas of duty insidiously creep
in, and they are succeeded by corruption
and collision. II is perfectly notorious and
capable of legal proof, that no large claim,
however just it may be, can pass through
the Departments without paying toll.
The roll of some Of the principal absen-
tees, viii, Of itself, without comment, show
much irjury must be inflicted on the or
Gu airy business Of the Departments. For
moIhs together, hardly anything but mere
routine has been attempted. Papers in
vJ,ying important private rights, as well as
public concern, have lain week after week
on the desks of members of the Cabinet
awliing their signatures, which could not
be HbJa ned from this cause only:
BLACK LIST.