The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1886-11-17
LETTER FROM MR.. sLAuNE.
In Which He Replies to Misstate-
ments
Made Regarding Speech He peliy-
cred in Pennsylvania.
AUGUSTA, Me-, Nov. lG rs

AUGUSTA, Me-, Nov. 1G, 1886
To the Editor Of the Kenaebec Journal.
thank you for calling my attention to a
circular issued by the so-ealled Independent
Committee during the recent canvass In Mas
sachusetts touching my position ON the ques-
tion of Civil Service Reform. Absence from
nome Tor several weeks has prevented my
seeing 1t sooner.
The circular embodies a singular peryer-
sion of what | said and a still more singu-
lar perversion of what / quoted in a speech
on the 18th of October, at Huntingdon, Penn
sylVania How the error or misrepresenta-
tion originated 1t is not fer me to say. NY
speeches in Pennsylvania were accurately
reported for the Philadelphia Press by
skilled stenographers, and 1personally saw
the report in no other paper. / send you
herewith the speech of Oct 18th, as it ap-
peared in the Press, and respectfully ask you
to republish it in your columns, side by side
with the circular issued by the Massachu-
sets Independent Committee.
thank you further for submitting to me
public letter Of October 26thfrom Mr.. Mar
tin Brimmer OF Boston, in which / am ae-
cused of ''repudiating the reform of the
civil service with sneer.v Perhaps Mr..
Brimmer inc0nSlderately based his remarks
on the circular of the Independent Commit
tee and has thus been led into publishing a
statement which does me great Injustice. III
will, as a. gentleman, withdraw his Ian
guage. 1t Is scarcely necessary to say that
have never repudiated reform in the civil
service nor abated my interest therein. Nor
have ever regarded the sneer as forcible
mode OF argument. Were / tempted to
resort to it should direct it not against the
reform Of the civil service but against the
hypocrisy of those who wish the conditions
OF That service to be enforced against their
political opponents but not against their
hn inf fxxrhf oh, II .rfIA
to establish in my speech at Huntington
was entirely confused and obscured in the
Independent circular. In effect / said that
the English civil service which was held up
as model for our government by those Who
left the party two years ago. is now under
Investigation and apparent condemnation by
the English themselves. That the British
ministers have instituted a commission to
examine into the alleged abuses. and that
MT; George w. Smalley. apparently agreeing
hitherto with the American admirers of the
English service, now declares the belief in
England to be that the civil service is worse
In all the departments of the govern
ment than it was forty years ago.
Mr. Smalley, gives somewhat detailed re-
cital of the defects and abuses alleged to ex-
ist In the English service, defects and abuses
which were never attributed to our own civil
service, even by its most mercilesS censor.
My argument implied and was intended to
imply that the Republican party had been
WtoC III uOt duOptluS the EngllSn system
with It's life tenure and its large pension list
and all the attendant evils which have at
last demanded investigation by ministerial
commission.
Nor would justice and fair courtesy have
been done to my speech even if my remarks
on civil service, torn from their logical con-
nection, had been correctly quoted by the
Independent committee. Those remarks
were but part CT an argument in which en-
deayored to Illustrate how truly American In
It's best sense were the whole policy and his
tory. OF the Republican party, and how under
the lead Of the so-called Independents, the
Democratic party both in its revenue sys-
TEN and its civil service rules was to be con-
formed to British policies just at the very
time when the British themselves are find
ing fatal weakness in those policies. In
short, though | did not say so in words, /
meant to convey my belief that the very
worst leaders and guides for continental
republic are those who persist in seeing the
perfection of human government in an insu-
lar monarchy whose conditions are in all re-
spects radically different from those of our
own broad land The Massachusetts Inde-
pendents should learn that American in
spiration ends where imitation of England
begins. Very respectfully.
JAMES &. RTAI<E