Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1872-04-20
SPICY DEBATE.
Butler and Garfield Wrestling
over the Civil Service
Reform Bill.
Fun for the Galleries, but Death
to Dignity--UnprOfitable
RencOntre.
The Bill RecOmmitted by a Small
MaiOrity---The Beast"
Prevails over his
Adversary.

WASHINGTON, April 19.-In opening
the debate on the civil service bill
Mr. Bingham expressed his regret that
the bill had been reported and was
/ being pressed on the consideration Of
/ the House. He declared that such a
Y bill was forbidden by the genius of our
/ institutions and by the express letter Of
] the constitution. 1t was q direct inter-
/ ference with the guaranteed privileges
! of every citizen. AS il was miserable
| spectacle, he appealed to his Republican
4 friends to remember that they were the
advance guard in that great struggle
which resulted substantially, and was
to result fully and completely and for
ever more, in restoring to the people
their long lost liberty and their
equal rights. Let them not in
augUrate the baseness of going
backward on their OWE record and
of attempting to forge fetters on the
minds and consciences Of freemen. Let
the civil service be reformed, but let ii
be reformed in only one way possible
under the constitution, that is by in
tegrity 10 duty and the honor Of executive
officers and of members of Congress and
Of the people themselves.
Mr.. Garfield made the closing speech
in favor Of the bill. He reviewed the
three chief objections urged against it.
That it was unconstitutional, that the
civil service was pure and needed no
reform, and that the interests of the party
required the maintenance ofthe present
system. On the first point, he referred
tOi the golden rule Of the Government
that the three great departments Of the
legislature, the Executive and the Judi
ciary should be separate and independ-
ent of each other, and that neither
should encrOach on the other. The spirit
and letter of that rule had been violated
again and again, in the mode in which /
the civil service had been administered. |
Ii could not be said, with even /
shadow Of truth, that the head Of the |
Executive department did now exercise /
his high functions Of nomination even, !
without the constant and terrible press /
ure of the whole body of the Legisla- /
tive Department, and for many years /
the presidents of the United States had /
been crying out in their agony 20 be re-
lieyed from that unconstitutional, crush
ing, irresistible pressure. The present
custom was an apostacy from the Gov
ernment in its original purity, an apOs-
tacy Of the most alarming character. So
careful had Washington been that even
the executive departments should not
influence each other, that be had scat
tered the public buildings in the capital
all over the city.
Mr.. Butler Massachusetts, Where
viii l find that?
Mr.. Garfeld-You will find it in
the Globe tomorrow. (Laughter.) As
to the other ObjectiGn to the bill that
civil service was pure, and needed no
reform. Mr.. Garfield referred to the first
message of the President, calling atren-
ton to needed reform The House had
been told yesterday by Mr.. Butler, that
the PaymaSter's department had done
well during the war, But why? Be
cause that was a magnificent depart
ment Of The service, where every man
was held a strict accountability,
where an officer was not removed every
time politicians wanted to get another
into his place where thelaw Of promotion
prevailed. The army and navy belonged
to class of service separated from the
miserable civil service, Of which he
was speaking, there was not really a
high and noble service connected with
the Government, that had not been more
or less separated from the evils in ques-
ton. He instanced the coast survey as
the service IN which the system of pro- !
motion by merit prevailed, and asked,
who would dare to turn that service into
the hands Of politicians? 1t was not so
with the lighthouse board, and with all
parts Of the public service that we're an
65-noT ana glory to the country. The ;
House has heen treated during the de-
bate to a class OF inslnuations which
be could not pass over in
silence. They had been told in very )
plain language that this whole civil ser
vice business was a trick on the part of
some people who did not like the Presi-
lent, and who wanted to get up con- ;
gention, and that the President had !
been caught in the trap spread for him
ly Congress, at the instigation of his en-
emies. Behold how plain a tale shall {
put them down, II was iu the Presi-
ient's message of the fifth of De- :
,ember, 1870, that these words were {
Eed: q 1 call the attention of Con-
gress TO an abuse of long stand {
ng, which desire TO have reformed" |
refer to the civil service Of the coun- :
~ that the first utterance had been !
made four months before the provision
rad been put in the appropriation bill TO :
which Mr.. Butler had referred as the !
lIlkkL OF LLt uAOetutuL. Dll lldl pro- y
Vision did not compel but merely au-
horized the President 70 devise some I
means of bettering the public service.
Ten months afterward the President had ;
orwarded to Congress a report of the =
1ivil Service Commission, and said a 2
.sk for al the strength that Congress- i,
an give to enable me to carry {
,ut the reform Of the diyil service ?
by the Commissioner to- /,
axe effect on the first of January, 1872" )
Aud now, on the sixteenth Of April, ;
SO, the President had sent an executive \
rider, with the body Of amended rules, =
md called on Congress TO support him !
u carrying these rules into effect The y
yentleman from Massachusetts, had a
aiken it On himself yesterday to repeat
What he previously had said about d
rick by which the President had been
into the civil service net, sad 2
lad nade the remark, referring to =
i'm lGarfsl9l that if he Butler 4,
we're chairman Of leading commlt- =
sa Of the House be would en- s.
eavor 70 support the President
f the United States, and not be the 6
enemy in the matter
Mr.. Butler--Is it true what l see In
he Tribune, that the chairman of the