New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-09-16

| on the sidewalks and denouncing General Gar
| field as bribe-taker, perjurer and thief, have
| actually shed tears over the possibility of the
country's losing his services in an Office for
which they insisted that he had neither capac-
| ity nor fitness. They agree with uncommon
| unanmitv that this shocking crime and the
fearful peril to which it exposes free institu-
lions are directly attributable to the "spoils
SYSTEM" which has been developed and en-
cOuraged by the continuance of Republican
control. And with great rolling of the eyes
they call upon the people to rebuke the party in
power, put stop TO the general tendency, and
remove the peril that always confronts free
institutions by making an end of the "spoils
system"
Howl Why simply by handing over the
Government to the Democratic party. That is
the invariable and inevitable moral of all
their fervid discourse.
And they seem sublmely unconscious that
the suggestion contains ANYTHING funny
Whether it is Tammany Hall passing resolu-
tons between drinks. the Centurions solemnly
resolving amid the smoke of very expensive
cigars Irving Hall beating the air to attract
attention, or The World newspaper trying to
appear serious with its tongue in its check
they all work away at the vein Guiteau
opened, just as though they not only believed
themselves III what they say, but actually
thought other people gave them credit
for sincerity. And of all of them the news
paper we have mentioned is the most
amusing. The absolute seriousness with
which 1t grappes the "spos system and
shakes it in its teeth to the extent of a column
and half at IA time, tracing to if what if is
pleased to call the fraud of 1876, the crime
a.
sire on the part of some for the accession of
Vlce-Presdcnt Arthur and the opposition to it
on the part of Others in short al the political
complications of the hour-the seriousness WE
say, with which it discusses all these things
ana proposes Democratic control rs the remedy
surpaSSes ordinary comedy. No one unac-
qualhted with political history, listening to this
sort OF high discourse, would ever dream that
the "spols system originated with a Demo-
cratic Administration to which the whole
party is III the habit of referring with boastful
pride, or that the same is its only bond of co.
herence now. But this is VIGOROUSLY true. and
1t is this and their calm oblivousness of if that
make their talk on the subject so entertaining.
That the evils of the " spos system " origi
mated by the Democratic party have been to n
great extent entailcd, and that the most earnest
and wcll-drected efforts of the Rcpublicans-
WIN whom, and with whom alone the idea of
reform orignated-have been insufficient to
entirely eradicate them, is an admitted fact
We sincerely hope that the coming session of
Congress Will second the earnest and practical
work OF Gartelds Administration by giving
the sanction of law to those amcliorations of
the service which have been made bv three
Republican Presidents in succession. The Re-
form must be accomplished by those who began
1 ar will 1,. III
should be done SO thoroughly that even a
Democratic President cannot undo it. For
these people who invented the spoils system.
and whose conference rs Il party depends entirely
upon its continuance, to indulge in homilics
upon 1t and seriously offer to do away with it if
Entrusted with power, when their only hope of
reaching power is 10y its aid is-not to tax
popular crcdulity but to invite. in the Homeric
phrase, ineXtinguishable laughter.