The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1881-12-17
Civil Service Reform.

In the Senate on Tuesday, the bill to regu-
late and improve the civil service hefng brought
up, MessrS. Pendleton and Hill submitted Pc
marks, of which the followtag synopses are
given:
Mr.. PendIeton declarcI. that under the pres
ent ''spoils SYSTEM, whilst the offices of the
government touched at some point and in
some degree the material interest of every one
of our fifty millions. of people, the offices are
dealt with as abe prizes of partisan activity rs
the rewards to. active henchmem by party
chiefs. This system, he argued, was the real
assassin of President Garfield. This spoils
systons. he declared, must be supplanted by
the INERT SYSTEM" founded on the idea that
pnhlic offices are public trusts, to be admins
tered for the public good that the fttest men
shall administer them until filter and better
men shall be found. The merit system ap-
points men who are honest capable and faith
full it keeps in service those who are proved
to have such qualifications. After explaining
the details of the bill, Mr.. Pendleton closed
by urging his party friends to support it, so
that when they came into power again they
would be on the record as declaring that they
would have none of these offices except those
which may be won by merit.
Mr.. Hill ga. said one great difficulty he
thought was that while everybody was preach
ing very earnestly on civil service reform, no.
body was practicing it, and it did not seem to
make any difference to the people whether
their representatives were practicing 1t or not
While the country was weeping over the tragic
end of the late President, Federal Judge was
soiling his ermine by inditing letter to the
successor of that President-one who by reason
of the corrupt civil service complained of had
succeeded to the otfice-appealing to him to
make appointments for the purpose, in the
choice language of that judge, :! of cementing
our coalition in Virginia to control the state
election. What was that coalition? 1t was
to secure to the Republicans the officers of that
state. The Senator from Ohio had said much,
but had not told the country that the President
to whom that letter was addressed, while yet
the mourning sobs of the people were ech0ing
around him, sat down and made the very APP
pointment which the Judge had designated as
'cementing our coalition, " and then, perhaps,
with the same ink, had written a homily on
civil service reform to be introduced into his
message to Congress. Were there not scores
of men now present III the Senate who had
heard read from that very desk of the clerk
communications from former Secretary of
the Treasury and former President of the
United States insisting upon the removal from
the New York custom, house OF the man who
was now that very President, upon the ground
that he had made 1t. the headquarters of q po-
litical party, and that his removal was neces-
sary to secure an honest administration of a
public Office? Yet that very man who was
removed from the New Y DIRK custom house on
the ground that an honest administration of
his Office required his removal was nominated
for the next highest Office i'll the gift of the
people, and the men whose communications
were sent to the Senate took the stump for
his election,