Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1885-08-21

uation, realizes that the independent"
party of our day, otherwise known as the
"Mugwump' faction-a term which may
be used without discourtesy. us it has no
intrinsic opprobrious meaning and those
who bearit accept it as u title of honor
is composed of two classes. One class CON
ssts of honest reformers, who, having no
hatred of the Republican party or love of
the Democracy, bolted the Republican
National ticket, because they had been
made to believe that Mr. Blaine was a
much worse man than he really is. and
that a single defeat would do the party no
harm, but rather would teach it a whole
some lesson and ensure it a longer lease of
power in the end This wing consists of
honest civil service reformers, who took
serious stock in Mr.. Ceveland's profess
sions of devotion to the principles of that
reform and have persuaded themselves
that under the operation of those principles
the evils of a change of administration
would be greatly lessened.
The other class is composed of Repub-
! lcan renegades, who hate the Republic
can party because it has not given them
all the Office and honor they wanted /;
| who look to the Democratic party to give
them what the Republicans have denied;
who have set themselves not to reform
but to destroy the Republican party and
who call themselves Independents and
profess devotion to civil service reform,
simply because they can in that way rem
der the most help to the Democratic party,
by tolling off and permanently detaching
Republicans from the Republican stand
ard.
/ One of the first class wrote the other
day to the editor of the New York Nation,
as follows
/ Sir : Will you kindly allow me few
lines in which to call the attention of
some of your readers to certain Federal
appointments recently made in this city
The Nation, if | read it rightly, while
acting in measure as supporter OF the
present administration, does not desire to
condone its faults, and is ready, when oc-
casion requires it, not only to praise, but
also to censure. Representing, therefore
as you do, the position of the "Iudepen-
DENTS" with whom | am in cordial SYM
! pathy, may hope, by your favor, to bring
. the notice OF many likeminded persons
The unfortunate application ofthe 'spOlls'
system to which the Government has lent
Itself here.
The Burlington custom house is an i'm
portant Office, and could hardly fail of be-
M eagerly sought after by the hungry
democrat. 1t has for many years been
u.u'Iahiy managed by General William
! y ellis. Il gentleman universally respected
II this community. There has been no
working" of the Office, and he collector
may trulhfdlly be said to have recognized
hat the quiet and unobtrusive exercise
Of individual political rights was the pro-
per measure Of his party service MI b..
b. Smallty, however, is now made collec-
"A however "A %
man he may be, distinctly belongs to that
large portion of the Democratic party
which has no civil service reform non
sense" about it, and which regards the
offices as the property" OF the party in
Smaley has preferred no charges against
General Wells, but has wished for the
office simply on the ground that it should
by right "brlong' to Il Democrat. Either
the President has been grossly deceived
or else he has found the. ',pressure' too
great for him. The "spoils' system could
hardly have been better applied.
The Burlington postoflice has in all res
poets been as well managed an Office as
the custom house, and it is now Il question
whether the eXcellen; postmaster is to
have like treatment with the collector.
But to take another case: Not long
since Il faithful Republican officer and Il
very 'inoffensive PARTISAN was removed
from short mail route in this vicinity.
His place was filled by II Democrat who
has since been indicted for completely i'll "A
prize fight. The facts speak for them
selves. This may be practical politics,
but we have "A right to look for bette
things for the administration.
Yours truly, INDEPENDENT
Burlington, VT, Aug. 3, 1855.
Now how do our readers suppose the
editor of the Nation, who is leading
independents professional civil service re-
former and the holder of Il thousand dol
lar Office rs u member of civil service adj
visory board, treated the facts thus re-
spOnsibly stated to him : Perhaps they
think he said that such cases of deliberate
application OF the spOils system We're not
simply unfortunate" but that they were
outrageous. They may think, perhaps,
that he recalled his assertion, made edi-
torially in the Nation ten months ago
that Mr. Cleveland was pledged not to re-
move any man on account of his political
opinions, cor for any reason but incom
potency and neglect of his official duties
and that he could be relied on to fulfill ii
to the letter, and that he added that the
repeated violations Of that pledge-the
Burlington case beng simply one OF
many-must release all honest indie
pendents from any obligation or desire &c
support the present administration.
Nothing ofthe sort. The Nations com
ment, all of it, on the correspondents let
ter, is as follows:
{ We print the above, as we have printed
other similar complaints, rather to en-,
courage public vigilance III the matter OF
appointments than because we assume
that the dissatisfaction is well grounded
That is to say the editor of the Nation
affects to believe that his correspondent
has msstated the case, rather than ac-
, knowledge that the administration has
, done anything wrong. He then proceeds
to relate case in which private protest
was entered by some individual against the
, removal of II postmaster, the reply to
. which by Postmaster-General Villas was
that the postmaster was removed for sell
ing liquor in the postotlice. This case OF
removal for Il proper cause, is, and will be
probably for a year to come, the Nation q
) answer to all attempts to evoke its rebukt