New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1877-04-28
CIVIL SERVICE REFORM.
,,r,rp FROM GAIL HAMILTON.


n. EDITOR OF TIE Trtouae
Go. NJ second example of reform talk which has
.orated into SANDER i shall quote from the
'.,nmns Of The Nation, concerning the Rev. Prof.
80 late member of Congress, now PRESIDENT
- amherst College. l quote this, not as SLAM
-, ~ the first degree. the creation of facts,
~, of that lower degree which consists in
-" fals;6cation OF justification of facts
s o. sanderous infercLces. The malignancy
motive is here also less apparent than that mental
sm;tatioi that narrowest form OF provincialism
HIGH prompted the rustic old politician who has
,.rne following. il seems, but who had only one
.,.ndsrd of character. Fine man, Sir, my fIiendV
.n-1 seoundrel. Sir Opposed to me-" In the
,rrsoue dialect of the rural districts one laughs at
ans as an individual eccentricity but elaborated
So those gentlemen in the strict of the word"
Tho edit The Nation, it takes on all the traits of
SANDER.
prof Seelye was sent 10 Congress the ideal of the
.a.al;sts He was the Scholar in politics. He was
,bo Gentleman in politics. He was one of them
rerary fellers" who is supposed to draw the fire of
,hs old political warehouses" q great deal more
.rrely than the lighning-rOd draws the fire from
heaven and TO stand the fire of corruption and dis
honesty of greed and ambition, encased i'll triple
oak and invulerable steel. He was the bright and
shining light of the men whom Office seeks and who
Who do not seek Office He informs us himself with
sly humor and much innocent prde-and the echo
of il rings through the Reform papers-that his
election cost him one postage stamp! The Nation
itself declares that Prof. Seelye was elected to
Congress by a thoroughly blue-blood Mas
sachusetts community though it should have
added that it was only such pale
blue as can exist in an outlying community IKE
Amherst, and not the real old Dr. Jacob Townsends
hat Iory ard san1G
through the veins of Cambridge and Boston,
sill il was blue As public educator-a far more
consequential and imposing parsonage than teacher
The Nation announced that Prof Seelyc performed
. two-fold function of Christian minister and col
Iege professor, and generally regarded as the
nrohable successor of the late President Stearns OF
Amherst. 1t considered that Imposition and attain
uents might be supposed to assure him against
ohouity of moral vision certainly than Vaccl-
,o,;on insnres against smallpox. Ii recorded and
;ntens,fed the general rejoicing that heightened
,ebolar and gentleman would fill the place left
vacant by Alvah Croker. Yet no sooner did Prof..
Seelye deliver an opinion opposed to that OF ire
Nation than that journal-to use pioneer but PIC
turesque Western phrase-sat up OH IT'S hlnd legs
and bovled. Howledi Howled is too constant and
calm word. 1t acted like spoiled child IN nj Oh
na.sion Ii kicked and screamed and rolled over ON
sonyusve effort to express its rage at Prof Seelye
This heightened and blue-blooded Christian states
man was the victim of disease. He was gone down
into the slough of humbug and immortality lie
r,bbed I'D hard against national calamity lie
had ioined the ranks of the repudatOrs, the
Emma Mine operators, the Indian swinders
and all other peculating hypocrItes. de was Tor
obtaining money under false pretenses; he was one
of the don't-care- what-people-thnk men; he was
proclaming a plan for fraudulent distribution OF
funds he was covering himself with shame ana
failure before any court i'll the United States or
England or any tribunal of honorable men OF the
world he had gone over to the quibbng pOliti-
clans instead of giving them piece Of his mind he
was engaged in an audaciOus attempt to escape the
vel-estabshcd obligations of civilized morality
under cover of a blatherskite phrase!
Is this one Reformer speaking of another or Is 1t
the neighng of the old political war-horse against
one Of those gentlemen in the strict sense of the
word who were to be found in any considerable
number only in the Reformers lobby at Cincinnatif
kit the argument of culture to culture or is it the
slogan of the Cameron summOning the clans to
combat against one of them literary 4ellersP TO
what lower depths than fraud hypocrisy, and pecu-
lation could sink the nominee of the quibblng poll
tcianf What avail blue blood and college culture
and Christian nurture and Prof. Seelye's postage
stamp. if blatherskte and humbug and swindle
follow i'm their traini What could Alvah Crockcr
more than thisf
Now. what is that Ithuriels spear which thus
firms the heightened college professor and Christian
minister into a repudating peculating political
toadi 1t is simply the Geneva award. 1t is simply
that Prof. Seeye that question took ground with
the insured while The Nation ranged itself with the
insurers. Ii is simply that Prof Seeye SAID, Con
gess should dispose of the balance of the fund just
a. il might deem wise and equitable" that " the
House is not responsible to Great Britain or
70 the Geneva Tribunal, but to the
august tribunal of history" that equity,
iustice. and wisdom demand the acceptance of the
majority report of the committee" That the
above sentences says The Nation, should have
been uttered by one of Prof Seelyes reputation is
fact to be looked upon almost as national calam-
ity The man who should have exposed the hum
bug and immortality of the speeches of Frye, Hale,
and Others follows their leadership into the slough,
and the horde of regulators, Emma Mine operators,
Indian swinders and all Others who wish TO Justify
their peculaions by some moral or legal argument,
have gained Christian statesman for defender
II remains to be seem" adds The Nation with
naughty severity, it remains TO be seen whether
after this exhibition of his qualifications az pub
he teacher Amherst College will pow choose him for
It's president or the people of his district return him
10 Congress-"
Well, it 10 longer remains to be seen. Amherst
College has chosen him for its president, and was so
afraid that the people of his district would return
him TO Congress out of hand. that it stole march
upon Them and chose him president long before his
Inst term was over; and the students, 800 strong
met him on his return and miniStcred unto him
tiumphal entrance into town-whicb, 1 suppose
The Nation views as very much such spectacle as
HOuld h. nro..,, al Las, oOo Artful DoIOers and Oil