Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1886-11-19
BLAINE TO NUGWUMpS.
ONE or ms spErcHES DISTORTED.

n n.
AUGUSTA, Me-, November &c.
The following letter will be publish
ed here tomorrow:
AUGUSTA, Me-, Nov. lG, 1886.
To 10 Editor Of the heHnebec Journal
| thank YOU for calling my atteu.
ton to circular issued by the so.
called Independent Committee dur
ing the recent canvass in Massa-
chusetts, touching my position on
the question of civil service reform.
Absence from home for several
weeks has prevented my seeing it
sooner.
The circnlar embOdies a singular
peryersion of what / said, a still
more singular perversion Of what |
quoted in speech on the 10Th Of
October, at Huntingdon, Pa. How
tue error or misrepresentation org
mated, it is not for me to say. My
speeches in Pennsylvania were ac.
curateIy reported for the PhlladeI-
phia Press by skilled stenograph-
ers, aud personally saw the report
in no other paper. | send you
II herewith the speech of October 10,
as 1t appeared in the Press, and
respectfully ask You to republish II
in your columns, side by side with
the circular issued by the Massa-
chusetts Independent Committee.
| thank further for submitting to
me a public letter of October 20,
from Mr.. Martin Brimmer, of BOs-
ton, in which am accused of 're-
pudiating the reform of the civil
service with "A sneer.' Perhaps,
1Ir, Brimmer inconsiderately based
his remarks upon the circular Of the
Independent Committee, and has
thus been led into publishing a
statement which does me great in
Justice. If my superstition be cor
rect, Mr.. Brimmer will, as a gentle
man, withdraw his language. 1t
is scarcely necessary to say that |
have never repudiated reform to
the civil service, nor abated my in
tcrest therein. Nor haveI ever re-
garded the sneer as a fOrcible mode
Of argument. Were tempted to
resort TO it should direct it, not
against the reform Of the civil ser.
vice, but against the hypocrisy Of
those who wish conditions Of that
service to be enforced against their
political opponents, but not
against their political friends
The point which | sought
to establish in my speech at
Huntingdon was entirely confused
aud obscured in the Independent
circular. In effect, | SAID that the
English civil service, which was
held mp as a model for our govern
ment by those who left the Repub- /.
lican party two y ears ago, is now
under investigation and apparent .
condemnation by the English them /
selves: that the British ministry /
have instituted a commission to /
examine into the alleged abuses,
and that Mr.. George w. Smalley,
apparently agreeing, hitherto with
the American admirers of the Eng
lish service, now declares the belief
in England to be that the civil ser
vice is worse in all the departments
Of the government than it was forty
years ago. Mr. Smalley gives "a
somewhat detailed recital of the de
iects ard abuses alleged to exist in
he English service-defects and
Ibuses which were never attributed
% our own civil service, even by its
most merciless censor. My argu.
nent implied, and was intended to
IMPLY, that the Republican party
lad been wise in not adopting the ,
English system, with its life ten.
ire and its large pension list, and I
Ill the attendant evils, which
AVE at last demanded investiga.
ion by a ministerial commission. I
,or would Justice and fair courtesy {
ave been done to my speech, even I
/ ms remarks on civil service, torn q
rom their logical connection, had {
'ccn correctly quoted by the indie.
endent committee. Those remarks 7
fere but part of an argument in '
,hich IendcavOcedtO illustrate how
ruly American, in its best sense,
'ere the whole policy and history
f the Republican party, and how,
nder the lead OF the sO.called In "
ependents, the Democratic party,
9th in its revenue system and its
vil service rules, has to be con- r
,rmed to British policies just at /
ne very time the British them
lives are finding a fatal weakness o
those policies. In short, though G
did not say so in words, | meant e
, convey my belief that the worst Il
aders and guides for a continen- a
i republic are those who persist 81
seeing the perfection of human u
lverment in an insular monarchy, u
hose conditions are, In all re- I'
'ects, radically different from p
OSe OF our own broad land. The IL
massachusetts, Independents should u
arm that American inspiration az
IDS where imitation Of England q
gins. u
Very respectfully,
JAMES G.. BLAINE. y