The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1876-03-14
Executive Patronage.

General GoRDoS's motion in the United
States Sena'c concerning the collection Of in
fernal revenue, in which he proposed to
make the duration Of the term of the officers
during good behavior, attracts especial
Drajse from that wise and upright paper the
Boston Daily Advertiser. That paper says:
"Wbg should not an honest and capable
collector, or sauger, or supervisor be kept
in cffi.e until be dies? Because there ought
TO be srotafiou in office to be sure, SO that
another man may have chance al the salary
and pe!uu,Si,e> because he may be Demo
crat, ard the Republicans need the assistance
they might get from strong partisan OF their
own stripe aud for all like reasons. But
they are 20 rcasons. The only duties reve-
nue. agent Of any grade bias to perform are de.
feel by law, ard nothing Is imposed upon
them tha; justifis IS the appointing power in
treating the offices as rewards OF party Vir-
tue: nor dos uny collector or other officer
come under obligations to use dollar OF his
salary. an hour of bis time, or particle of
bis influence, in aiding the party which ap-
pointed BIN If we had not been all our
lives accustomed to seeing offices treated as
commodities, and to seeing Off :ers arrogatirg
to themselves, without law, authority as offsn-
slve to the people as that exercised by French
prcfec's under the law, we should deem the
sysem Of appointment to and removal from
non political offices for political reasons ut
Ierly unreputlicaD. unwisc, and absurd"
The Adoer user, with satirical sharpness,
alludes 70 the ruthless manner in which the
depraved Senator MORTON discussed the pro-
position, incidentally assuming that the
South was responsible for the Generalization
of the country, and blunderiDgly confessing
to the vast frauds of the age and asserting
that they were to continue. MORTON de-
clared that the proposition to make nou-
political Off es permanent was anti-republi-
can, snd asked why did not Senator GORDON
come out for king at once; for "that Was
where the whole proposition tended" Set.
ting it down that Mr.. MORTON is q dema-
gogue, the advertiser concludes in this sen.
sible and just language:
LET Us return TO the main question for a
moment, and offer an argument which the
senator from In"iana will understand. All
tue revenue officers are now Republicans.
Suppose this bill IS passed, will it not give a
thietenure' to members Of the party in
power? Is not General Gordon foolish to
propose m easure which, ii carried, would
debar his party from doing more than I'LL
chance vscanciesi The fact is, as ANYBODY
can see, that Senator Gordon is making q
proposition which, So far from exposing h,p
justly 10 the charge of partisanship, would
render it impossible to ill these Offices on
partisan grounds, and which gives them all
in the 6.s. place, for an indefinite period,
into The hands of the authors political oppo
nents. But the only worthy reason for ad
yocatipg the proposition is that it is wise and
right"
All true; but the farther we are removed
from the true Republican era the less will be
the chance Of breaking down the vast patron
age of The Federal Executive. That vii
have more than anything else to do with
the establishment of arbitrary power in this
landau event which will surely come.