National Republican., 1883-05-21
How the "NatlonO, Organ, , Reconcile. IT.


How the "Natlonal Organ" ReconcIIos II.
Our morning contemporary recently quoted
the second clause of civil service rule No. 12,
which is as follows:
.. No one shall be entitled to be examined for
admission to the classified postal service II under
16 or over 30 years Of age or to the classified Gus
toms service or to the classified departmental
service, If under is 45 years OF age but no
one shall be examined for appointment to any
place in the classified customs service except that
OF clerk or messenger who Is under q years Of
age but these limitations Of age shall not apply
to honorably discharged soldiers and sailors Of
the last war who are otherwise duly qualified.
And made the following comments thereon
A careful study OF the above will show that 1t
excludes from the civil service all who served in
the confederate army. Was It so lntended2 Pos
sibly the central organ of the administration and
national organ Of coalition may be able to throw
some light on the subject.
As careful study of the rule shows that
under it all who served In tho confederate
army stand on an exact equality with every
other citizen of tho United States who did
not serve in the ranks Of the union army, the
rule itself appeared to bo a sufficient answer
to the criticism upon It, But on Saturday Mr..
"B, F. H." in communication to the Post,
returns to the charge, and after quoting the
criticism, without quoting the rule, proceeds to
easily wither The REPUBLICAN with his
dreadful sarcasm. He has scanned these col
umns for an explanation of this shrewd de.
vice to exclude from governmental employ
ment all citizens Of the south who bore arms
in defense of the lost cause" He says: "The
palpable injustice Of this action Of the COM
mission, or rather of the higher authorities
to whom was intrusted q revision Of the
rules, will not admit Of a favorable expla-
nation" "B. +. H." then quotes from an
editorial of ours on the subject of fraterni-
zation between northern and southern people,
and says that "as one of the soldie RS of the
late C. s." he would "lke to see how the
national organ can reconcile the proscriptive
action of tho revisers of the civil service
rules with its above quoted utterances."
AS we cannot doubt the honesty Of these
criticisms we must endeavor to penetrate the
dullness of their authors. The simple answer
to them is found in the rule itself, which de-
clares that no one under or over the ages
named shall d entitled to be examined for
admission into the classified postal, customs,
or departmental service, except honorably
discharged soldiers and sailors of the last war.
The rule does not say anything about confed-
crates. 1t simply does not gire them the prefer
enco orer Civilians, as it does the union SOL
diers. 1t excludes from certain positions of
the civil service al republicans over thirty
five years of age and from other positions
all republicans over forty-five years Of age ex-
cept union soldiers. Is not this SOP And if
republicans who did not serve in the war
are ineligible when over a certain age, is it
proscriptive" for ex-confederate soldiers to
be subjected to the same test? The permis-
sion for soldiers of the union army to COM
pete without regard to their age is given in
grateful acknowledgment of their services.
Do we prescribe ex- x-confederates when we fail
to give them the same privilege2 Does any
ex-confederate soldier claim anything from
the nation on the score of gratitude for mill
tary service rendered by him in the confed-
crate cause9 The NATIONAL REPUBLICAN
Is liberal on the subject, but it means to be
also logical
The writer of this article was not in the
union army, and is therefore victim of what
ever "palpable injustice" or 'proscriptive ac-
tion" is directed against all republican civil.
ians and ex.confederate soldiers alike in the
twelfth civil service rule He is willing to be
Disseminated against in favor of union sol
diers, but counts himself as well entitled Ia
admission to thousand dollar clerkship as
though he had served in the confederate
army with "B. +. H." And, entertaining
as he does these views, he finds
himself rs much at homo among anti-bourbor
ex-confederates as Mr., Dezendorf and hi
handful of professional negro retainers do IN
tho camp of the Virginia bourbon funders
led by Massey, tho repudiator, and basking il
the sunshine of the Washington Post and III
gifted corps of contributors.
. --se----