National Republican., 1881-12-19
The Romance oran AsstheticaI onlcial.

Mr.. J. Q. Howard, of Ohio is now the
appraiser at the city of New York. He
was appointed by President Hayes. He
is understood to desire a reappointment
by President Arthur The law makes it
the duty of the appraisers at the different
ports "to ascertain, estimate, and appraise
the true and actual market value and
wholesale price, any invoice or affidavit
to the contrary notwithstanding, of the
merchandise at the time Of expectation,
and in the principal markets of the coun-
try whence the same has been imported,
and the number of such yards, parcels, or
quantities, and such actual market value
or wholesale price of every of them, rs the
case may require"
The merchandise thus subjected to APP
praisement is portion of every invoice,
80 that from part the character of the
whole may be ascertained. Thus upon Mr..
Appraiser Howard is virtually devolved
the great responsibility of ascertaining
d. ....,ount- Of iutivs voiiortuDie NJ the
New York custom-house. To aid him
in this he has several hundred subor-
dinates, all supposed to be acting under
his mastery direction.
Under an Administration so devoted to
civil-service reform as was that of Presi-
dent Hayes one may well imaginet the care
ful solictude with which the right man for
80 important n place was sought. SilasB.
butcher then filed the place. He
was called to an important posi-
ltnrpn1 al
Mr.. Howard was appointed to fill the
vacancy. The following statement of his
introduction TO public employment will
serve to show what the Civil-service re-
form ideas then prevalent really were /:
During the campaign of 1876 there ap-
peared most eulogistic biography of
General Rutherford Burchard Hayes, by
J. G. Howard. Early in President
Hayes's term Mr.. Howard presented
letter from him to the collector at New
York, requesting that he be given place
in the customhouse beftting his deserts.
He wanted place with salary equal TO
that of deputy collector. Being asked
if he had any qualifications for so in
portant place, he admitted that he had
not thought of that so much. He was I'M
derstood as seeking sinecure. The col
lector declined to make the desired pro-
vision, lie was afterward appointed an
examiner of damaged goods and finally
the chief appraiser. The biography had
done its work, The literary fellow"
had his reward, The man who can satis-
1actorily appraise presidential candidates
ought TO make good appraiser.
On the 10Th of April, 1850, he wrote II
letter, which was published in the New
York Herald, in which he also appraised
General Grant. He opposed that gentle
mans nomination-frst, on anti-third-
term principles second, because Of "the
ex-Presidents shortcomings while in of
flee :" third, because he had not been radi-
cal enough in Southern affairs fourth, be-
cause he could not be elected, owing to
the disaflection of the assistant Demo-
cratic or independent Republican vote,
and fifth, because "the highest capacity
is not the capacity to kill. A genius for
sending other men out Of the world is
not the highest order Of genius "-states-
men and masters of finance (like Mr.
Hayes being, in Mr.. Howards opinion,
more in demand than men who were
mere vulgar soldiers, redolent of "vil-
lainous saltpetre."
II is to be hoped that Mr.. j. Q. Howard
may long be spared TO the public service
Especially ought he to be retained rs APP
praiser. A man who eulogzed Hayes
and reviled Grant cannot be spared from
an office in which his power to determine
the genuineness and value of things can
be had at the pitiful stipend of four thou
sand dollars year
The mere details of Mr., Howards Office
can be cared for by subordinates. Let us
not allow business principles to disturb
this "scholar in politics" or to muzzle
the literary OK that treadeth out the bio
graphical corn.
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