The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1877-07-25
WEDNESDAY MORNING, JULY s5.

suie9 out, IL is only through Congress that the
OF oepsrtments are ruled in; and only by
permiss'on OF congress that they have power
70 make appointments at all.s The unquestion-
able fact that the Constitution has made the
SENATE, IN its collective capacity, the final ar
ras Sr Ok appointments, is strong presumptiye
ind;U; why is proper that Senator'S in their
tholVidual capacity, should be consulted. 1t is,
tneretore, also impossible for the Senate to |
nave Deen In rebellion against the Executive,
because the Constitution INVESTS it with SUI
Sremacy. do not know whether or not the |
senate opposed any of the Presidents Cabinet
appointments. but it had legal and constitu-
tlonal right to do so. The power to confirm
implies the power to reject 1t was not the
autocracy OF the Senate in rebellion against
the Executive. 1t was the CONSTITUTIONAL au-
thority of the Senate in Constitutional exer-
else. The Cabinet has grown to be considered
as group of the Presidents personal advisers;
but really it is group composed of the heads
OIL gteat departments, each one entrusted with
great country. Each member of the Cabinet
1s tne responsible repository of enormous bust
ness interests, and it is the duty of the Senate
70 look well to such appointments, and the
senate Is derelct in duty If it rejects from Ca
price or confirms from courtesy. The interests
Involved are too vast to be left to the mercy of
revenge on the one side or OF etiquette on the
other: II the Senate hesitated and delayed, it
was doing only what it had perfect right to
do. In view OF the career of some late Cab-
net ofhcers, and in view of the career of some
or those whose names were proposed for the
present Cabinet 1t would not be monstrous to
SAY that it was the duty OF the Senate to
consult carefully before it confirmed. Was
this unprecedented and discourteous? Was it
any more unprecedented than the repeated an
nouncement that the President would neither
regard nor consider the opinions of the Sen.
ate? Let me emphatically disclaim any belief
That the President has ever been guilty of such
discourtesy. Nothing in the shape of evidence
mas ever indicated that the President has borne
himself otherwise than with the dignity, the
genteness and the courtesy which we have
right to expect from his character and his posi-
ton. Nothing In the shape of evidence indi-
Gates that the Senate has exercised other than
proper and honorable guardianship over the
rights, or meditated aught but faithful per-
torrance OF the duties with which it has been
intr1sted. The verdanoy, the vulgarity, the
insolence, and the ignorance of the various
remarks which have been put into the Presi-
dents mouth, the low ferocity, the narrow,
vicious and venomous motives, the rufianly
methods, ranging from brutal to cringing
which have been attributed to the Senate, be-
lieve to have been chiefly if not solely, the Gre
atfon OF vagrant brains. But these vagrant
brains, this ''calfs head and pluck" is what
we me people are treated to when we attempt
to get at "the truth and the facts
This state of things is recognized by the Re-
formers themselves. The Chicago Tribune
says:
The President alone is almost powerless in making
power without the cooperation of Congre ssmen
and especially OF Senator'S
The Nation says:
In the contest that must arise between reforming
resident and an ordinary Congress, the latter has
immensely the advantage of position. The Senate
can block the game instantly and in strictly con-
stitutional way.
The Reformers at the same time tell us that
the country is determined upon Civil Service
reform, and will have it. But IL the country
81
stitutlonal way to secure it: elect Senators and
Representatives who are in favor of it, This
theicountry has not yet DONE That is, it has
NOT elected representatives who are in favor of
wish to mark 1.-THE distinction, because a real
Civii service Reform is one thing, and that
fearful and wonderful chameleon which fur
n 9a tne party-cry OF the professional Re-
former is another. The Reform organs admit,
put with very little sign Of seeing any force in
the admission, that the immense numerical
majority is against them. The Chicago Tribune
says:
The members Of Congress, and especially the
Senators, are almost to man opposed to Change
OF the present system.
The Nation SAYS:
There presses upon men who desire reform the
Immediate = duty Of securing the nomina-
ton Oh trustworthy men for Congress.
The Congregationalist says:
The trouble 10 with the people who compose the
Service divorced from politics I do NOT
ao tS Ss IN ns party who
from politics.
Very WELL that Is all. This is purely
Representative Government. If the people
do not want the Reform of Reformers, they
have right not to have it. 1t is idle 20 say
that they want it 30 long as they neglect to saw
so themselves, and indeed say quite the con-
trary, in the only way provided for them to
speak They may be very weak and very
wicked in not being for Reform; the present
system may be everything that is bad and
black in the face over the corruption of Con-
gressmen; but the people have a right to elect
such Congressman as they choose; they have
fright to costly and cumbrous and political
civil Service II they choose it; and so long as
they do elect the present congressman who do
vote for the costly system, it Is beating the air
to saw that they do not want it and do want
something else. If noise were the Constitu-
tional mode OF representation, the Reformers
would win by large majority; but since the
popular will 81 expressed by suffrages it is the
Congressman who are counted in. The Pres-
dent is not elected to execute his own individual
vii, or the will of Cabinet officer, or of 8
any class or clique whatever, but the will of the
people; and that will he is not left to his own
fnneriight to discover, or to any clamor of the
populace, or any whisper behind the throne.
1t has one legal, Constitutional and sufficient
expression, which he has no power to mistake
and no right to disregard.
1t is the right and apparently the duty of
Reformers to food the country with tracts and
missionaries, sand to show sthe tpeople the
ought to be converted it is not wise-and it
certainly Is not Republican-to chuck their
heads under water by main force sand call it
baptism.
AThe President is under the Reign of Law ar
much as the humblest citizen. It is not In his
power to define, and 1t would not be becomin q
10 him to attempt to reject, the influence Of
Senators and Eepresentatives.lA Congressman,
as such, should have no more influence than
any other respectable gentleman who should
have been elected to Congress by his consti-
tuents. But the mere fact of his election
signifies that OF all the respectable and dis
respectable gentlemen of his district, he is the
one put forward by the people flor the express
purpose of representing that district; of making
known the wants of that people; of expressing
their will; Of exerting their influence And
Tor any Administration to announce that it
will not pay the smallest regard to this repre-
sentative quality is q most arrogant and I'M
republican assumption of power
One or the loudest bAttle-cres of Reform is
that the business OF the country is to be con-
Quoted on business principles. What success
would be chosen by the junior partner alone,
on principles and by methods of his own
selection; that the opinions of the senior part
ners would neither be regarded nor considered,
and their recommendations would have no
more weight than those of any other res pecta-
BILE gentleman?
So far as the liberties of this country are
endangered by patronage, they are far more
than h e. ~ its in one man
Amongst the best of the witty sayin gs of Mr..
Nasty was that wherein he declared that A.
johnson was about to swing around the circle
70 arouse the people to the danger of ''concen-
trating power in the hands of Congress instead
OF dihusing it through one man." The pro.
fessional Civil Service Reformer processes to
cure all our evils by diffusng all political
power through one man!
GAIL HAMILTON.