The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1885-07-29
Offensive Partisans.

The so-called reform administration
of President Cleveland is distinguished
for method of procedure in making
appointments and removals in the civil
service which has never before in the
history of the government been so I'M
scrupulously conducted under the false
pretense of promoting the public inter-
ests. 1t has been for a long period the
practice of national administrations of
whatever political complexion, to make
changes in the public service openly
and unreservedly for political reasons,
but without regard to the essential quail
ity of the partisanship of the persons
who have been displaced. Such changes
among the higher grades of govern
ment officials have usually been regarded
as necessary to promote the success of
the principles and policies of the party
in power, and on that ground are not
wholly indefensible.
But President Cleveland, in order to
give some color to his professions in be-
half of civil service reform, has at
tempted to excuse his removal of COM
petent and honest republican officials
solely on the ground that they have
been " offensive partisans that is.
they have been faithful and aggressive
workers in behalf of the republican party,
as we shall ever maintain that they had
an indefeasible right to be. Several of
his cabinet officers have resorted to the
same subterfuge to excuse the official
changes made by them from time to
time. The changes made in the public
service thus far by this administration
have displaced many men who were
not only good Union soldiers, but who
have excellent records in official life,
and also includes hundreds of others
against whom nothing discreditable can
be alleged. OF course all will concede
that where vacancies have occurred
the administration had perfect right
to fill them with democrats, and that it
is also justified in removing officials
who are found to be incompetent or dis
honest. Now it is said that a good
many republicans holding important
positions in the departments at Wash
ington, and who took no active part in
the presidential campaign last year,
will have to yield their places to demo-
Gratis. We must conclude, therefore,
that in the opinion of this administra-
ton an offensive partisan " really
means any sort of a republican, and it
makes little difference whether he has
been a worker or drone in the polit-
ical hive.
The independents who voted for
Cleveland still profess to be of the
opinion that he is giving us a purely
business administration-tha he will
persist in serving the country first and
let his party take its chances afterward.
But in view of some recent removals
and appointments, even in our own
state, it is becoming more and more APP
parent that no republican who holds a
place under the government, unless he
is protected by the civil service law, is
to be retained if any kind of excuse or
pretext can be devised for his removal.
The democrats want all the offices they
can get, and sooner or later they will
have the most of them; and, reasoning
from experience and common sense,
they should have them all, because
President Cleveland is much more of
democrat than he is a sincere reformer.
1t is only the Independents who are
still deluding themselves with the
chimerical idea of a non-partisan admin
istration, under which the offices are to
be mainly filed from the ranks of those
who have not been active political
workers.
The offensive partisan !" humbug
was invented to make the removal of
republican officials, whose efficiency
and integrity could not be questioned,
more palatable to the independents.
OF course the Independents were glad
of any excuse to justify their continued
support of the president whom they
had helped to elect, and so they swal-
lowed the offensive partisan decep-
ton with as much avidity as though it
contained the germ of vital reform.
1t is doubtful if it can much longer be
made serviceable for the purpose for
which it was designed. The signs of
the times indicate that the Independents
} are expecting too much from this adj
ministration; but if they do not get all
| in the way of reforms and official
preferment that they anticipate, they
! will not be special objects of sympathy
| for the party they deserted. Having
| helped to kill the goose that laid the
| golden egg, they must bear the con-
sequences, No one can fairly object to