National Republican., 1882-07-08
George w. ourtis's Campaign False

especially vicious, and reeking with most
venomous falsehoods. We quote:
But the assertion that, because the circular asks
for voluntary contributions, 1t does not assess, can
hardly be made seriously.
Why not2 Your reform circular is in
substantially the same language. Does IL
assess? Unless voluntary" means COM
pulsory the above is mean falsehood.
Again
It's sent out by members Of Congress who are
known to represent those who can influence re-
movals.
There are none who can "influence
removals" The members of Congress I"
represent the Republicans in Congress
who appointed them committee, and
the people behind them. Editor Curtis
further says:
All this is Gone with full knowledge that, while
the words voluntary contribution" are used,
they will be understood to mean a demand for a
specific sum which cannot be safely disregarded.
This is barefaced falsehood. Curtis
knows better. No harm ever came to
any person whomsoever for not contrib
uting, and none ever will.
Agents follow the circular into public offices
with books, in which the Of clerks, with the
sums demanded, are recorded, and they are un-
mistakabv threatened should they decline to
" subscribe"
If one such agent can be named by
Mr.. Curtis he will be branded by the
committee which employed him as
having acted, not only without authority,
but contrary to orders. The statement is
probably Mr.. Curtis's invention, or that
of person he disbelieves. He goes on /:
We know instances of written warning to clerks
that If they do not pay they will be reported to the
head of the department as delinquent.
Observe the inefIable meanness of the
above. Curtis does not say eoho has ever
written any such warnings" Yet he
would have his readers believe he is still
speaking of the committee. No such
warnings were ever authorized, and it is
not probable that any were ever written.
Who would dare do such thing? Where
is copy of such warning? 1t would
be much easier to believe Curtis guilty of
falsehood than any man capable of such
reckless audacity. Again:
The Congressional circulars have been sent to
poor women and children in the public service.
There are no children in the public
service. Any woman who receives a
circular knows it is mistake or is SO in
formed when she offers to contribute.
Mr.. Curtis fippantly tells Senator Allison
that if no case can be cited of removal
for declining to pay, call that can be
said upon this point is that the refusal is
not alleged as reason for removal" and
that it might be as plausibly asserted
that no clerk had ever been removed
for want of sufficiently powerful back
ing" He adds:
Such removals are never alleged, bu. we know
such removals to have been made.
Were the removals made at your in
stance, Mr.. Curtis, in order that you
might put in your heelers and strikers
who carried the primaries for you at
Staten Island? You know you were con-
stantly badgering the custom-house au-
thorities in New York city for places for
your workers." No assembly district
in New York had as many places given
it for political purposes as you demanded
and received, while you were the party
"boss at Staten Island. Deny it, if you
dare. Again:
The conclusion is justified by every circum.
stance, and to say that nobody can be shown to
have been removed for refusal, when the general
conviction is that removal will follow REFUSAL is an
idle play Of words.
What stubborn and incorrigible SLAM
derer is this. The conclusion is made
impossible by every circumstance. The
general conviction; nay, the absolute
knowledge is, that removal will not fol-
low refusal. Yet Mr.. Curtis luxuriates
in the oft-repeated falsehood.
What else is the meaning of the remark in the
Congressional circular, that there will be no OBJ
lection "in any official quarter" to voluntary
contributions" Would such a remark be made in
circular sent to any private person? No; and
1t is inserted in the circular because the employees
are not in this matter regarded as private citi-
zens, but as placemen appointed by the favor of a
party who ought to be willing to make way for
those who are ready to pay cheerfully any assess
ment levied for the alleged benefit ofthe party.
Mr.. Curtis knows that President Ruth
erford B. Hayes framed the sentence to
which he gives the above mean and
false construction. He has seen it ex-
planned over and again. 1t is part OF
the sworn testimony before the Wallace
committee of 1879. He also knows why
Mr.. Hayes authorized the statement, and
put it in his own preferred form. The
treacherous efforts to tear down the
Republican party from 1872 till 1875 had
been made under the mask of Civil
Service Reform, and the tricksters who
played the game persuaded Mr.. Hayes
Immediately after his nomination that
they could beat him unless he placed
himself in their keeping. He succumbed.
The results we're: Schurz in the Cabi-
net, Civil-Service Order No. /, and
the how-nice" club of milksops, en-
gineered by cunning assistant Democrats.
When new Congress was about to be
elected, President Hayes was engaged in
q scufile with the Tilden-Potter commit
tee for his own Office. He had tied the
hands of all Republicans in office, just
as Webster tied the hands of the Demo-
Gratis in 1S41. Being threatened by a
Democratic House with expulsion from
the White House by revolutionary force,
he Cancelled the effect of Civil-Service
Order No. l, by authorizing the state
ment that, whatever had originally been
his intention, he would not object to con-
tributions to the campaign fund. No
body else but Schurz ever had objected.
Nobody feared any objections except
from them. 1t was President Hayes's as
surance that employees arould be ere
garded as private citizens" and would
not be punished or prescribed fol