The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1877-09-28

|
President thoroughly to the fact that prom
Uses, good intentions and general orders are
as vain in civil executive as in the COM
mander Of an army. Nh. Hayes took posses
sion Of the White House with, as everybody
knows, the very best intentions in the
world. He published them far and wide. He
followed them up with written instructions
and orders. And then-he did not entirely
stop, but he began to go very slow; SO
slowly, in fact, that the people, who at first
flung up their hats in universal acclaim,
have been ever since waiting, doubling,
wondering and becoming constantly more
and more puzzled.
It will not do to say that there is no cause
or excuse Tor the outburst of fury and re-
ter. Of course everybody understands that
personal disappointments, grievances and
hatreds had large share in that curious
event but we do not believe that even the
strong personal devotion of large number Of
politicians in this State to Senator Conkling
would have carried them with him to such
lengths us they freely went had the Presi-
dents course upon the question Of the re-
form of the civil service not been felt by
them to be so hating, lame and inconclu-
sive as to invite attack and inspire resent
ment. We doubt even if Senator Conkling,
a man much less fond of patronage" than
his opponents are accustomed to represent
him, and who has at least the merit
of having caused the appointment of
some Of the best officers in the civil
service, would have chosen to head such
mutiny had the President performed as
rigidly as he promised easily. Patronage"
has become dear to the Senatorial heart;
yet the plain truth is that the greater SEN
ators, the men of real ability, care little for
it, and would gladly lay it down-but only
on the condition, very naturally, that il
shall be entirely abolished. There are
dozens of Senators, third and fourth rate
men, who, unfortunately, make up the mass
of the Senate, who perpetually haunt the
White House for patronage" and are furi-
Gus if they are denied. They need it; us one
Of them said only last spring. cursing Presi-
dent Hayes because he had refused him an
appointment:-"I this thing goes on, if I
can't get my men appointed, how the deuce
am to be reelected Z" But men of ability,
Of power, who have q real hold on the pub
lie, do not need to stoop to such intrigues,
and we repeat that such men would feel
relieved if the mischievous system of ''Sen-
atorial patronage" were entirely abolished.
But they will not tolerate that it
shall be only half abolished. They
will help the President divorce the civil
service from politics, but on the prime
condition that it shall be o total and not
limited divorce; that if their friends are not
to be considered neither shall the Presi-
dent favor his own or anybody else's
friends
For our parts, we consider this perfectly
fair condition. Let us have thorough re-
form of the civil service but not q half
way reform. Let US abolish political favor
itism, but let us abolish it entirely. When
everybody stands on equal ground nobody
can reasonably complain. But we repeat
what we have said to the President before;
half measures are not tenable. For in
stance, it is generally understood that Mr..
Hayes intends to remove the heads of the
New York Custom House, on civil service
grounds, Of course. But 1t is fact that he
keeps in the New Orleans Custom House
person like J. Madison Wells, man who
was shown by the committee of republic
can Congress in 1875 to be guilty of the
most disreputable practices who is notori-
ously politician Of the lowest type, and
at =,
totally indefensible on reform grounds, or
on any others. except the most unblushing
and cynical Of all. Nor is this all, for he
has appointed as Collector in New Orleans
q person also VIGOROUSLY incapable, and who
is commonly understood to represent in
that place another member of the Returning
Board, Mr.. Anderson. Now, while the re-
moval of the heads Of the New York Custom
House might offend their friends it could
never become the occasion of n general or
formidable attack on the President, if men
did not remember that he has acted on very
different principles in his New Orleans and
other appointments.
Again, Mr.. Hayes prohibited federal
office-holders from taking part in partisan
politics We believe he was right and wise
IN so doing, and dissent entirely therefore
from Senator Conklings views on this SUBJ
ject. The interference Of federal Office
holders in politics has been for years grow
ing abuse and evil, until under the late adj
ministration every petty postmaster thought
it his duty to sneeze when the administers
ton took snuff, and the conventions were
made up almost entirely of inspectors and
tide walters, who held their places and drew
their salaries mainly because they could
"run primaries" and manipulate conven-
TONS The Presidents order on this sub
ject was eminently wise and right; but by
the time some thousands of postmasters,
Custom House inspectors and other petty