New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1877-07-14
CIVIL SERVICE REFORM.
Kill
LETTER FROM GAIL HAMILTON.

! To the Editor Of The TrtBune
| SIR: On May II we were aroused with q jubilant
/ peal and 1t really seemed If the morning light
was breaking. We were glad to dismiss for awhile
from our jaded souls the perplcxies Of Civil Service
Reform, and to receive into deyout and believing
minds the good tidngs Of great joy, THE Solid
! South is breaking up in North Carolina" As we
read on, eager for every scrap OF detail on
| so encouraging theme, we learned that
"Advices from there say that ex-Congessman
Leach, prominent Democratic leader, has fully de-
teimned to cut loose from his party. and that a
| leader of his character, ability and influence will
destroy the Democratic Party in that State" This
! is almost too good to be true, and when we,
like good old-fashoned Christians examine our evil
denccs, they do seem little hay. Adyces sayD
is bnt sesdeT wedge wherewith to break up solid
and victorious party flushed with its first conquest
after sixteen years Of defeat Moreover advices
do not say that Mr.. Leach has cut loose from
his party. but that he has fully determined 10. HIS
mind is made up After being in the background
sixteen years, Mr.. Leach is not going to be dragged
to the front and forced into place and power. He
will cut loose from his exultng comrades and join
the ranks of the conquered Republicans.
But here comes IN the third crack the solid ice Of
the Democracy. "AdyIces say" further. that if
leader of his prominence ability and influence dc.
serts the Democratic Party, that party will be de-
sroyed.
Alas not proven. The Democratic Party has
never been so loosely put together that the drawing
ont of a single pin would make ii fall apart. Surely
that party which has held its regiments compact
through the destinations of sixteen years Of losing
warfare is going to fall into disarray and re-
treat because in its hour of victory a captain
colonel or even a major general here and there
breaks ranks and goes over to the enemy. fear 1t
will not do to count upon the breaking mp of the
Solid South until we have some more substantial
basis than "advices say" that man is fully de-
terminedp to give it thwack and that if he does
the dsintegraton is complete. But the best is at
the bottom. my DEAR" as the wicked husband said
when tying to make his wife swallow the whole Of
the poisoned draught. The real gist of tins hopeful
paragraph is in the quiet little conclusion AS
means to this end the President viii be asked to
make some changes in the offices in the western pOr-
ton of the State"
O-h-hl are you there, my paragraphIstl Are
those the phOsphOresccnt eyes green cleaning under
the meali Are we led slowly and painfully along
the cracks and crevices of fracturng Southern
solidlty only 10 be pumped into a hornets nest Of
enTaged ofice-seekers and Oice-hOlders at the end
of our winding wayf Is not this a Reform Admins
trationl Are not politics to be ignored in the dis
tribuion of Office and only fitness considered. VIII
man Leach to the front as the irst-lruits of a
political policy, have the goodness TO define that
Article of the Civil Service Reform Creed which
involves the use of the Federal patronage in break
ing up the Democratic Party. Or when say that
politics are 10 bcignOrcd in the distribution Of Office
do we mean only that Republican politics, Northern
politics. war-horSe politics, corrupt politics TO be
! ignored, while pure, peaceabe, upright Southern
politics are be considered and caressei the spoiled
child of Southern Democracy is to be fondled with
Federal patronage, and lattery soothe the dnl cold
ear OF death among The sacred old Wing relicsf
And can |, dare l. ask whether there is any
connection between this assertion on May Il, that
the President is gong to be asked to make some
changes in the Federal patronage as a means toward
breaking up the Democratic Party in North Calohna
and the assertion in the same paper. on June -,
that the President will probably Remove the Federal
officers in North Carolina, including Robert Douglas,
son OF Stephen A. Douglas, United States Marshal.
There are charges against IoHgds himself but depu-
ties in remote and Inaccessible parts of the State have
been guilty of scandalous Transactions How does q
correspondent at Washington kROW that deputies
IN an inaccessible part of North Carolina have ben
gully of ScandalOus transac'ionsf And how can
such a knowledge be a cause" for the removal
OF a man against whom charges" ever have
been madei | know nothing whatever about
the facts, but the lat statement of this
enthusiastic Reformer, following after months IN
teryal his previous statement, gives to both
ancient and sh-like SMELL and is the statement of
June Is from another source, that Neither the
Mormon war nor the war for the conquest of Mexico
is now raging at such a sanguinaTy rate the war
for the Federal Offices in North Carolina, part Ill
of the same thrilling rOmancef
Is it the rupture of the Democratic Party OF the
publication of the Civil Service which prompted the
action whose record reads 1he Cabinet has decdei to
appoint Mrs Thompson Postmistress at Louisville,
KY"
Surely in its paternal yearnIngs toward the South
and Its answering determination toward reform,
the AdmnIstr ,ton has rather lost perspec-
tive. With Europe astir our dock-yards
silent, an omnous backness gathering on the
prairies, and the country waiting IN hush more sig
nificant than any sound, it is almost grotesque TO
see the great minds of the Cabinet gathering in SOL
emn conclave to decide whether Mrs. Thompson or
Mr.. johnson shall have Kentucky Post-oflice!
1t is a sin to steal PIN and undoubtedly Postmaster
General Key can not dare not will not put any man
or woman behind Post-oilice window who is not
able or Wiling TO walk there. ride in omni-
bus in all sorts of weather. but though at the risk Of
permitting his radiant integrity his Brutus-hke inn
partiality to show little of color could not Mr..
Kew have consulted a Kentucky Representative or
the Louisville people and so leave Mr.. Eyarts free
TO finish that Chisholm letter that We all waiting
TO be thrilled by and that is especially going to
initiate the DE Kalb County murderers and revou-
tionize Mississippi politicsi Surely if Mr.. Evarts
will only write letters to them and The iostOa Jour
nal be induced to look at them, those Mississippi
beasts will run violently down steep place into the
| &c NJ and nerSlt in the MeauW hlle