Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1877-09-08
CIvILsERvICE INNEw ORLEANS.

CIVIL SERVICE INNEW ORLEANS.
Things bad Begun Make Strong
Themselves by Hi.
When some specious common
places in favor of purity in Civil
Service were inserted in the same
Cincinnati platform which nomi-
mated Mr.. Hayes for the Presiden-
cy, the Democratic press contended
that Civil Service reform was an inn
possibility in Radical hands; that
the men who worked the party were
so stepped and saturated with cor
ruption, that the prostitution of Fed
eral patronage to the purposes of
partizan warfare was so essential a
means for keeping the party in pow
er, that man elected by that party
could not reform the Civil Service
if he would-the party would be too
strong for him. Now all this was
said before the browning guilt of the
Returning Board and Electoral
Commission had been fixed on that
party, and those who said it were
denounced as unjust and uncharita-
BILE towards the good men of the
Republican party. We ourselves
were among the parties thus de-
nounced and took our share of the
denunciation with a good deal of
equanimity, satisfied that the after
course of events would soon confirm
our judgment. Recent events in
New Orleans have amply confirmed
! it. 1t is known that Wells and An
derson, the infamous managers Of
the Louisiana Returning Board, re-
Gently went to Washington City
and there had an interview with the
President, having previously held
long cOnfabulatiOn with Mr.. Sher-
man in Ohio. On their way back
to New Orleans they were inter
UielCed at several points by members
of the press, who all reported them
as in high spirits, highly satisfied
with the result of their visit. What
that result was soon became mani
fest on their arrival. The state Of
things there is described by the
! New Orleans correspondent of the
Cincinnati Enquirer as follows:
To-day the Returning Board have virtual
! Iy the control of the Custom-house. King
| the Collector, is a mere hgure-head while
| Anderson, the Special Deputy with power,
! is the Collector. Wells commands next the
! Surveyorship of the port, and has a couple
| of sons in his employ drawing Government
/ pay. But, although ii is violation of civil
! Service reform orders, Sherman dare not OBJ
| ject, or he whOuld have done SO long ago, as
! the fact has been reported to him. Kenner
| is the real Naval officer, while Lewis holds
! the commission. That fixes three of the
/ ReturnerS, and all Sherman has got to do now
! is to fix CaSanave, whose fidelity to Sherman
| and HAYES has nearly made him a bank
rupt. He, too, will leave for Washington in
! q day or two.
The wholesale removals of able and relia-
BILE men from important positions in the
! CustOm-hOuSe to make room for returning
| Board politicians has begun now in earnest.
! Champlin, who had ten years experience,
| went first, Anderson taking his place. Now
! Nichols, the Chief Weigher, is shelVed.
| The recent Commission which examined
| into CustOm-house matters here, recon-
mended that responsible men, Sucil as In6Se,
should not be removed except for cause ana
Secretary sherman Endorsed this expression
! over his own signature The very next
moment, almost, these men are removed,
and sherman approves their removal by
! confirming their successors, when he knew
there was no cause for their removal.
We do not doubt that, as mat
ter of taste, President Hayes prefers
to associate with men who keep
clean hands; that it is matter of taste,
however, and not of principle is
proved by his accepting the presi-
dency from such hands as rendered
it to him. The presence of Sher-
man in his Cabinet was further proof
that the inherent vice in his title
had the power to fix upon him
partnership in the guilt of his ac-
completes. He would doubles have
liked better to break with Sherman,
and Sherman would desire to shake
himself free of association with
Wells and Anderson; but they did
not dare, and everywhere their hOl-
low professions of Civil Service re-
form are breaking down, in New Or
leans, in New York and in South
Carolina, and it is becoming evident
that the stream of official admins
tratiOn can rise no higher than its
! polluted source. Whatever the
spontaneous impulses of Hayes to-
wards good may be, they fail to rise
to the level of principles of action,
he finds himself compelled TO main
tain the original fraud by which he
became President, by promoting
and pampering the men whose COM
pany doubtless he loathes, but whose
bidding he has to do. He has to eX-
claim with another usurper:
Al am in crime
/ STEPPED in so far, that should wade no more
/ Returning were as tedious as go Der"
And still there are men WhOwOuld
/ tell us that the Democratic party
should go over to this man, help
less puppet in the polluted hands
which made him what he is. Yes,
let the Democracy open its arms to
| Hayes and with him take Sherman
and Wells and Anderson and all the
filth in which they have wallOwed
since last March. Happy embraces
indeed, but we decline a share in
that happiness; whenever the DEM
Ocratic party does this, count us out
| as a Democrat.
! DEATH OF ADOLPHE THEIRS.