Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1881-03-18
The Bush for Office.

| sentence.
The Bush for Office.
| The rush for office, at Washington, Just
now, is something not quite unprecedented
but without a precedent for many years.
As our dispatches have already informed us,
up to Friday night there were over five hun
dred applications for foreign consu.ates on
file in the State Department, with momentary
additions coming in; and for the position
of second-assistant postmaster general there
were twenty-sevcn applicants. 1t is said
that there is not position in the whole di-
plomatic and consular service, from Minister
to England down to the least paid consulate,
that has not IN applicant to fill it from
the single State of Indiana; and the en-
tire service could be replaced in a
moment by patriotic citizens of that Com
monwealth anxious to ''lie abroad for the
good of their country" to quote Sir Henry
Wotton's equivocal definition of an ambassa-
dor. Then, again, every Republican who
ran for Congress and was elected to stay at
home thinks there is balm in Gilead. tho |
dstillation of which is carried on in the ole |
aginous sinecure of a foreign mission E; and |
finally there is a noble army of party ''work- |
ers' clamoring for recognition" President |
Garfield is, it is said, so beset by office-seek-
ers that he has been compelled to limit his
interviews with these gentlemen to some
thing less than two minutes each-and yet |
these particular applicants, of course,
want only the higher and best paid
offices. The members of the Cab |
met are overwhelmed and their private |
offices in a state of siege The Washington |
correspondent of the New York Herald thus |
describes the situation: ''The pressure
brought to bear upon President Garfield and |
Secretary Blaine for office would crush men
of ordinary physical endurance. Both of
these gentlemen were the most genial of
congressman, and now that they have the
distribution Of some patronage legion of |
old friends seem to think they are doing the |
administration favor by personally pre-
senting their claim or the claim @. some near |
or dear friend. A majority OF the office |
seekers act under the belief that Mr.. Blaine |
is the Hercules of the Cabinet and that the
way to success is via the State Department.
Secretary Blaine actually has to hide him.
self from the crowd of importnnate friends,
who under the pretence of merely calling TO
pay their respects expect to have them paid
back again with promise OF office. MIR.
Muse, who in over fifty years has opened the
door to the callers of thirty Secretaries of
the Navy, says he never saw anything like
it. The man who runs the elevator in the
State Department says that not one-fourth
of the office-seekers care to ride up or down.
They prefer to walk. The reason is that rs
the vehicle will only contain half dozen men
OF ordinary weight the number permitted TO
ride is now cut down to three because of the
weight of the recommendations which the
majority carry with them"
And vet the President and Cabinet have
officially announced that unless for Just
cause or where the commission Of the office
holder has expired, there will be no changes
whatever in any department of the civil ser
vice and rs the cases outside the line thus
drawn are comparatively few, the fate of the
majority of the office seekers may be imag-
ined. This, of course takes no count of any
rival canddature; but as TO that, it is esti-
mated that for each of the one hundred thou
sand Gin round numbers) Federal offices there
Is an average of five aspirants. Looking at
the subject in another light, there are one
hundred thousand actual and five hundred
thousand potential Federal office -holders-a
most remarkable state of affairs. To assign the
causes for it would be difficult. The country re-
ioices in prosperity never hitherto equalled
honest industry receives its due returns Z;
there are thousand avenues of employment.
On the other hand Federal office is uncer-
tain in its tenure, the spectre of the guilotine
with its possible quadrennial fall being ever
present in :he mind of the holder and II
four years occupancy is about enough to
forever incapacitatc a man for the struggle
with the world For the higher and we'll ,
paid grades exceptional ability is generally
demanded, and the lower positions yield very
small salaries
Nevertheless the scramble for Office is
patent enough fact. In the meantime Presi
dent Garfield leads delightful existence.
A special despatch to the Boston Herald of
Saturday gives sample forenoon, as fol
lows:
There WAS again large crowd Of callers
at the White House to-day. They came
carly and they stayed until 12 O'Clock, when ,
the Presidents door was closed and the ses-
sion of the Cabinet commenced. There
were many lady callers to-day. They seem /
ed Ia be- more patient than the men. They I
took seats and whiled away the waiting
hours by conversing with each other. Mem
bers of Congress rs heretofore, took prece ,
dence There were fewer of them than here ,
toforc. Several came with delegations, and
remained some time Representative Neal :
came with n delegation, also Senator Dawes. /
Mr Butterworth came alone, and remained ,
quite while in the Presidents room. Rep ,
resentatives Pettibone and updegraif follow :
cd HIM Col. Ingersoll was there with some ,
friends. Senator Hill of Colorado came
alone and remained but a few moment. Rep
resentatives klotz and keiier came in To-
sether, but their business was several Mr.
IIouk of Tennessee had two gentlemen with !
him; Mr.. Van NOorhis was single.
MIR Frank lIatton of the Burlington Hack
eye, who has his eve upon the Government
printing office, called with Col. J. I. Chap
man, John A. Nckcy and Representative
Met Did of Iowa. Major Brock of the Dis
trict police paid his respects. Rear Admiral
Scott called There were two Indian dcleGa
tons who called. One was in charge of In
dian Agent Berry and consisted OF three IN
Utes. The other was in charge
of cx Representative Phillips of Kansas.
There were five or six Cherokces in this
delegation. Neither was on business. They
came To pay their respects TO their great ,
father. At 1l:30 O'Clock the Presidents ,
door was opened, and everybody was allowed
to shake hands. After this general recep-
ton the President received Il few callers On
business before the Cabinet met.
Many Democratic Congressman favor pr
Lorlng for Commissioner of Agriculture.