Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1880-04-24
The Constitution Against the
Empire.
THE POwEIR or PArRoNAGE.

We have now pledged ourselves
to the maintenance, as our leading
principle, of the constitution in its
spirit and letter against the innova-
tiOns past and prospective which
threaten to establish in its place
centralized bureaucracy, subversive
alike Of the reserved rights Of the
states aud of the privileges of con-
gress as restrictive of executive
power. Iii other words, the tenden-
cies to empire are to be systematic
ally resisted by us, and the funda-
mental principles of the eonstitu-
ton, which were expressly designed
to cOanteract such tendencies, are
to be vindieated. This is the task
we have set ourselves for the next
six months, and we now select as
our first topic the stupendous ma
chinery for sustaining in power a
party once having obtained pos
session of the executive, which has
been constructed out of the privi-
lege of the appointment to office.
We are here taking no party posi-
ton. 1t does happen that under
existing circumstances the patron
age power is attacked by democrats
and defended by republicans, but
that is from the mere accident that
the republicans are at present in
possession of that power and demo-
crals are made to feel it as an obsta-
Gle to their success as a party. But
party reYerses have occurred and
may occur again, and with every
change in the predominance of
party the evil which we are defining
and attacking has increased. 1t is
our purpose to provide If possible
that, with the next change, it may
be abridged and, if possible, swept
away altogether. This being party
journal, we are prepared for an in
credulous sneer when we assert that
we are even more assiduOus to see
this power removed in case of the
democratic party obtaining power
than we are as things now stand. 1t
is nevertheless true. No party can
resist the demOralizing and corrupt
ing influence which is attached to
the possession of the appointing
power as now administered, and we
should contemplate with dismay
and disgust the Office of defending a
party which had yielded to such
temptations as have made the re-
publican party an object of loathing
not only to its antagonists but to the
best and purest men in its own
ranks. The contemplation of repub-
lican corruption excites in US mere
ahhorrenea and the spirit of resist
ance, that of democratic corruption
of equal magnitude would reduce US
to despair. 1t is as much to shield
thedemOcracy from such temptation
in the future as to remove it from
the republican party in the present
that is the proper object of civil ser
vice reform.
The necessity of such a reform is
a branch of our subject on which we
expect to be very brief, both because
we have SO frequently dilated on
the subject before and because there
is scarcely a respectable man i'm
either party not a candidate for
Office who does not admit it. AS
bearing upon the topic of executive
encrOachments, then, let it be
enough to state that the number Of
permanent office-holders under the
federal government is now largely
over 100000; that by far the larger
portion of these have received their
appointment as n reward for partisan
services and as a retaining fee for
services of the same sort in the
future; that every one of them is
tiOn expenses whenever called upon
for them and to work at elections i'm
every way, for which purpose they
are always excused from their pub
lie duties whenever an election
approaches that this number of
100000 is liable to indefinite extern
sion at election times by the appoint
ment Of inspectors and deputy mar
shals, whose duty it is to control
elections in the interest of their
party; that all these Otfice-holders
have dependents bound to their in
terests, which would probably
double their numbers, and that this
army of otfice-hOlders is to be sup
plemented by probably an equal
army of Office-seekers, who are even
more ready than the holders to sig
nalize their loyalty to the party in
power by any amount of exertiOn,
10 be remunerated, as they hope, by
future appointments. Thus the gov
eminent always holds subject to its
orders for partisan purposes a corps
of half a million Of voters, at mod
crate computation. In other words,
if the opposition party is to over
come them ut an election, they must
do so by commanding majority of
votes not only, but half
million over that to eounterbalance
that number of votes controlled by
through its patronage.
We pretermit the ineficiency of
civil service in the hands of men
whose qualification for Office is not
as officers but unscrupu-
Ious zeal as election agents, and
whose continuation in office de-
ponds, not upon their assiduity in
their official duties, but upon the
continuance of those partisan SER
viees by which they were first
This is a rough and very made
,uate statement of the evils of the
present system they are palpable
10 all Who give the most eursory
glance at public affairs, and need no