Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1878-08-22

expunged; the state and municipal war
debts Of the north were preserved. Be-
sides, Chicago and Boston lost far more
by their fires than the south lost by all
the houses actually destroyed in the
great conflict.
But the incapacitv of the south to rule
! a republic is demonstrated by the hasti-
est glance at her condition before the
war began; at time when two centuries
of unbroken rule had brought forth the
perfect fruits of southern statesman
ship" At the birth of the nation Eir-
ginia held the first place in the relative
rank of the states in population. She
maintained this position until 1910. In
1860 she held only the fifth rank-New
York (Which held the fifth place in 1900
now leading the roll, followed by Penn
sylyapia, Ohio, and Illinois. Virginia
held the tenth place in 1870. North Car
DINA held the third place in 1190-only
the twel- h in 1860. She held the four
teenth in 1870. South Carolina held the
seventh place in 1790-the eighteenth in
1860. She held the twenty-irst place in
1870. New York had increased her pop
ulation in seventy years from $40, 100 to
3,SS0,735 Virginia from 74S, 30S to $780,
318 only. North Carolina, in 1870, had $685.
751 souls; in 1860 she had only 962, 622
South Carolina had 249,073 inhabitants
in 1890, and at the opening of the war
only 7O3,7 0S. Thus, slowly, in spite OF
every natural advantage, had the three
leading slave states, under southern
craftsmanship" advanced; thus rapidly
were they left behind under the states
manship of the north, in the grand march
of the states to prosperity.
They who ere faithful and skillful in
small things-and they only-ca be
safely trusted by the nation with greater
political duties and responsibilities. Are
these southern bunglers, who could not
keep time with statesmen whom they af-
fccted to despise in this long march of
+ seventy years who have been left so far
behind that they seem now to be stray
glers resting by the wayside-are these
hungry braggarts, clad with poverty in
a desolation they have made, worthy to
be chosen stewards of the nations wealth ?
; And yet this is the practical y remedy
proposed for existing evils by men who
argue that the republican party should
now abandon its organization!
Tried by Henry Clay's evidence, the
south should keep or be kept in back
seat until the work of national recuper-
! a.ion shall be completed. In one of his
popular sophomore discourses-then, in
the boyhood of the nation, esteemed elo-
iquent OratiOns-the famous Kentucky
politician (for he was in no high sense a
statesman) declared that the only light
by which his feet could be guided was
the light thrown by the lamp of expert
encc. Does that light lead the feet of the
republic to the plantations Of Virginia
and the Carolinas for men competent to
govern it? Does it guide US to the wrin-
Killed. "mOther Of states and statesmen -
for successors to the power of Abraham
Lincoln, when history tells us that the
statesmen" of whom she SO loudly
Wanted brought their own state from af
fluence to beggary? Under the evil eye
Of southern " craftsmanship" prosperity
shriveled up and fled from the south; and
Virginia, no longer seeking TO win back
from New York the proud title of En-
pire State, settled down into the ignomi.
ny of breeding slaves for the Gulf states,
and the deeper ignominy of defending
the ignOminy.
"CAN THE LEOPARD CHANGE ITS SPOTS %
The negative of this question would
: seem to be supported by the greater
weight of human testimony. But, in the
) world Of politics, class of empires has
arisen, whose motto is the declaration of
MOliere's doctor, " Nous dCOnS change toni
fceyG." In their creed the hope of the
country lies in the rescue of the national
government from the hands of the patri
OTIS who saved it, and in placing it in the
keeping Of the traitors who tried to de
stroy it. They praise men like the gulf
state orator who denied that the south
had been guilty of treason, but On the
contrary, that the south went out of the
union to save the constitution, "hug
ging it to its BOSOM" as Invent out, weep
ing.
) & True patriots they, fer be it understood,
GOODS
These empires claim that the once IN
tamable southern tiger" has totally
changed its nature; that it is now as gen
E tie and innocent as a paschal lamb; that
there are to-day no vital issues in politi
: cal life on which southern statesmen y
F cannot be trusted with as much safety to
the national honor as the republican par
ty could be trusted with them.
Let Us call up in review one or two
only out of scores of important issues
still undecided, and in doing so inquire
whether the right decision is likely to be
reached by the democratic rather than
the republican party.
THE CIVIL SERVICE UNDER REPUBLICAN
ADMINISTRATION.
) There is one issue-invisibIe, mysteri
Gus. and tangible-which no eye here
hath seen, nor hath it entered into the
mind of any man to tell whence it came,
nor whittier it has gone-the name of il
, civil-service reform. 1t is like political
corruption" and "total depravity'' in two
essential traits-it is much talked about
and there is not much of it. Civil ser.
, vice reform, when it is not cant shibbo.
leth, at best is a mere patenl-medicine
remedy for disease that only "constitu-
tional treatment can cure The remedy
for dishonesty in politics lies in the cleo
ton of honest men only to every elective
office The remedy for incompetent gov
. eminent lies in the election of able men
only. It rests with the people to apply
these remedies-for men both honest and
able abound in every state and will read
lily respond to the people who desire them
as representatives. Competitive exami-
nations, according to the formulas hith-
: erto devised, would be mere tests of mem
ory-not of executive capacity; and, un-
der its operation, every government de-
partment would be an organized regi-
ment of spies and informers Establish
an infleXible system of promotions in line,
and every inferior officer would become
the natural enemy of his immediate su-
Derior. Piety does not consist of cor
rect knowledge of the longer or shorter
catechism nor is the capacity to admin
lister affairs to be determined by compel
tive examinations. A lady may be duly
qualified to be an excellent copyist, and
still not bowed down with the weight of
her erudition concerning the isothermal