Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1880-03-20

received their reward frum Mr..
Hayes, but do not care to fart her
particularize on this part OF the sub
jeet. But there il one other Louis
lana specimen which I must not
omit to mention, perhaps not eclps-
eel in brilliancy byany civii-serviee
achievement of that State. l nj
lHde to the case of. s. b. Packard.
Packard, as is well known, was u
candidate for governor of Louisiana
In 1876 He received just 2, 1916 more
votes in the State than were cast for
Hayes electors. But Hayes was
counted in, and Packard was coun-
ted out. Packard and his friends
claimed that if Hayes had carried
the State, a .f0rtiori Packard would
impeach the validity of Hayes title.
No man can deny this logic or re-
flute it. 1t required under the cir
cumstances an amount of cheek
rarely met with even in the broad
domain of brazen effrontery to play
the role which Mr.. Hayes found
himself under the necessity OF as
suming. He soon proved to those
who thought him incapable of play
ing the part that they did not know
him. He had seen how the new
order instituted by Grant had work
ed, and he resolved to try some Wis
iting statesmen on Packard. The
aptness with which he caught and
appropriated this Grant idea does
great credit to his shrewdGesS.
Hayes knew that Packard had not
been elected govei nor as well as he
knew he had himself failed to carry
the State. Grant, just before the
sun of his administration went
down, Qet US hope never to rise
again, had said that public opin-
ion would not longer tolerate the
prOping of carpet-bag government
by United States bayOnets and be-
fore his term expired he issued an
order for the removal of the troops
from Louisiana. By their own rot
tenness such governments had de-
cayed and fallen in all the Southern
States except Louisiana and South
Carolina. Hayes was too well aware
of the defect of his title and of the
temper of the American people at
that time to attempt to force Pack
ard upon louisiana as the governor
of State. He organized returning
board on Packard and counted him
out. But this count was an honest
one, and the gentlemen engaged in
it arrived at the truth. Packard
was of course indignant, but was
pOwerless. He had to submit. His
Iacerateo feelings found balm in a
fat office which Hayes held out to
him and which he took. He was
appointed consul to Liverpool on
salary of 5000 per annum. Oh,
civil-service reform, thy ways are
mysterious and past finding 0u.!
But this is perhaps the true solu-
ton of Mr.. Hayes extraordinary
crookedness on the subject of civil
service reform. He knew that he
was inaugurated amid the smother
ed indignation and excavations of
wronged people, although for the
sake of peace they stood by with
uplifted hands and beheld the I'M
speakable outrage upon their rights
perpetrated. Like all guilty men,
he felt nervous and timorOus. He
knew that his title to the Presiden-
cy was immersed in fraud, and he
feared that a full exposure OF the
crimes by which he had been seated
might lead to the discovery of some
methods by which the disgraceful
decision under which he claimed
would be reversed. There is no
doubt that he felt great anxiety up
on this subject. The perplexities of
the situation suggested two things:
First, to propitiate the people who
had been robbed !; or, failing in that,
to make such terms with the rob-
bers as to disincline them to disclose
the means by which the great fell
ony was committed. Hence with
one hand he scattered promises of
reform broadcast over the country
and with the other distributed Off
ces among the rascals that had COM
mitted the crime. Therefore, when
this House ordered an investigation
into the means by which the great
fraud was consummated, the COM
mittee charged with that duty found
the witnesses most cOnversant with
the facts snugly ensconced in lucra-
tive Government positions. They
had been artfully bribed by judi
ciOus distribution of executive pat
rOnage before they were called to
testify. The difficulties that sur
rounded the investigation are thus
tersely and truthfully stated by the
majority of the committee in their
report:
POWER OF PATRONAGE TO CONCEAL WRONG.
On the other hand, the power of an adj
ministration with the absolute disposal of
one hundred and ten thousand offices, some
of whose members are most interested in
feaSr
selves and their action, is enormous, as has
been felt at every step OF the 1nVestiga-
ton.
There is no form of continuing influence
equal for convenience and control TO that
of an office. II a man be bribed by sum
down he may lose it OF waste 1t, and then
the control il gave over him will be gone.
Bu6in an office which he holds at the pleas
ure of the person who appointed him he is
under continuing control. While he is
com plant and serviceablerhe receives sup
port; but when he fails in either regard, or
confesses where he might have kept silent,
his supplies are cut of and he is turned out
ON the world without means and without
character, ruined by his confession OF the
truth.
Patronage has, besides this the further
advantage that it affords the possibility of
aScribing its bestOwment to lust causes, so
that while being used for the most repre-
hensiOle purposes, the motives of its use
It's the history of all State conspiracies
that if the cOuSpiratOrS succeed the means
by WDlcn Iney 40 SO are rarely disclosed or
published while the party remains in
How fully the Administration has profit
ed by these examples, and how desperately
used the Federal patronage, alike to reward
and keep under control those who partici-
pated in the frauds of 1876, and to retain
witnesses in its interest, will appear.
But not alone to Louisiana and
Florida, whose electoral votes gave
the Presidency to Mr.. Hayes, has he
confined his exploits in reforming
the civil-serviCe. Among the many
monuments that rise un-
der his busy hand to perpetuate his |
devotion to civil-ser- !
vice reform, not the least conspicu-
Gus is the one he has recently erect !
ed in the State of New York. The |
President and his Secretary of the |
announced to Congress
and the country that the good of |
the public service required the re-
moVal from Office of G. A. Arthur,
collector, and a. b. Cornell, naval
officer, at the port of Gew York.
They set about to procure the re-
moval of these officers, who although
they had in some way incurred the
of the President and
Secretary of the Treasury, had
firm friend i'm the distinguished re-
publican Senator from New York,
Mr.. Conkling. The war between
The Administration and the lordly
senator became very warm. The
it is said, took no pains to