Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1874-03-04
Simmons as a Sign.


The contest that so suddenly sprang up
ON the nomination of William A. Simmons
bv the President. for collector OF the port
of Boston. closed last week. Seven OF the
Massachusetts delegates protested against
it. and when the vote was taken Senator
Boutwell,. who had been considered doubt
full, or more likely to go for Buffers man
than against him, was found to have yield
ed to the strong appeals from commercial
Boston to oppose Mr.. Simmons. The vote
stood fifteen in favor of to twenty against
the nominee The Senate thus lacked
quorum and adjourned.
The next day. Butler having spent the
intervening time in working like beaver
for his supporter, the Senate confirmed Mr.
Simmons by the decided vote of thirty to
sixteen. Boutwell, comes out of the con-
test the worst Of any of the congressional
delegation. as he left one party to its in
tense disgust, and joined the other i'll such
a way and so tardily, as not to gain its
confidence or ensure success. Butler
thinks him a traitor, and uses language
that is plain to express his sentiments.
SO Mr.. Simmons steps into the chief fed
eraI office of New England. What of it?
He is a young man of capacity, was sol
dier, and nothing seems to have been
charged against his character. There Is.
nevertheless good deal of it. No event
I cd fI,a,
of the staid old Bay State.
They have reason for their establishment
and Indignation. The Philadelphia plat
form on which the republican party fought
its last presidential campaign, went SO far
as to contain IL plank in favor of civil SER
vice reform That was quite step, con
fessedly longer than the elected President
has initiated. Last September full
State convention at Worcester passed a
resolution which in effect condemns fede
raj oflice-holders who use the influence
and patronage of these officers to control
State politics. This was not quite up to
the Philadelphia idea of civil service re
form, but, if not up to the utterance before
the presidential election, was at least a
strong protest in the name of the party,
against debasing of the public service
to political machinery.
The President was elected as republi-
can and should have known what the out
come of the Butler contest of last fall was
Perhaps he did know; perhaps he did not
That resolution was passed for no one rea-
son so cogcnt as that w. A Simmons then
supervisor of internal revenue, who had ex-
erted himself officiously and indeed Off
cially, should no longer be kept in that re-
sponsible office The Worcester conven-
ton surely did not mean that meddling of
fice-hoders should he promoted when taken
from their present positions.
1t is therefore by a republican president
directly in the teeth of resolution of Il
republican convention, that Mr.. Simmons
holds his new position. The collectorship
of Boston, though the foremost federal of
flee in New England, is not what the great
disturbance in our neighboring state is
about, except as the present action concern
ing it takes the character of handwriting
on the wall. The republican papers of
Boston except the Traveller, denounce the
act in unmeasured terms.
We do not blame them and they sound
an alarm none too soon. Simmons as Il
sign of the subserviency of the adminstra-
To 10, p,t1 al, l.
at. As a sign of want of appreciation of
what is meant by civil service reform he is
equally plain. AS sign of readiness to
disregard the wishes of men as well as to
suit those of smart politicians he is too
plain. As Il sign of the early disruption of
the republican party of Massachusetts,, he
is ominous.
Gen. Butler, beaten twice, means on his
third trial to be governor of Massachusetts,,
and to that end proposes to use the whole
federal official machinery. We hope there
is manhood and strength enough to pre-
vent such Il result, party or no party.
That this man, whose republicanism, like
his military fame, has been brought up on
u bottle, should debase the republican Or
ganization of the Bay State to his pur-
poses, is an event to be deplored, because
then that organization becomes such, thai
honest and self-respecting men must seel
elsewhere for political associations.
Whether this is what the Simmons phe-
nOmena portends or whether it naugurates
a new conflict in which the organization OF
the party shall be preserved for the ad
vancement of the general good, and not the
private or political fortunes of any man OF
set of men, is to be seen.