The Portland daily press., 1878-04-19

the fact that they did not In the least preven.
OF delay his appointment by the President and
fornia ffoniirnation by the Senate to an important
cossag sgn position. Under bis reform sue
called called e,aTdn Mr, Hoyt, Territorial Delegate
,'an' sieVen times at the Indian Office and as
mmany my tailed to find the Commissionsr Rnt
csnsa ,om wisdom is justified of her children. be-
;a ;Ea1SSe, although the Commissioner vas sbsant
he dsa1oa YORK attending to his private business
diem he would pm have n' .sensy sslary the the per
S",'i, Sren present Performing his official
Luties! 1t would be impossible for ',1, an
american Administration to make no good
appoinntments, bat there is no line of reform up-
oo, om wnlcn this Administration has taken two
consecutive steps. in advance. To no single
paincipAe of reform can friend or foe
p po.nt as one which this Admipistra-
dan. Iuu nss consistently followed. The Presi-
noe Gully a reform as to certain abnses and
practices, but change in the system of annoint
,nent itself, and the change turns out 10 bea
sno;Iss from wnat the Reformers call ''the
spo,is SYSTEM, into greedy grabbing
ana am scattering of spoils without any system At
All. Iho President has not used the offices a.
rewards for party services, but has used them
as penalty Tor party services aud rewards for
Petsonal adherence to himself. He has NOT
9seu MS patronage to build up his party bnt
ne mas used it to dsintegrate his party and 10
piaster up another whose only cohesive ele-
uene was himself He has not "smashed
in the interest of the party he feared peaard-
Iess oI Wnst might be the consequences To the
party winch thought it had elected him. and
had % ~hGSe sts9nchness and loyalty he felt he
nad nothing to fear The great difference be-
tween the old aud the new order of things is that
Wnearas, formerly by long practice the machine
was so deity handled that even its bad work
was was uone with sort of external decency il is
now 50 ciumsily managed and so roughly dis
1olnted that every crank groans and its hest
work smells to heaven of rancid oil
Wy statements are of mattersl too numer-
nsad merpus . ana too widely noised abroad to
congress ring with them and only the echoes
RESPOND; Inc corridors of the DEPARTMENT.
az! Mss with their sibilsnt whispers and no man
fSp,Ives foSp, bs or denies them Civil Service Re
.orn . mas become by-word. The Democrats
Toss it contemptuously over TO the RepubIicans
ana the Republicans soften the situation with
grim jest or two, and toss 1t back again amid
u uerislse laughter. The only defence that the
pest friends of the Administration can bring
Is that the President means well. Undoubted-
~ ne did not design when he wrote his letter
., , acceptance, when he delivered his inaugu-
nars rs, sds5ess a to forty millions of people, to g
uoIS all mis- professions and promises in
tweivemonth. Undoubtedly he has always
looH5u 1 little way ahead to time when he
could and would begin to put his reform into
motion and make no appointments except for
Herit ana no removals except for cause: but
always before he got to it, there would start mn
an ONO man who had not place or an irate
ocutherner who must beIappeased or North
Sna srn maicon1ent MAJ who might be secured, and he
mas saId to Reform, go thy way for this time;
wnen have convenient season will call for
tnee. But we, the people, can Judge of what
!ne PRESIDENT means only by what he
ooes: When ne removes an efficient officer,
we we lnIer That he meant to remove him.
Wnen he installs an untred man over the
neads Oh faithful and experienced officers we do
iH n1S tninK ne meant to promote the old officers
w. nsn S0o ne makes and changes appointments at
the Deck and call of Democratic Senators, we
do not see in the act his intent to main
tain the independence of the separate de-
partments of the Government And we
resent not SO much the things done as the
aHront put upon our intelligence by the loud
resound1Dg declarations that these things should
DOT Dc d0ne The Reformers have beaten their
drums and sounded their gongs and chanted
their protestations of unselfsh statesmanship
as II the clang and clatter would prevent us
from discovering that they were all the while
industriously and indecently dividing the spois
among themselves. President Grant brought
methods OF the Army into the State and out
ragged the country by some disastrous mistakes;
put In nothing did he do so much harm as in
this; that his bad appointments, due whether
to the blindness of personal friendship or to
military habit or to whatever cause, made pos
sble the present carnival and chaos of sham
reform.
While I am writing this the newspapers
tell us that at least the approving word
has been spoken Of Administration reform.
The Hon. Charles Foster, in the privacy
of party caucus, has ventured to say that
at least the year has produced no scandalsl
Very true. The scandal-mongers are in Office.
As Mr.. George @. Gorham declares with
rather pre-Raphaelitic vigor which the Re-
formers will find it hard to forgive, "The
swill-tub is the especial property of the Re-
formers" They are still, because they are
there The men whose sole political question
was office and whose sole political capital, slam
der: who gloated over all the scandal they
could find, invented all they could not, and pro-
claimed both with equal zest have got possess
sion OF the Administration and from the mo-
ment OF their first clutch, silence like q poul-
tice came to heal the blows of sound.
am willing to grant, what shall presently
snow, that the President alone is not at fault.
but that it is also the fault Of the situation. 1t
and the crash of worlds to deliberate design.
A President might have q great deal more
force or independence" than the Boston Adver.
tiser attributes to Mr.. Hayes, and not be able
20 collide with Mr.. Eaton's reform without
crash of something.
The Websters aud Clays and Cslhouns, to
whose early warnings of peril Mr.. Eaton calls
Onr attention, did indeed dlsspprove of General
Jackson's way of doing things; but when they
had the chance they did not let the grass grow
under their feet before walking in the same
way themselves. And where Webster went
what course should we expect of Hayes who,
'ter in political experienced But Mr.. Eaton
that Mr.. Hayes is faithfully
following his path. Mr.. Eaton's position
Is that there has been no crash. Mr.
Eaton maintains that everything is run
ming smoothly. Mr.. Eaton says that the
President has justly interpreted the pledges
given. And King Solomon furnishes ground
or believing that though Mr.. Eaton were
prayed in a mortar among wheat with
Destle. he would say the same thing with every
.hud.
"And everybody praised the man
Who this great fight did wIn."
"But what good came of 1t at last?'