Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1882-12-16

only offices of the lowest grade
in this way. In the higher offices
in the departments there were
he believed, a large number of
officials VINO were unfit, intellectually
and morally, for their places. They
were not to be disturbed, but when>
ever one of the lowest clerkships be-
came vacant, then competition might
come in. It would not do to open
the higher grades of Office to COM
petitive examination, lest too many
Democrats should come in. And,
therefore, this bill provided that
these high vacancies should be cons
peted for only by persons now
in Office in the departments re-
spectively; that is, by the Republi-
cans.
Now, said Senator Brow., / pro-
pose to do little plain talking to
the Democrats. The Republicans
have had the offices for the last %
years, consecutively. Lately an
avalanche has swept over the coun-
try, carrying with it the strongest
condemnation of the practices of
that party. 1t is true that
it was an off year, but
prudent Republicans see that
unless the Democrats are guilty of
some great fault on some important
question there can be but little doubt
that the next President of this Re-
public will be Democrat.
My fellow Democrats, how do you
go into that campaign? Suppose
you put in nomination the Gentle
man from Ohio, (Pendleton), or the
gentleman from Delaware, (Bayard),
or any of the other distinguished
gentlemen who have been named for
the place and go before the Demo
cratic masses and tell them
that you are handicapped, in
as much as all the higher
offices are already disposed of.
disposed of how?" people will ask,
and you will answer that the Repub
hcan party has had the offices for 22
years, and, seeing the probabili>
ty of a change of the administration,
has hedged and passed upon us the
civil service bill that the Democrats
have helped to enact, SO that no
Democrats can be put into higher
offices even if we do succeed in carry
ing the election. If there is a vacan
cy in any of the clerksbips of the
lower grade the Democrats can com.
pete, but for any of the higher va
cancies that may occur, the Repubi-
cans already in Office are to compete
with each other, and there
is no chance for a Democrat.
What effect do you think
that announcement will have on the
spirits and energy with which the
Democrats will go into the cams
paign? You must remember that in
a free Republican government like
this, men fight for Office as well as
principle, and if you deal with the
Democrats of the country in that
way, you must not expect them to
enter the campaign with spirit or
energy. But it is replied that the
Democratic candidate will not be
likely to meet so strong an opposi>
ton from Republicans in Office if we
pass this bill. / have no faith in
their arguments. Those men are
mostly strong, Jealous Republicans,
and they believe that their party has
sort of divine right to control the
offices of this country. I see no rea-
son why Democrat should vote
for this bill at this time. Certainly
not without an amendment to de>
stroy the aristocracy of the Repubi-
can of6ceholders that this bill pro-
poses to establish. Why should any
Democrat vote for a bill which,
while protesting to fill Offices
by competitive examination,
prevents competition by Democrats
for any of the Offices except the
lowest on the list. Our Republican
friends seem to be quite unanimous
now for the passage of the civil SER
vice reform bill, but why has it taken
them SO long to reach that point?
They haye been twenty-five years in
power, and deducting six years for
the war and the period of early re-
construction, they have been Tree to
deal with this question. The hum
buggery of this business is shown by
the way they have treated
this question in the past. Some
years ago, when Gen. Grant was
President, very good civil service
law was passed, providing all neces-
sary machinery for the work. A
commission was appointed under
that law, which did the best it could,
but in short time the thing became
so much of mockery that Congress
absolutely refused to appropriate
salaries for the commissioners. You
will have to change the nature of
our government before you will be
able to carry out in practice these
fne>spun theories about civil service
reform. The doctrine ''To the VIC
tors belong the spoils' may be
coarse, as the gentleman from Mas
sachusetts says, but it is one which
has been practiced from the begin
mig of the government, and it will
be practiced until the funeral knell
of the government is heard.
Some reforms may be made, of
course, but in the main the new exe
ecutive coming in, backed by the
party which has long been deprived
of~power, will find way to give his
followers the benefit of the offices,
or large proportion of them.
Senator George: "If that be true,
then how can this measure prevent
Democratic President, when he
comes in, from rewarding his fol-
lowers e.
Senator Brown: "He will not be
restrained from doing so, and that