The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1881-12-20


Ii % ruhnins sliscssic r - d q
Mr PendissoD, Is rslsll = No.
reform, Senator Gin q G@eseia. - II
bis judgnebt IL enIsy ~ - iaths
want 81 lsgislaaiou, and thsfefose 4
was very difaeaIt . BE how . rem
edy was to be applied By legislation.
One great diRcuIty, be thought. was that
While svetykody wss preceding very
earnestly on civil-ssryice retorm nobody
vas practising il, and Il did not eesm %
make any difference 70 the people whether
their Representatives were pracsising Il or
not. While the county was weeping over
the tragic end of the late President .
Federal Judge was soiling bis erEnipe by
inditing letter to the successor Of that
President, one who by reason of the cor
rupt civil service complained Of had suc-
ceeded to the Office, 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 It was to secure to the
Republicans the officers of the State. The
Senator from Ohio had said that much,
but had not told the country that the
President to whom that letter was ad-
dressed, while yet the mourning sobs Of
the people were echoing around him, sat
down and made the very appointment
which that Judge had designated as CO.
menting our coalition" and then perhaps
with the same ink had written q homily
on civil-service reform to be introduced
into his message to Congress. This was
the way we we're practising civil-service
reform. Was the President to be blamed
for this ? Had he not a right to assume
that everybody in this country who talked
about civil-service reform was merely
playing with the people? Were there
not scores of men now present in the Sen
ate who had heard read from that very
desk of the Clerk communications from a
former Secretary of the Treasury and a
former President of the United States in
sisting on the removal from the New
York Custom-House Of the man who was
now President, upon the ground that he
had made it the headquarters of politi-
cal party and that his removal was neces-
sary to secure an honest administration of
a public Office? Yet that very man who
who was removed from the New York
Custom-House on the ground that an
honest administration of his Office re-
quired his removal, was the man who was
nominated for the next highest Office in
the gift Of the people, and the men by
whom those communications were sent to
the Senate took the stump for his cleo
ton. This was civlLservice reform as
practised by the leaders of the Republi-
can party. And why should not such
things be done Did not everybody
know that every man high or low, black
and white, who was charged with connec-
ton with the Returning Board frauds of
1875, received an Office from the Admin
istration which obtained the Presidency
by virtue of these frauds? Had not mem
bers now before him heard witnesses tes-
tify under oath, in relation to that matter,
that they had pnrpOsely committed per-
jury for the sake of obtaining Office? The
Senator from Massachusetts, (Mr. Dawes)
uttered one great truth when he said the
trouble in all this was with the people
If the people would visit their condemna-
ton upon the political party or the men,
bers Of that party that thus degraded and
debauched the civil service, the abuses
would soon cease.