The Portland daily press., 1878-03-15
IN. Y. Tribune.l
Gail Hamilton Once More.
Mr. DSrman II. Eaton's Path of Glory i'm
the February Atlantic.

shining, new, impregnable armor, it is simply
impossible not to give the old rattle-.rap anoth-
er shake
Mr.. Dorman B. Eaton emulates St Paul in
one respect at least-hs magnlfes his office.
He roams half the world over trying to lift his
Civil Service Reform into the comp auionship o
of Great Causes. which, by legitimate infer
l ence, will bring Saul also among the prophets.
1t is needless to say that the engine labors.
The American heart. is too nsensate to thrill
| readily even over the magnificent, if imprsc
| tcable, dream of great N alton moving steadily
onward against sll obstacles, aud sternly set
Ting its custom house clerks on their three
legged stools and ddiog them mind their
business! For that is all that Civil Service Re.
form amounts to. Mr.. Dorman B. E atom may
put on red shirt aud pose before the Amer
| lean people as the Garibad of an oppressed
but deatnless Nationality; yet all the Nation
atty there is abous IT, and all tha vitality there
is in it, are what is necessary to make the fifty
thousand Federal ofice-holiers of for ty millions
of people do the work they are hired to do, and
not meddle with what does not belong to them!
Having ranged himself alongside Cavour and
Victor Emanuel in Italy, Mr. Dornau B. Eat
on takes short cut to England aud clasps
hands with Pitt and Burke in trinity of dis
interested statesmanship.'' reminding one of
the little "supe's" lament over Macready's
death, "Auother of US gone." Bat waea M
Eaton bestrides this narrow Atlantic like a
colossus and hits nearer home, he grows eau
tious. Burke and Pitt and avour have long
been still in death, bat Mr.. Eaton would have
20 run down long line of the living before he
could stand in ststuerque repose by the side of
Lovejoy; accordingly he leaves off taat coa-
tention before it be medeled with BY ssyio 9
that ''bstween the higher and lower forces OF
| politics, which are now arrayed against each
other over the question of Civil Service Reforn
| there was never so mighty a contest as that
about slavery?' Fie! fe! Mr. Eaton; how
can you be so rash? Why should noble stand
bs so lowered in the house of its friends? Do
| you mean to say that a system which held in
/ absolute slavery three millions of human be-
| ings. and polluted the morals of nine millions,
| and poisoned the laws of nineteen millions
| more and set four millions of men iu battle
array against each other through four years of
blood and fire could be source of profounder
pa assion, could take stronger hold of the i'm
aginaton aud the CONS sience of any people
than system which insists upon the appoint
| ment Of $4,000 office-hoiders by competitive
examination? Perish the thought! MIR Dor
man b. Eaton's medesty will yet be the death
| OF hm-the death az least of all his rights to
| martyrdom-hs claims to canonization. Has
Mr. Eaton never bsen torn from wife and chill
dren at dead of night and hustled to the first
lamp post by mob of infuriated office-holders
whose craft was in danger, that be thus de-
/ preciates his own value, waters his o wn stock,
as it were? Has MIR Eaton never fled from an
| enraged custom-houSe, or been dragged through
the streets with rope around his neck By
| yelling crowd of special agents, or thrust into
| a dungeon by the minions of an infiamed Sec
retary- of the Interior and his feet made fast
Iu the stocks by a frenzied battalion of Dead
letter Postohice clerks, or his house assaulted
and his life assailed by the brckbats and shot
guns OF roaring aud seethiug mass of en-
ragged Auditors aud Comptrollers? Did h. not
fare forth from the Fifth Avenue Conference
| hand in hand with Dr. Woolsey, breathing out
threatenings and slaughter against mercenary
partisans and politics aud did he not buckle
| on his sword and uDlimbsr his guns and sand
| his decks and sink his Merrimacs and deluge
the whole land with blood rather than allow
| General Butler to recommend a one-legged SOL
der Tor the Methueu post0fice? If Mr.. eaton
| has indeed escaped ali these perils by fire and
flood, if his battles have all been waged with
bis gray goose-quill, while bis sword has hung
| nnocuous at his peaceful side; if he has only
| been engaged In a bloodlsss war of words over
| the sluggish terrapin and the timoroas chicken
salad and no hand has been stretched out from
the belllgerent departments or the endangered
Houses of Congress against child or wife or
limb or life-theu, indeed, Mr. Dorman
Eaton is right in saying that the contest over
| Civil Service was never SO mighty a contest as
that about slavery. But what estimate does he
put upon the Intelligence of his countrymen to
suppose that they need to be info med of such
| fact? Or has Mr. Eaton ever reflected as to
| what estimate they must put upon his intelli-
| gence, seeing him disport himself amoDg such
| comparisons? Mr.. Dorman b E iton attempts
| to turn aside the shafts of rldicule from his
| Civil Service Reform bantling-whch seems
fast following in the footsteps of the precocious
baby of the Bah Ballads, "Whose health didn't
thrive; No longer alive. He died an enfeebled
Old dotard at ive'-by showing that Italian
freedom had also their eras of doubt aud des.
| pair, of weakness and ridieule. Most true, but
because great cause IS rIdiculed in it's early
stages IL does not follow that every ridiculous
| project is great cause Tall oaks from little
acorns grow, but not from little tosdstools If
Mr.. Dorman B Eaton finds in ancient history
| any comfort for the present limp condition OF
bis poor, old, battered, betrayed, bull-dozed
| Civil Service Reform it would be cruel to deny
| h'm that sOlace. For his own personal conso-
lition. We are quite willing he should range
himself With the simple great ones who have
led forlorn hope to an assured victory but we
| cannot let him pop up behind his bArricade of
head statesmen to fire his mischievous little
fusllades lsto every passing group Of unsus-
l pecting women and children.
/ In MI. DOrmau b. Eat0n's mind the United
/ States divides itsalf naturally into sh1ep and
| goats not one of which ever strays into the
II
be finds slow politics" Patronage" 'low
official morality" merceoary partisans,"
"aemsgogues," ,"p.tty managers" "schem-
ng 1na gres: JOB
mon poIIticia1s,'' "spoilsmsn,'' ''parsisan-
ship" ''arrog. ant Leaders," ''orgsnized sell
fshness," "unimpeached offenders, -" salary
srabbeIs," "wh,skey-rin!g; peculation,", "Cus-,
mere politicians, partisan leaders"
Il "Dartlsdn SuDDOrt.' "COrTQDC DarsOOs ~ "nar-
,isan politics" 'favoritism." p ".seifisn am em-
oitiop,' RECKLESS partisaushp," ''mere party
managers" reckless partisans," "partisan
headquarters" mere partisan schemers," ''ser-
san circles. bipartisan work, partisan spoils -
manipulating elections" On the side of the
sheep we only hear the gentle bieat of noble
reformeIs, courageous. spirits, "tbe best and
pie, "s,rength in principle "aim at the gen.
eral welfare "stern sense of duty" "resolute
l purpose" "high moral attitude "the higher
element" 'the forces of politics." "high senti-
and patriotism
1t never seems to have been dreamed Of in
Mr. Dorman B Eaton's philosophy that, by
any possible combination of circumstances, the
least Whit OF slow politics. could ever fan the
l cheeks OF our most Influential citizens" or
that the total depravity of the "party mauag
ers'' can be tempered by any admxture of pat
riotism. Mr.. Eaton likes his virtue as the
/ topper likes MS whlskey, straight" and it
must be confessed that things are far more
manageable on that basis Iadeed, the great
est Civil Service Reform conceivaols would be
for the Creator to make the world over on Mr..
Eaton's plan. which is perfectly expressed in
the old nursery rhyme OF Isaiah's figs 1t Is the
goodness OF bad men and the badness of good
men that throws everything into confusion.
1t even brings Mr.. Eaton to confusion.
nave said that his sheep never stray il among
n's goats. In one instance they do; aod bs
merely leaving this one gap in his s,one all
Mr. Eaton is in danger of losing his whole
hocs. Having harro we'd up our souls with the
wrongs we have suffered and the perils which
menace, from our corrupt Civil Service, Mr..
Eaton cooly remarks that "We have always
mad great proportion of worthy men in the
Dnblic SERVICE We have, have we? Then,
| why this tempest in teapot? We have about
$4,000 Federal offce-holders in all "a great
proportion of these are worthy men, admits
Mr.. Eaton. To have used plain language
| about the rest, says Mr. Eaton-the plain Ian
suage of ga stern serse of duty, aud resolate
| purpose" he calls it, but whatever he calls it
| it was only wordsworth have given history
the chance to record not General Grants sur
render, but IAN ultimate victory over the
spoilsmen not less in glory than those he had
won upon fields of bood!' As it is, history
VIII have to take no with the next best thing
and record that ultimate victory over against
the name of Dorman b. Eaton. % fields of