Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-02-19


Ef-civil-service Commissioner Edgerton has
made public his reply to President Cleyelands
brief letter OF dismissal
Il was indebted 70 you," he says. addressing
the President, .'for the only appointive Office
ever held You now declare BY your action
that You regret the appointment. /. with equal
right, can say that 1 regret the acceptance.
Your regret was never made known to me by
you IN any word or utterance or action until
now at the close Of your administration and
on the day before my removal II you had
any just or unjust cause of complaint against
me you had not before that time made it known
to me. You have never asked from me an expla-
nation of newspaper or other statements and
charges rejecting upon me which NAV have
come 10 your knowledge. IL any of these were
ever made known to you such knowledge was
withheld from me. No intimation was ever
made to me by yon. or by any one acting for
you, that nly opinions or actions were not APP
proved by you. / certainly could not be ex-
Pected to make inquiry of you concerning
changes of your opinions, which were never
disclosed ~ me. of course. if you believed
me unfit for the position or neglectful of duty.
you should have removed me long ago, but
presume there we're
PRUDENTIAL POLITICAL REASONS
why You did not make the removal until after
seem as If you were willing to play false with
the mugwumps to enable you to win with the
democrats. And here permit me to define the
term 'mugwump as referring to a class of
political reformers who have the spirit of re-
formation without the common sense and good
judgment to reform. as reforms are not affected
by uni ust personal denunciatiOn. but bv reason.
The result of the election placed you in di-
lemma from which few people would have
known how to extricate themselves. You found
a man on your hands whom the mugwumps
had declared war upon, an enemy to their civil
service reform theories, and your plan of be-
coming their representative in the future
would be weakened or defeated if some assur-
ance of your fidelity to their cause could not
be secured. Accordingly. it appears that You
decided upon the removal of the head of the
commission; and, deeming Mr.. Thompson
GOOD ENOUGH MUawUMP
for them, you therefore demanded my resigna-
ton that you might appoint him, apparently as
an atonement for Your previous inaction."
He then quotes from the Presidents letter
transmitting the annual report of the civil-ser-
vice commission to Congress. July. IS, to show
that at that time the President pretended to
have confidence in the commission as consti-
tuted. He asks il he included in the COM
mendatiOn Of the commission, and, if so. what
has transpired to give cause for his removal
Mr.. Edgerton then, with refreshing frank
ness, saws:
Mr.. President, with due courtesy to the
high Office You hold, allow me to say that you
are very peculiar man. positive man. posi-
lively wrong or positively right. and. there
fore, an unsafe man to trust; and that element
in your character. believe, led 10 your defeat
Pope says: The most positive men are the most
credulOus. since they most believe themselves
and advise most with their fellow fatterers and
worst enemies Being one of that kind of pos
tive men yourself you have kept some men of
like character around you who are positive only
IN their malice and conceit. They flatter you
and have the conceit that would magnify
themselves and the malignity that would de-
tract from others. Juvenal saws: There is
nothing man will not believe in his own IA
yor- You were credulous enough to believe
that you were elected President by the mug
wumps. and therefore you permitted them TO
mallgn your real friends and to fatter you into
a POLICY WHICH LED To YOUR DEFEAT
''You are a man who would not permit your
real friends to admonish you with freedom and
confidence, and a result you have suffered
for the want OF friends, and your wrecked and
wretched greatness has discovered that there is
no true success in life without the power and
blessing of friendship. You believed that your
will and power to enforce it was above all
powers, but the will of the people. expressed
IN a constitutional way. has taught you that
there was wiser and better wav than that
chosen by you- Men are wrong for want of
sense. i may have been wrong in many things
connected with the clvil-service commission
but will say that | have consistently and in
sistently maintained the civil-service law and
never made an utteraDce against ii. Having
sworn to support IL, it has been my constant
effort to do so. but never did swear to support
. mugwump Interpretation of il based on a
monstrOus assumption that the commission
was independent of law. How many poor un-
fortunates have been denied the advantages
and benefits of the law by questions never con-
templated by it. and how many expenses have
been incurred through unnecessary and devious
requirements and practices il is not my pur-
pose at this time to state"
SAYS HE Has BEEN CONSTANTLY MIsREPRE-
SCENTED.
He complains that he has constantly been mis-
represented by ''certain persons connected with
the commission" He reminds the President
that in asking his resignation the request had
been upon no other grounds than that it was
desired to secure Mr.. Thompson's confirmation
on the commission. He asks: Was il a faith
ful execution of the law to appoint commits
sloner and then not 10 ask him to any confer
ence or consultation concerning its business?"
You must not. and presume you
do not, claim any immunity from censure
neither can Won be indifferent to it, even from
members OF your own party. TO whom your in
difference Is past understanding: neither must
YOU expect that truth and Justice will remain
inactive. You will be censured and condemned
because you put no trust in your own party
but believed yourself 10 be better than your
own and greater than all parties"
He goes into the question of civil-service re-
form. and explains his attitude. His idea is
that il can properly be of but slow growth and
does not believe in forcing its development
more rapidly than the country is prepared for
IT, He has, he says, opposed its too rapid ex-
pansion.
CIvTL-sERyIcE REFORM VERSES THE PREsIDEST's
WILL
'You cause TO be placed upon the Congress
iondl Record this announcement of 40 NINA
ton by you to be confirmed by the United
States Senate: Hugh y. Thompson of South
Carolina. to be ciyil-service commissioner in
the place OF Alfred T.. Edgerton, removed 1
do not ask you to give any reason for this act l
know, and so do you, that the only one YOU could
give would be that 1t was your will, for if YOU
attempted to give any other your own previous
words would prove 1t TO be untrue. In nv in
terview with you before the removal YOU ex-
pressly diselaimed having any reason for il ex-
eept my refusal To resign to enable yon to make
Mr.. Thompson's nomination"
He refers to an article ON the work of the adj
ministration published in the Baltimore San
and says: This Is the first time in the history
Of the government that an outgoing Presiden.
has found IL necessary TO advertise through the
newspapers his particular work during his term
of Office. and his claims upon his party and the
country for approval. Between the lines can
be read
THE SPECIAL PLEA FOR REFLECTION.