Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1877-08-31
civil Service Reform.


10 me Edit0r 81 me ItWHH' :
SIR The one thing at which civil ser
vice reform and all other reform should
above all things aim is to be straightforward
and manly, to see things As they are, to ac-
cept the truth and admit the truth and
speak the truth and act tho truth. In this
We may indeed learn lesson from England.
English civil service reform says frankly
through its exponent in the Westminster
Rcrictc
IT'S Indispensable that the high posts in the pc:
mauent service of the nation should b" icy ~ the
disposal u! the Crown. Cabinet l. Indebted Tor
its existence to its supporters in Parliament anu
il must have at its command the ways ana meanS
of reqniting its supporters The supeiior appo'h.
me nIs under the Crown are tar prizes i"r
the iuwer class OF politicians, who may Ice wanting
in the capacity or the ambition which alone can
force a way To the great ministerial posts, andth'
supreme control OF administration.
Mr.. Carl Schurz says Hayes has shown
great courage in speaking out before his
election against the system OF booty, thus
cutting of to his friends all hope OF reward.
The English reformers are talking sense
and Mr.. Carl Schurz is talking nonsense.
The English retormers are talking with some
knowledge of human nature, and MIR. Clrl
Schurz is not Indeed, | think give Mr..
Schurz too much credit. man who has
shown so very lively a sense of the reward
due to his own merit can hardly claim the
indemnity of the mere theori>t, IN insisting
that all men shall do their duty without any
hone of reward. The result is not that
President Hayes friends receive no re-
ward. but that thousand devices and ex-
cuses and apologies and exceptions have to
be made, which cast a cloud OF suspicion and
ridicule over the whole matter. Let us face
the fact that pen are inevitably and honor
ablv-at least not ishonorably-seltish, and
enlist their seltishness in the cause OF good
government
/ am happy to believe that Secretary
Schurz utterly mistook the temper OF the
American people when he allowed any civil
service reform whatever to remove Miss
Meade from office for any cause whatever.
Look at it. Miss Meade is the sister Of
Gen. Meade. Have We forgotten who Gen.
Meade was2 1t will, perhaps, never be
claimed for him that he was as great mil
itary commander as Grant, or Sherman, or
Thomas, or Sheridan, or, perhaps, as Nc
Pherson but history will faithfully record
that it fell to Gen. Meade's lot to fight and
to win the most critical, the most hateful,
the most memorable battle OF the war; that
| he fought it when the spirit of rebellion was
at its height, when Lees army, proud IN
| its prestige and arrogant in its power, had
dared to invade the free North fought it
when to lose would have been to see indie
pcndence Hall under rebel flag in thirty
six hours, Baltimore in bloody revolt, and the
| Capitol at Washington opened to the ses-
sion of Confederate Congress fought 1t
when United States vessel Of war lay at an
Choir in the Potomac, to receive President
| Lincoln and his Cabinet in case the legIons
of Lee should overcome the soldiers OF the
| Union. Then and there. my countrymen,
on the woful field of Gettysburg, on those
three historic days, the American Union was
saved and constitutional liberty preserved
by the generalship of Meade and the lion
hearted bravery OF those who fought under
him. And when | recall those three
midsummer days of suspense, when, even In
| the shadows of our mountains, We felt only
the shock of battle and lie and death hung
on the Issues of an hour; when recall the
solemn and speechlelss JOY of Meade's great
victory, and when | remember how history
might have been rolled back and the destiny
of continents and races changed by his ial-
tering when think of that modest hero,
gentle as women in his manners, tender a
a child in his feelings-l cannot believe 1t l.
the will of the American people that while
the grass has hardly yet rirened and wither'
ed on his grave, his sister, dependent Tor hei
| bread upon her labor, should be turned out
of her humble place in :he Interior Depart
ment in the name of Civil Service Reform
|
Another point for reform to assume Is thai
the American people are men and not chill,
| dren that they have common sense and
| common honesty that the American citizen
| even though he be party leader, Is not nee
| essirily an idiot or a knaye and that he may
even be depended upon to have some sense
of propriety. 1t is simply impossible that a
party should make hobby of sustaining
the national credit, if its leaders are the ig.
norant and vulgar villains which the reform
organs make out the Republican party lead,
ers to be. and it is simply impossible that its
| hobby should be ridden 50 well if the FEEDER
al office holders to whom it is practically in,
| trusted are the dolts and rascals that they
are described. There is not cohesive attrac-
ton enough in vice to keep such iniquity
organized The country, the Government,
woul d have gone to pieces long ago. Ii
| Presidents and authorities generally were
not, on the whole, inclined to appoint, and
| Congressman to recommend pretty good men
there would not be any Civil Service to re-
form. Experience, says Prof. Fiske,
..has shown, with sad certainty, that the
President cannot depend upon his friends, or
his advisers. OF the party leaders, or Con-
gressmen." Whose experience? The good
standing of our country in the home and
foreign markets shows tina. he can For
integrity and intelligence our country
stands well abreast of any nation in the
world and never was her credit better than
under the party leaders whom the reform
ers most vigorously denounce. Partisan
ship is not dishonesty. No great national
cause can be conducted without party, and
no party can be succe, siully carried on with
out machinery. The cutlery against the ''po-
litical machine" is just as intelligent a. the
instruction CT the English laborers against
cotton machinery. 1t is perfectly intelli-
gent for the Democrats to applaud the
President for "disestablshing the machine, y
because it all plays into their hands and
gives them an advantage of which they would
otherwise fail. President Hayes is making
and can make no law by which all parties
must be bound. lie is simply making rules
by which the party which elected him Is
weakened and the party which opposed him
not affected except to be indirectly strength
ened.
The common sense Of nation should not
be led captive bv a phrase. 10 transact bust
ness on business principles means the prin-
ciples of your own business and not oil some
body ese's otherwise,l it is nonsense. To say
that Government shall or can be carried on
Just as an ordinary dry-gOods firm is carried
on is the sheerest nonsense. y. L. Stewart
created the firm OF which he was head. The
firm of which K. B Hayes is head created
him. The drygoOdS firm is absolute mon
arch, and what it does is nobody's business
but its own. The Government is but an
agent of the people, and what it does is
eyerybody's business Intelligence and in
tegrty are equally indispensable to both !;
but political skill and political service, not
political trickery, should have as much con-
sideration in the Government firm as tasting
teas and sampling sugars-not sanding sugar
and adulterating tea-has with the whole
sale grocer. 1t is not every thing but 1t Is
one thing. The business of the Government
is politics. Over that bridge, with what
crcaking of timber the cchoing heavens
know, went Mr. Hayes into the Presidential
chair, and it is unnatural, not to say suicidal
work, to hew and hack away now at the
ioists and girders whose staunchness never
knew a stcrner strain.
Another point which it would be wise for
reform to remember is that the cant OF re-
form is Just as loathsome to every healthy
mind as the cant OF religion. We are per-
iectly willing to discuss tenure OF Office, or
modes OF appointment. or excellence Of laws,
but we look with contempt on the men who
claim higher standard Of morality because
they advocate one mode rather than another.
The best soldiers arc not the men who talk
most of courage. The best Christians are
not those who talk most about Christ.
30. nAf