New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-07-23
HOW coSsrRUcrED-p THE HOPPER

money ana trained pontlcai serVlce ,iIe its1I- n
dent who appointed them, IL would be especlaIy
fitting for Mr. Cleveland TO recall his suDordi-
mates to the path of duty. (lss8, April o.; The
New York Sum- d.
The Democratic organ at the National Capi-
tai, Z" The Washington Post" declared IN May:
Mr. Cleveland IS a candidate for the renomi-
nation-an earnest, eager; anxious candidate;
armed and equipped at all points and possessed
Of all the advantages OF great uu nber OF friends
and powerful machine Look out for tho
Cleveland machine, feloY.ctizens. You may
hear of it in Georgia to-day and IN Maine to-
morrow, but wherever it is you Will hnd II IN
beautiful order and working smoothly and
as effectively as a Coriss engine. II has yet to
meet an obstruction. and the delegates are pour:
ing out Of the hopper at all hours OF the day ana
hight ii This being the truth why not proclaim
Thereupon "The New York Sun" thus COM
ments:
Better public immolation of the Presidents
shallow utterances OF incpent statesmanship
than continuance OF pretence and can't and
sham usos, May IA; The New-York Sum- a.
Finally "The Evening Post" sums up the
record with the melancholy admission:
The painful truth is that we doubt il single
Independent voter in this State. OF the thousands
who supported President Cleveland in 1854, any
longer attaches any Importance 10 the utteranceS
Of the members Of the Administration on the
subject of Civil Service Reform, or any longer
refuses to believe that the Presidents promises
and professions have been violated disrc-
garded on great scale, with the utmost bold-
ness, in snndry places and in divers manners,
and that men like Judge Maynard and surveyor
Beattic have actually been detailed told of TO
practise as much Civil Service abuse as can be
readily concealed or disguised when they are are
found out and exposed. ls5s, May %; Tho
New-f0rk Evening Post.")
So sweeping a change of officials. governed
by such motives, necessarily involves the ap-
pontment Of some unworthy men. President
Cleveland had appointed only seven Territorial
Judges, when he stated in published letter
that one of them was morally and professions
ally unfit Within week five of the seven
were publicly named as answering the descrip-
tion, in the judgment of people where they
lived and to whom they were best known.
Three of the five the President has since re-
tired for misconduct. Whether his judicial
appointments were exceptionally unfortunate
the following memoranda will help the public
to Judge.
This savory list includes two murderers and
the tools of two others, five notorious duellists
and three rioters-one to be Judge of the very
court by which he had been imprisoned six
weeks 1t includes five persons who had been
indicted or convicted for frauds against tho
revenue appointed to be officers of the revenue
service. 1t includes iury-fxer, a dead beat,
lawyer guilty Of defraUdng clients and an at
torney who had cleared notorious bandits by
cOntriving defeat Of justice, all appointed to
be judges Persons were appointed pension
agents who had been indicted for violating
pension laws. Persons guilty Of robbing the
mails were appointed postmasters or mail
agents-One when appointed was in Jail for
robblng the very office to which he was ap-
pointed. Liquor-seIlers, their sons or attor-
neys were appointed internal revenue officials.
An mpeached State Treasurer defrauding
county or town treasurers, seven forgers-one
Of whom had served two terms for that Of
fence, but knew Cleveland personally'-and
men guilty of robbery embezzlement, theft,
malfeasance, tapping a church till, grand lar
ceny, bribery, obtaining money under false
pretences, Of printing steal, mileage steal
and patent fraud, of keeping gambling houses
and houses of resort for the vile Of both sexes,
Of assault and battery, fst-fghting and insult
inc women. Of asSaulting a lady temperance
lecturer with a club, Of wife-beating, Of black
mailing and selling Offices and Of selling official
information, with an editor of rogues paper
and Brooklyn police officer who was dismissed
for arresting in her bed at 3 a. m. a sick woman
against whom there was no charge and COM
peling her to walk mile to a station-all these
are chosen instruments Of reform.
Scarcely less offensive is the list Of men who
have been notorious for political crimes. Per-
sons like Pillsbury and Chase, who tried to
steal the State Government of Maine like
Higgins, Thomas and Rasin, who have stuffed
ballot-boxes and swinded decent citizens for
years in Maryland like the assistant of Mackin
-, oil ~ ba
victed swindlers in Indianapolis, Columbus and
Cincinnati, appear among Mr.. Clevelands
chosen instruments Of reform With them are
Goode, of Virginia, who got office by tissue
ballot frauds; Shelley, Of Alabama, who bull
dozed and swindled his way into Congress;
Hull. the participant in Florida frauds Holmes,
who had large part in robbing the people Of
Mississippi of self-government; GroOme, who
publicly advised murder for partys sake, and
Meade, who justified the assassination Of Print
Matthews All these have been placed in
office, though some are now out because the
Senate refused to confirm them.
The list of criminals embraces 81, not in-
cluding % persons guilty Of political crimes.
Of 50 other persons directly connected with
the criminal classes. But besides these there
are mentioned only 49 persons guilty Of the
crime of treason, though fully one-third Of all
the appointees of Mr. Cleveland an army of
thirty or forty thousand men, are Of that class.
Still less is there any attempt to enumerate APP
pointments of copperheads, whose dsl0yalty
once made them infamous, though Is are
named and the new Chief Justice heads the
list. Among the Rebels, those who were the
vilest in character come to the surface; like
the person who wears a scarf-pn made of the
skull of Union soldier, or the one who hoped
(" Union blood would be deep enough for his
horse to swim in" The men whose language
about Lincoln and Grant, about Blaine or the
wives Of Union veterans was too vile to be
printed, have found appointments from Mr..
Cleveland, with one who personally insulted
Mr.. Blaine and another who insulsed General
Logan and two deserters from the Union