Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1877-06-30

committees, too strong for the whole |
world itself as represent |
ed in New York, too strong for the |
of the treasury himself |
for when that functionary wrote to |
him a remonstrance upon the way
in which the New York importers
were being plundered, he answered
in letter, the dog-faced impudence
and cOarseness of which may be
inferred from this extract.
az have been crowded too much and shall
people TO be taken care of, and it is wen
known that they have to be taken care OF,
and nobody in the party will say anything
about my taking care them, and / am go
ing to do IL"
The method by which the power
was obtained through which Con-
gress and committees and mer-
chants and Cabinet ministers could
be defed, was simply the unlimited
patronage in the hands Of the Col
lector; not only had he the appoint
ing power throughout the Custom
system, but an almost unlimited
privilege of creating new offices and
increasing the area covered by his
patronage. Thus all opposition
could be swamped by vast army
of office-holders and a still vaster
one of office-seekers.
The effects of this upon the adj
ministrative efficiency of the de-
partment may be estimated from
the following graphic description of
its personnel, given by Mr.. Dodge
in a letter read by Mr.. Patterson,
when the matter was under investi-
CATION before the Senate.
t'There are three classes of clerks in the
New York Custom House on whom devolve
its working:
First.-TRe fewest possible number of old
er clerks, kept as experts, from the sheer
necessity OF having some experienced hands
to attempt the guidance of official routine.
These poor fellows are kept in constant
state OF terror; never able to make any plans
for the future of themselves or their fami-
lies; never knowing when their instant dis
missal may come. They are Obliged to con-
in their bureau; contribute from their small
incomes to election funds; with no hope of
advancement; no stimulus to more faithful
work no provision in case OF illness or old
age. They fear to communicate their
knowledge of details, knowing the moment
ii is learned by Others they Will lose their
own place. They are obliged to invent more
and more intricate means of conducting
business in order to throw a mystery about
their work and preserve their own import
ance. They are sad, unhappy set with no
pride or ambition.
"SecondIy.-A small class, composed of
incapable and shiftless persons, who have
never succeeded in anything and never will;
who have some family or personal hold on
people of larger political influence These
are pushed into the customs as into a hOspit-
al or safe harbOr. They do very little work,
and are not expected to do anything but draw
their pay with exact and beautiful regulari-
Nv, to act as figure-heads at ward and primary
meetings, and in a feeble and helpless way,
to cheer ON the fortunes of the particular
senator TO whose skirts their friends nap
s'Thirdiy.-The large class, forming the
great bulk of the clerks, filling TO repletion
all the old departments, and for whom new
departments are made the class in order to
give positions to which political jugglers
rack their ingenuity to make place, invent
ing all sorts OfintricacieS to turn simple bus
ineSS forms into problems which ordinary
minds cannot understand, so that some who
have done the party service can have Il desk
at which entries can be rechec1ed and eX-
amined again and again in hopeless cOnfuS-
ion. These are the men who have been the
sly workers in local caucuSes, the noisy men
in local elections; who have worked and
drank for years; who have a "hOld" upon
some higher office-hOlder or Congressman,
or Senator, and must be provided for. For
this reward of their faithful services they
have looked for along, weary time, and they
must make the most of ii. They cannot |
expect to stay long in their offices, and their
duty to themselves and their families, as
they see duty cOmpelS them TO make the
most they can.
M To 10 IL ThOnunt
ment. They do as little work and get the
most they can. And yet they are not hap
ply. Each clerk represents dozen well de-
Serving but disappointed political workers
who have tried for the same place, and are
constantly plotting to undermine him. In
old times man had fair chance to hold |
through the administration, but now his
tenure is only good until the friends" of
the "Other Senator get the upper hand The
chaos confusion growing out OfSuch working
material can easily be understood, especial |
iy when YOU add the fact that the collector
is expected TO use most Of his time in politi-
cal maneuvering; and the tariff under which |
they act now, with the various rulings under |
it, the most complicated ever known, and |
the system of drawbacks intricate beyond |
description.
There it is; there is the material |
of bureaucracy described to the life;
there are the needy, unprincipled,
abjectly dependent Office-hOlders
with whom primary meetings and
conventions were crowded under the |
management of Tom Murphy, the
sycOphants and satellites of the Rad
ical party upon whom it relies for
perpetuity of rule and perpetuity of
plumber. There they are the army
of place-men representing an invis-
ible army of many times its dimen-
siOns who hope to be admitted into
its ranks; and where is our bOasted
government when pOlit-
zeal matters are so managed? This
great people itself is powerless in
their hands.
Against such a bOdy-and there
are similar ones in every State in
the union-against such body the
whole apparatus of popular self
government falls paralysed. Imag-
inc this force removed from the pO-
litical theatre, this swarm of 100, 600
and SOC, 600 Office-seek-
the indignation of a plumb
cred and swindled people would
have been expressed by millions
rather than thousands, or even hun
dreds of thousands, and the accurs-
ed cOntrivanceS of returning boards
and electoral commissions itself
would never have braved the day
light. That is the monster evil. 1t
is bad enough that the whole COM
mercial system of our nation, heav-
ily laden as it was with prOhibitOry
tariffs, should be crushed out of eX-
stence by the additional burdens
which pay for the feeding of Presi-
dents faVOriteS; but this is nothing
with that more mOnstrOus
evil, the substitution of the bureau
cratic machinery for the will of the
people. 1t is n small thing to say of
it that it threatens the existence of [
the republic; it has already got be-
yOnd that point; it has already set !
it aside; so long rs it exists we have !
no republic the phantom form of )