The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1886-01-15
OFFICE
Some Account of the Troubles Experi-
enced by President washington.

t the president excluding o~ffice-seekerS
and senators and representatives in pur.
suit of the same purpose for their con-
stituents from exeeative interviews is an
act of moral courage which sustains all
that has been claimed for Mr.. Cleveland
as a man of conviction and fearlessness
in the path of duty. The act is also APP
plauded by every disinterested party in
or out of politics and, if adhered to,
will inaugurate a reforIa and establish
a precedent in the duties of the presi-
dent for which his successors will be
thankful. The office-seeking craze has
not been confined to later administra-
tons, though-with the development Of
the country and the expansion of the
duties of the government-ft has in
creased more than in equal proportion.
The craving for office appears to have
been contemporaneous in its origin with
the foundation of the present form of
government.
In the very earliest days of Washing
toms administration he was terribly an
noyed by the ~aspirants for office; in fact,
to such an extent that he was seriously
embarrassed IN doing his duty in his Of
flee. As the government under the con-
stitution of 1z78 was then in its incipient
stages, there existed a multitude Of
claims upon the presidents attention,
particularly in getting the machinery of
the executive office in motion. The first
president has left among his papers the
audacity and persistence Of the Office
seeker of 1879. He tells us that he had
no peace either night or day from the
opportunities of men clamoring for of
flee. They flooked in from the neigh
boring states, and even those more re-
motely situated. and requiring days and
weeks of hard journeying, by private or
public conveyance, or afoot, were not
without their representatives in the gem
eral scuffie.
At last, he tells us. the rivalry became
10 great that the most bold crowded into
his sleeping apartments before he was
out of bed in the morning, andlM
Washington, that stately dame i'm
crimped caps, was compelled to lie abed,
perhaps, with matronly modesty, with
her head under the b~ed-clothes, while
the president was dressing, so as to- get
rid of the intruders. This last innova-
ton upon the rules of etiquette govern
ing the routine of a mans domestic
surroundings was tooimuch for the digni-
fed Washington. He had submitted to
q great many things for the sake of his
country and particularly so as to cause
as little friction as possible, for the. new
government had then hosts of opponents
among the leading minds of the country.
He accordingly sent to the vice presi-
dent and members of the cabinet q re-
quest for their views on certain ques-
tons propounded by him, and intended
to regulate the official and social regime
of the executive household. The re-
plies were a subject of cabinet confer
ence, and the rules drawn up by Jefer-
son constitute to this day the foundation
of the organic law of the presidential
Office in it's official and social environ
ment.
During the earlier administrations, the
number OF Offices being comparatively
few and political contentious having
higher aims than a war of spoils, the
changes i'm office were few. AS Ram
dolph, of Roanoke, put it, few died and
none resigned.
In Jackson's time the cry TO the vic
tors belong the spoils infused this dis
graceful doctrine into American politics.
Since then the official hours and leisure
moments of the presidents have been
occupied in catering to the spoilsmen of
their parties. The iEcessans ~badgering
and opportunities added to the natural
perplexity of mind incident to efforts to
| please everybody has broken the health
of more than one president. 1t under
mined the vigorous constitution of Tay-
lor and drove Lincoln to a couch of ILL
ness on several occasions. lie disturbed
the peace of Grants stolid nature and
eliminated in the assassination of Gar
field.
In q conversation with the correspond
ent of the Times last summer as was
stated then, the President referred to
the fact that the whole time had been
consumed in listening to the appeals OF
applicants for office and their friends;
that if that were to constitute the sum
of his occupation for the rest Of his four
years in Office it was q d~iscouraging out
look. When he left for the summer he
fully made up his mind to put an end to
such unnecessary occupation Of the time
of the President. When he returned
from his summer recreation in the
Adirondacks he intended not to summit
to q repetition Of his previous experience
with the ofice-seeking throng, but
yielded in hopes that its force would
diminish in vigor.
The approach of congress, on the on-
trary, has increased the number Of
clamorous aspirants, reinforced as they
are by the Senators and Representatives.
With his first annual message to Com
gress, due in five weeks, and many inn
portant questions of public policy to be
carefully decided preparatory to certain
recommendations, the President had do
other refuge than the heroic treatment
which he has resorted to. In view OF
all the buncome in Congress over civil