Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1886-07-05

are Judges with life tenure; collectors Of
internal revenue. the Director Of the Mint,
and pefhaps ! few others hold Office BY m
indefinite tenure. All these latter be has
already removed and filed their places with
democratic. OF the rest he has already
rominsted succetsors for upward Of tuo
thousand. The terms Of all these would ex-
pire by their legal Limitation during his term.
fet his AZ il constantly falling upon the necks
Of worthy and faithful officers for no other
reason but that they are republicans, and he
wants their places for democrats To his
credit be il said that the poor pretense of Of
fensive partisanship seems wholly abandoned.
1t is not necessary to invoke the RESPONSE
bIlity for his subordinates which the Consti-
tuition impures 10 the President to ascertain
his principles and intentions in regard to the
use of patronage for party advantage. Judges
IN the Territories have . term Of ofice estab-
lished by law of fonr years. No power il ex-
pressly given TO the President to remove
them. The constitutional principle which ap-
plies to executive officers does not affect them.
Many eminent authorities deny the right un-
der the law TO remove them at ali. But how
ever thst may be. the removal Of a judge
within his term to dnd place TO reward par
tisan service is not the act Of man to be
trusted anywhere as leader in the cause Of
civil-service reform. The root Of the matter
10 not and never will be in him. The men
Who applauded him in so doing, if they pro-
fess to be civil-service reformers, make Of
this cause pretext, q cloak, q veil, and can
not be depended upon for either earnestness
or coDstancy in its support. The judge who
represents in those plastic and forming com
munities the majesty Of the law should be re-
moved from the hopes, the fears. and
the excitements of the partisan. He is the
last man TO be bidding and bowling for execu-
tive favors. OF the twenty-nine Territorial
Judges, the President in fifteen months has
already put sixteen democrats in office.
Nine republicans have been removed solely
on account of their political opinions that he
might appoint democrats in their places. Of
some. believe all, of the other seven he has
demanded the resignation. This he has done
himself. 1t is his own act. The RESPONSE
bility is upon the shoulders Of no subordin-
ate. This is the worst and EXTREMIST case
possible under our laws of the use Of patron
age 10 the service of party.
The President of the United States pro-
claimed that political Office shall not be the
reward of party service, and that officers
whose duties have no relation to political
the text. He then demanded the resignation
of Frederick Douglass from the Office OF re-
corder of deeds that he might have place
with which he could reward Jealous, active
democratic politician for political service.
That was the application. This is the Presi-
dents own direct act. No evil counsellor
deceived him. No party c'amor Overpow-
cred him, no scape-goat bears the blame.
The President who did that, will in my judy
ment, never rescue the civil service from the
evil spirit Of party.
The two persons from whose character the
theory and practice of any administration in
the matter of true civil service can be best
judged are, l suppose, the Chairman of the
Civil Service Commission and the Appoint
ment Clerk in the treasury. The latter is
Mr.. Higgins of Maryland. The former, Mr..
Oberly of Illinois, was one of those two most
efficient democratic machine politicians who.
as chairman and secretary of the Democratic
State Executive Committee of Illinois. fur
nished the country an example of the demo-
cratic ideal of dvorcing office-holding ard
politics. President Cleveland might as well
make Dennis Kearney his Secretary of
the Treasury and thereafter avow be-
lief in public credit or honest money Is ex-
pett to be further counted as civil service
ment clerk. There is no executive officer
whose duty is so absolutely non political as
the fourth-class postmaster. There is none
who can be made so efficient party servant.
The crucial test of the Presidents belief in
the reform doctrine is the dealing by his adj
ministraton with the fourth class postmaster.
He is not Ignorant either of the profession or
the practice of the Postmaster General; the
response of that officer to the inquiry of the
Senate has long since met his eye. He knows
that under the law the term of every post
master in the country would expire during
his administration. He knows too that the
officer selected and kept 10 office by him to
perform that very duty under his own con-
stitutional supervision in his first twelve
months removed 1885 of these officers in
order to reward partisan service 10 the past,
and that there NAV be ready for the future
this vast force drilled and disciplined for the
needs Of the democratic party.
This speech of Mr.. Hoar has stripped
from Grover Cleveland the thin disguise
under which he has masqueraded as re-
former. Here and there, where the mug
wump sentiment appeared to preponder-
ate, he has attempted to keep ups show
in some of his appointments of an adher-
ence to reform ideas and promises, but the
general tenor of his administration has
been as bitter. remors eless. sweeping in
its parttsanship, as that of the most relent-
less partisan democrat that ever welded
the great power and patronage of Presi-
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