The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1884-08-19
AN OPEN LETTER.
To Andrsw ID. White, of Ethica, BY
II. p. Bishop, ofthc State of Florida.


SIR-No one has ever called in question
your patriotic impulses. For may years
Won have stood before the country as an
intellectual and highlp cultivated gentle
man. OF late you have been numbered
among those who have been regarded
with a certain psychological curiosity.
The question has been: Is he strong
enough to lift his understanding above
the cloud-bank of partisan prejudicc?'
and some Of us find a negative answer in
your letter to General Bruce, dated
July 26.
Your sweeping designation Of the dem
ocratic party as ''the party which has
opposed all the healthful and statesman
like measures of the last thirty years, is
quite unworthy of broad-minded stu
dent Of our recent political history. It's
true place is among the reckless utter
ances of a common demagogue. 1t is
true that the democratic party was
united in opposition to those reconstruc-
ton measures which have been declared
unconstitutional by the Supreme Court
of the United States. 1t is necessary for
a measure to be unconstitutional III or
der that it may be fhealthful and states
manlike?" The democratic party, as a
body, opposed the control of local cleo
tions by the central authority at Wash
ington, the stationing of troops at the
polls, the support from the public treas
ury of an army of partisan workers"
called supervisors and marshals, as we'll
as all the other measures which, obvious
" to every man whose brains We're work
ing noi nally, had for their single object
the perpetuation of the power of the re-
publican party. Is any one prepared to
stand up to-day and call those measures
''healthful and statesmanlike ?" | ask
you to specify the statutory measures
which the democrats of the country have
united in opposing. Perhaps you object
to the Thurman act" which was sup
ported by nearly all the democrats in
congress, and opposed by little squad
of congressional traders under the leader
ship OF Mr.. Blaine Such an objection is
plainly involved in the charge which /
have been reviewing,
You have been classed rs an eminent
promoter OF reform in the civil service,
and you now believe that the system,
which has been SO happily carried out
thus far can be only fully developed by
the republican party Every one per-
ceives that the most glaring abuse grow
ing out of the spoils system, is the prac-
tice which goes under the name of ''po-
litical assessment" 1t is simply an in
direct transference of money from the
national treasury to the electioneering
fund of the dominant party. Now, let
me ask you to recall what took place
during the consideration of the Pendie-
ton bill, and then to observe what is talk
ing place at the present time. Demo
cratic senators exerted themselves siren
uously for the incorporation of the
only provision which could, by any pos
sibility, prove effectual in putting a stop
to the abuse of which have spoken-an
absolute prohibition of collections from
federal office-holders for pal tisan pur-
poses. You remember the hot haste
in wk'ch republican senators sprang to
the;r feet in opposition to the proposed
amendment. Senator Hawley was espe-
cially eloquent in deuunciation of the at
tempt to deprive the office-holders of the
high privilege of being robbed. No one
was so bind that he could not see, in
those fiery declamatiops of republican
leaders, resolute determination to re-
tain, at al hazards, the advantage Of
with the customary $4,000, 900 from po-
litical assessments. Now, | invite you to
turn yopr eyes towards Washington and
see Mr. Raum gathering in the money of
the threatened and covering officials.
Are you inclined orepeat the affirmation
that the democratic patsy would be sure
should it come into power, to vitiate and
nullify the civil service system, and
give us to understand that nothing of the
kind is to be apprehended from the re-
publican party?
1t would be highly improper to predi
cate ''yerdancy" of university presi.
dent. and win restrict myself to saying
that, in the presence of the nominations
made by the two parties, respectively
yopr attachment of impol lance to the re
publican platform and to Dir. Blaine;
letter of acceptance. Is u phenomenon
which induces meditation. Several thou
sands Of Us. who were once earnest re
pubGcans, are able to perceive very clear
ly that pacty composed of human be
ings necessarily lacks the attribute of i'm
mutabj6ty. and that the force wlict
must always be paramount in determln
ing the tone OF the civil service, and il
decreeing its improvement or deteriora
ton, is the spirit going forth from tht
chief administrative officer of the nation
We see. too. that, for the disclosure of ii
a.. ~. - "a