The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1884-03-06
Sound Policy.

paftment in a Western State had ex-
pressed a fear of removal in case they adj
vocated his, the Presidents denomination,
because the Senator who controls the
patronage of that State is himself can
didate for the Presidency and claimed |
their allegiance and assistance. The Pres |
ident said he was surprised to hear this |
and hoped it was not true. He believed |
that every citizen, whether he was in Off |
cial position or not, was entitled to |
the right and privilege to freely express
his preference and work for the nominal |
ton of his favorite, so far as he could do
so without interference with his official
duties. He further said, according to this
dispatch, that every employee of the gov
eminent should be protected in the exer-
else of the widest political liberty. No
postmaster or other official had the right
to dictate to any subordinate what he
should do OF whom he should favor for the
Presidency OF any other Office. Every
post Office clerk or carrier had the same
privilege of favoring and working for the
candidate he preferred that his superior
officer had and would in all cases be pro-
tected in the exercise of that privilege.
OF course we have no means of know
| ing whether such remarks were made by
| the President. But it is reasonable to as
sumo that they were. 1t is precisely what
every honest man would have said under
similar circumstances. Because a man
should happen to hold Federal Office his
volition and conscience should be made
| subordinate to the wishes of somebody
else who might happen to hold higher
position, would be in contravention of the
whole spirit of our institutions and con-
tradiction Of the liberty that is presumed
to inhere in our government. It would
be perfectly natural that an office-holder
who had been entrusted with position by
the President should feel friendly disposed
towards him, and all other things being
equally favorable to the interests of the
party, that he should favor his renomina-
tion. But the office-holder should be al
lowed the privilege of being the judge Of
what would be the most expedient for the
party in a great national contest, and the
liberty to act out that Judgment in every
!, legitimate way that the necessities of the
! case might call for. We do not believe
i'll ofice-holders devoting themselves to
) running campaigns and manipulating the
!, machinery of party, nor do we subscribe
to the policy that because person hap
pens to hold Office, his right of citizenship
should be curtailed, and that he should not
exert what influence his talent and char
acter might command, in promoting what
he believed to be the public welfare, with
out appealing to his official position as an
/ auxiliary. Every man, whether in or out
of Office, has the right to his individual
, opinions, and should not be molested in
, their free and co urteous expressions,
, whether they are in accord with those
in higher position or not. To accept any
other construction of duty and right would
be to admit of debased political slavery,
and would be a confession that the person
so acting was not fit for the position he
held or any other place of trust and respon-
sibility. Of all the contemplate creatures
/
form, or the seething pool of party cor
ruption could throw to the surface, the
unprincipled place-hunter or cringing place
holder is the most despicable. And it is
gratifying to know that the President,
voicing the better sentiment of his party
and of the country, recognizes this, in the
surprise that he is reported to have ex-
pressed that any officer of the government
should hesitate to give utterance to his
opinion for fear of being molested in his
position.
, If this reported conversation did take
place. 1t was merely accidental, ana Jne
{ more to be valued because of this. 1t came
: in no studied form OF pretentious order,
} but was the sudden and spontaneous utter
ance of what the President thought, and
, will be accepted by the country as the
, sentiment of one who is worthy of the
| high Office of Chief Executive Of Nation
| of freemen, whether he shall be again
called to that position or not. Certainly
J it does not the less fit him for the duties
of the position. nor will it weaken his
f hold upon the confidence of the conserva-
, tive elements of the party of his identity,
nor lessen him in the esteem of all pa
triOtic citizens.
1t is fact worthy of note, that public
sentiment is not looking to Federal Office
holders nor to the machinery of party for
the nomination at Chicago on the Sd of
June. The will of the people is giving
the drift to thought and expectation, and
| that is reaching for the man who will more
: surely inspire the confidence of the bust
ness interests of the Nation. 1t is only
as the Republican party represents these
interests that it can hope for success, and it
is only as the party nominalism more near
| ly reflects in its past history the demands
of the times, that it is preferred to the
Democratic party. 1t is not in the name
, but in the governmental policy which
gives to business stable basis and conf
! dence to capital, in which the people will
put their trust. If there were no higher
considerations than the dispensation of
patronage, the dealing out of places to perso-
nal favorites, the Republican party could
present no better claims to public conf
uCuc6 Glldll uOtc bli6 bCluOCIdIlC pdlGys IL
is because principle and policy are para
mount to Office and the public welfare SUI
perior to the claim of the machine, that
the Republican party has held the govern
ment for nearly quarter of century,
and will continue to hold it so long as it
proves true to the influences which have
in the past commended it to popular accep-
lance. 1t would be radical departure
from this safe and conservative policy,
were it to be announced, either by silent
acts or open proclamation, that ofice-hold-
ers were to be the slaves of political man
ayers, with no liberty of thought and ex-
preston and denied the right and privi-
lege to exercise their own judgment as any
other American citizen. The stronger the
emphasis that is given to the reported SEN
timent of the President and the more au-
thoritative the utterance becomes, the
higher will he be raised in the confidence
of the country and the more elevated will
be the position he will occupy in the gal
axy of American statesmen. 1t may not
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