The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1882-09-28
Piace-H0Idinu,
Petersburg Va Index-Appeal.l


The desire to serve ones country is
an honorable ambition, but the de-
sire to hold Office as duty one owes
to the community in taking his share
of the public duty is far different
thing from the wish to get living
with as little work as may be, and to
get maximum of pay with mini
mum of labor. It is much to be re-
GREETED that one of the results of un-
iversal suffrage must necessarily be,
that inasmuch as every man has a
voice in the selection of his Cover
nors, he naturally thinks he has an
equal right to try his hand at govern
ing.
In the early days of this Republic
men did not seek public position as
they do now. When a high public
station was to be filed there was no
scramble for it. The people looked
around to see who was best fitted for
it, and though in those days as in
this, party strife ran high, and there
was much of the bitterness between
rival interests which characterizes
modern politics, still the fitness of
men for positions of trust and honor
was the chief gauge of their selection.
Men with stainless records were
sought, and these waited with becom-
ing modesty till their services were
asked for. the fathers of the Repub-
lie were, as body, a good deal SUI
perior to the average Congressman of
the present day and although they
very possibly wore homespun instead
of broadcloth, it was not paid for out
OF the funds of unfortunate creditors.
nor did they use their official posi-
tons as a means of getting their hands
into the public purse. Secretaries of
the United States Treasury in olden
time never used their control over
public funds in such a manner as to
enrich themselves Lewis Morris,
while administering the financial af-
fairs of the nation with rare skill and
frequently had to borrow
money in advance of his very mode
rate salary, and old Roger Sherman
said to his grandson, who was about
TO write a private letter on official pa
per: '.Put down that paper Sir, it
belongs to the Government of the
United States" The country would
not have suffered very greatly in that
Instance, to be sure, but the incident
IS worth recording as showing the
ceiling which actuated the honorable
Did man. So too, Albert Gallatin, in
alter years said: at will not do for
! Secretary of the Treasury to die
1ch. The modern motto seems to
oe that it will not do for him to die |
ooor, and the sooner he renders any |
'uch contingency impossible, the |
better.
Thomas Jefferson refused persist
nifty to appoint any of his relatives
o places within his gift. So did |
General Washington during his adj
ninistration. In the present era it is
y no means an unusual thing to find
place expressly made for some one
Who is supposed to have claims upon
lis party. The question is not whether
le has any claims upon his country.
It would be well if Civil Service
reform in its fullest, purest sense,
ould be thoroughly carried out
It present it is now used simply as
arty watchword. There are a thou
and ways of evading the operation
+ any restrictions, by examination or
therwise, of the fitness of candidates
Or Office. The ingenuity which can
cook" election returns and make
hem come out done to a turn, can
asily solve any such trifing problem.
>ut if any system could be devised
y which the right man could always
'e put in the right place, and such