Morning journal and courier., 1881-05-14
Price Four Cents.

the common enemy-the opposition; they
 are not available for intestine quarrels they
 cannot be used in any such way without ru-
 ming the whole system. The condition to
 which the President is seeking to reduce
 Senator Conkling is one which the spells
 system makes no provision for and does not
 recognize in any way. It knows nothing of
 Senator who only controls part of the offices
 and has to give some of them to his bitter
 enemies, any more than of 8 Senator of the
 party in power with no offices at all in his
 gift. Under it such Senator would be
 contradiction in terms. like 8 peaceable sol- dier, or a goddess minister or waterless
 river. It follows from this that the offices
 are not available for the restoration of ''har-
 mony." To attempt to use them for any such purpose is to put premium on strife.
 Their proper object, considered as spoils is to
 strengthen the bonds of discipline, to secure implicit obedience to the majority in eau cuses and conye ntions, and to protect the influence and ascendency of recognized party chiefs, whether bosses or Senators. If Gen.
 Garfield has reached the conclusion that the
 old system is 8 bad one, that Senators are not
 ht dispensers of patronage and that the pub
 lie officers ought not to be treated as part of their personal baggage. there is but one course to follow, and that IS to fall back on the old, natural plan of filling the offices sim
 ply with view to the proper conduct of the public business. If he means to fight Conk- ling or any other boss. he cannot fight him successfully as the leader of rival faction Ill the party. He can only fight him success fully in the character of a business man charged with the receipt and disbursement of the revenue, and the faithful execution of the laws of great nation. In that character alone can he slaughter" his enemies. This is something better than stwar-club" or
 "scalplng-knlfe. It is the breach. loader and rifed artillery of civilized politics. He has been in office now for two months trying to restore harmony" and satisfy claims" and recognize" wings and sections" by making appointments without regard for
 with only secondary regard) to fitness and he has simply produced deadlock and confu- sion and disappointment among politicians, and disgust among the taxpayers and has made Republican defeat this fall all but a certainty It is not yet too late for his own fame and success to retrace his steps and abandon the plan of governing through the corrupt use of the public service. The way to ruin Conkling is to administer the New York custom house on the system W hich Conkline most abhors-that is as a business house. To administer it simply as the old concern, with ''the controlling interest" in new hands, is to perpetuate the view of the public service which breeds Conklings, and which, as long as 1t IS allowed to operate, will make men of Conkling's peculiar talents seem so respect able and powerful that they will never be overthrown or brought to naught. in party, the President ought to remember, is harmony of opinion and feeling about the ends of government-the iden oelle idem sentire de re7oub1ic0-among the voters. It is not and cannot be the satisfac- tion of few thousand needy men with the salaries of small offices, because that is unat- talnable. Needy men never have enough money, and there are not offices enough in the world to satisfy the needy men of the State of New York. Harmony" through that channel is in politics what the squaring of the circle is in mathematics