The New York herald., 1877-03-17
The Z Brief story OF Civil Service
DEGRADATION.


of the federal civil service it is worth while
to trace briefly the successive steps OF Its
degradation.
General Washington made appointments
only for fitness, and made no removals ex-
cept for incapacity. He wrote on this sub
ject very freely at different times. For in
stance, November 80, 1889, he wrote, in
every nomination to office have endeav-
ored, as far as my own knowledge extends
to make fitness of character my primary
object" TO Bushrod Washington he
wrote, ''You cannot doubt my wishes to
see you appointed to any office or emoiu-
ment in the new government to the duties
of which you are competent ; but, however
deserving you may be of the one you have
suggested, your standing at the bar Will not
justify my nomination of you as attorney to
the federal District Court i'll preference to
some of the oldest and most esteemed gen.
eral court lawyers in your own State
who are desirous of this appoint
ment" In letter to another person
he named as principally to be regarded,
besides sfitness of character to fill Office,
also ''the distribution of appointments in as
equal proportion as might be to persons
belonging to the different States in the
Union;" and referring to this in still another
letter, he wrote, ''My aim has been to COM
bine geographical situation with abilities
and fitness of known characters.
When Jefferson came in, and the federal
lists lost power, he experienced at once
pressure from the members of his party
anxious for Office. He refused absolutely to
appoint relatives of his own In regard to
office-seekers he wrote to DIR. Rush IN
March, 1901, "Of the thousands of officers,
individuals only, probably not twenty, Will
be removed, and these only for doing what
they ought not to have DONE" In another
letter he wrote, Good men to whom there
is no objection but a difference of political
principle, practised on only as far as the
right of private citizen will justify, are
not proper subjects of removal, except in the
case of attorneys and marshals." Many years
later, in letter to Madison he touched
on one of the most mischievous of the laws
which regulate our civil service-that which
limits the term of Office of subordinate place
holders to four years. and thus makes re-
appointment necessary and opens the door
to office-seeking. He wrote, in 1920, ''This
is q sample of the effects we may expect
from the late mischievous law vacating every
four years nearly all the executive offices OF
the government. 1t saps the constitutional
and salutary functions of the President and
introduces a principle Of intrigue and cor
ruption which will soon leaven the mass,
not only of Senators but of citizens. 1t
places every four years all appointments
under the Senate's power and obliges them
to act on every one nomination. 1t will
keep in constant excitement all the hungry
cormorants for Office, render them as well as
those in place sycophants to their Senators,
engage them in eternal intrigue to put out
one and put in another" How accurately
he described the results of this bad law we
need not say The whole country knows it.
In 1882 Mr.. Clay objected to Mr.. Van
Buren's nomination MS Minister to England
on the express ground that 'to this gentle
man is principally to be ascribed the intro
duction of the odious system Of prescription
for the exercise of the elective franchise in
the government of the United States. 1t is
detestable system, drawn from the worst
periods of the Roman Republic, and if it
were to be perpetuated-if the Offices, hon.
ors and dignities Of the people were to be
put up to scramble and to be decided by
the results Of every Presidential election
our government and institutions, becoming
intolerable would finally end in a adespotism
as inexorable rs that of Constantinople.
General Grant and the republican party
brought the country, in fact, during the last
eight years, to the point spoken of by Mr..
Clay, where, unless we could have such q
reform as President Hayes promises, the
American people would demand q change in
their form of government.
The degradation of the civil service is
commonly supposed to have begun with
jackson, but the office-seekers had been an
active and troublesome body before then.
The law making the tenure of Office only four
years, which was passed about 1920, may be
said to have created the trade or profession
of office-seeking. Jackson only increased
an evil already existing John Quincy
Adams, however, made, during his term of
four years, but four removals from Office
which involved the action of the Senate So
said Senator Ewing in speech in 1851
defending General Taylor against the charge
of having made wholesale removals.; and he
added, 'Before 1929 there were contests for
Office, there was victory and defeat, but they
touched the higher objects of ambition
only, the love of distinction and power, not
the living Of the official drudge, the wages
of whose labor was the support of his
family" But Senator Bradbury, of Maine,
compared Jacksons removals with Taylor's,
and showed by his figures how greatly the