Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-08-20

timber growth, on the control of foods by
wooded lands on the mitigation of high
temperatures and the checking of low
temperatures by forests, on the breaking
Of the force of strong winds by timber
belts, on the relation of vegetable growth
on plains to tree growth on uplands, etc.
JEFFERSON AND THE sPoILs" sYs-
TEN.
The san Francisco Examiner says: THE
question is asked by an interior contempo-
rary. Did Thomas jefferson ever hold the
doctrine that enough men should be
turned out to give our fellows at least an
equal chance? Yes; he did. The great
Democratic chieftain held that very iden-
teal doctrine, and stated il with his usual
terseuess and force" Let US see about
that Dogmatic assertion will not stand
before the authentic facts Of history. Tn
der Jefferson there were fewer minor Offices
to fill than now relate to the Custom-house
of either of The two greatest commercial
ports of the Union, and as Mr. Curtis has
shown by quoting from Mr.. Randall the
biographer Of Jefferson, they were under
stood to be held upon the constitutional
tenure Of good conduct In 1880 John C.
Calhoun was active in declaring that the
practice of arbitrary removals was of re-
cent date-since 1920, when the four
years law" was passed jefferson was op-
posed to the four years system, and proph-
esied its i'll results. lie came to the office
not upon the doctrine of distribution of
spoils. but upon the doctrine of economic
administration and the necessity of Il strong
Government. What Mr. Jefferson did say
concerning removals was Some remov-
ais, know, must be made. They must be
as few Is possible, done gradually, and bot
toned on some malversation or inherent
disqualification. Good men, to whom
there is no objection but 4 difference of
political opinion, practiced on only 50 far
as the right Of private citizen will JUS
tify, are not proper subjects Of removal"
VIII the Examiner put its finger upon a
line in any of the several written lives of
Jefferson, or in any of his own
writings, where any different expression
on the subject was made by that states
man? 1t having asserted that Jefferson
held that enough men ought to be turned
out to give our fellows at least an
equal chance" it is bound to pro-
duce the proof The Examiner ought to
known that the spoils system was intro
duced by Jackson in 1920, when, in his
inaugural address, he interpreted re-
form to mean that he was TO remove the
ofiiceholders of former Administrations,
and supply their places with his own par
tisans. In the first year of his term he re-
moved over 700 officials on political
grounds, exclusive Of subordinate clerical
places he made vacant But in the forty
years preceding jackson there had been
but siXty-four removals. Jackson's re-
movals were on the ground of political
faith, and not for unituess, and thus flew
directly in the face of Jeferson's doctrine.
Sterne, in his Constitutional History"
finds no record of any expression or action
by any Administration prior to Jackson,
favoring removal for political reasons. 1t
was only with and after Jackson that APP
pointments went by favor, not by merit.
Thomas Jefferson was not 4 Democrat, as
Democrats now are. No one of his bicg-
raphers class him with Democratic timber
of the modern order His best biographer
wrote him down "a Republican and a phil
anthropist.' In his inaugural address,
delivered March 4, 1901, Jefferson used
this language: Every difference of opin-
ion is not difference Of principle We
have called by different names brethren of
the same principle. We are all Republic
cans; we are all FederalistS." BY Repub-
licanS, jefferson meant his political
friends and his party, and by Federalists,
the party Of Adams and Hamilton. 1t is
known fact Of history that Jefferson
repeatedly expressed his disapproTal OF the
term Democracy when applied to him by
the Federalists, says Norcross in his
trenehant review of the Democratic party
The party now known as Democratic was
unknown to Thomas jefferson, and there
is in no portion of its practice, or line of
its theory, anything in sympathy with the
faith to which Jefferson adhered and
least of all in the matter of the civil
service.