Omaha daily bee., 1889-02-19
EDCERTON'S PARTING SHOT
He Has Word to Say on the Sub-
ject Of Removals.
AN OPEN LETTER TO CLEVELAND
From which IL Would Appear to the
Outside World That Their Rc-
lations arc Anything
But Cordial.


|
open letter to the president. He says, among
other things
81 was indebted to YOU for the only ap,
pointivc office l ever held You now declare
by your action that YOU regret the appoint.
ment; |, with equal right, can say that re.
gret the acceptance. Your regret was never
made known to me by YOU in any word of
utteranCe or action until now, at the close Of
your administration, and on the day before
my removal. | presume there were pruden-
tal political reasons why YOU did not make
the removal until after election. In this re.
gard it would almost seem as if You werd
| willing to play false with the mugWumps to
| enable YOU to win with the democrats. The
result of the election placed YOU in dilemma
iron which few people would have known
how to eNtricate themselves. You found ona
| man on your hands whom the mugwumps
| had declared war upon and an enemy to
their civil service reform theories and your
| plan of becoming their representative in tho
| future would be weakened or defeated if no
| assurance of your fidelity to their cause
| could be assured. Accordingly, it appears,
| of the head of the commission,
| and dccming Thompson II good
| enough mugwump for them, YOU therefore
| demand my resignation that YOU might up,
| point him, apparently rs an atoncment for
| your previous inatsiOn.
| "Mr. President, with due courtesy to the
| high office YOU hold, allow me to say that
| positively wrong or positively right, and
| therefore an unsafe man To trust, and that
| element in your character | believe led to
| your defeat Pope says: The most positive
| men are the most crcdulOuS, since the
| most believe themselves and advise most
| with their fellow ilutterers, and worst
| cncnmcs' Being one of that kind of positive
| men yourself, YOU have kept some men OF
| like character around you, who are positive
| only in their malice and conCct.
| Juvcnal says, There is nothing man will
| not believe in his own favor You were
credulous enough to believe you wore
! elected president by the muewumps and
therefore you permitted them to malign your
real friends and to tlatter YOU in a policy
which led to your defeat You are man
WHO would not permit your real friends to
admonish you with freedom and confidence,
and as Il result you have suffered for want
of friends, aud your WretChcd greatness has
discovered that there is no true success in
life without the power and blessing of friend
ship. You believed that your will and power
to enforce il was above all powers, but the
Will of the people expressed IN Il constitu-
tiOnal way has taught You that there was "a
wiser and better way than that chosen by
You. You will be ccnsurCd and condemned
because you put no trust IN your own party,
but believed yourself to be better than your
own and greater than all parties. You have
asccrtaned that the many were not made for
the one You can find as many reasons for
removing me as the democratic party, til rough
an indifference which was simply retaliatory,
ing TO remain with you in the gloom Of de-
feat.n
The judge proceeds to give his UNDER
standing of the civil service law, and con-
tnues ~ do not ask you to give any rea-
son for my removal. ! know, and SO do
you, that the only one YOU could give would
pe that it was your Will. For if you al
tempted to give any other your own previous
words would prove it untrue. In my inter-
view with you before the removal you ex-
pressy disclaimed having any reason for it
except my refusal to resign to enable you to
make Thompson's nomination. Removed
is Il word of far reaching potency, especially
when the records 40 not explain it, | am con-
scious of this and deeply panied by the
consciousness, The people have Il right to
know the truth in all matters of this kind,
and for this reason only do | address you.
81 cannot, like you, make Il prayer for re-
lief 10 the public, as such an article seemed
TO be in the Baltimore Sun of the 14th inst.
This is the first time in the history of the
government that an outgoing president found
1t necessary to advertise through the news
papers 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 special plea for reelection
Lot me refer as proof of your ignorance
of public opinion, and not of your indffef-
ence To IT. to what you say in the Sun article
of Mr. Burncs, of Missouri, as one not guilty
of the annoyance to which you were sub
Iccted by the country members of congress
introducing to you their constituents, because
he has always presented his constituents at
public receptions. If Burncs were living ha
could tell you another reason, which he
often told TO others, that he had been rudely
treated BY you and had no respect for you
personally, and ascribed the defeat
of the democratic party to your
ignorance of IT. 1t was necessary that you
should make such an explanation for your
attack upon the 'WaEback members, but you
were unfortunate in the selection of your
witness, one of the ablcst and noblest legis-
lulOrS III congress.
Bat to tho case of another removal which
must become an important part of the his
tory of the country. 1t was on the floor of
the house OF representatives during the time
the votes of the electoral college were
counted and you heard tho announcement OF
the result that Benjamin Harrison was duly
elected president of the United states. But
the words that burned deep through
the empty boxes of the administration
could not be officially added, though
known to be true, in place of Grover Cleve-
land removed BY whom ana for what
cause remoycdi The answer is now being
made in every home, m evcry business in the
land, and history Will inscriDe it upon its
records
Judge Edgcrton attributes Clcveand's de.
feat 10 his disregard Of the opinion and ad-
vice OF the most eminent men Of his party
and to his political ingratitudc, and continues
as follows: "ln the statement Of your pub
lie acts as printed in the sun article referred
to, is this declaration! when Mr.. Cleveland
came into Office he found the departments
fllcu with incOmpctents VINO had found a
permanent lodgment there through favorit
lSm' How can you say that you found the
departments filed with incompetents and
yet retained all IN Office curing your admnis-
tration. There is a mistake somewhere.
Did you not kow, Mr. President, that nearly
of all the persons now in Office
IN the departmental service were there in
1850: You will soon have no power of re-
'nova and the Places they hold will not be
subject TO your clearing QUIT efforts.
You have shut yodr eyes to the
fact that these clerks have been
active and successful in aiding in your own
clearing OUT ard the poor ciyil service
iligbles sun haYc the vide scope you have
secured ior them on the outside, while the
are rejoicing wlthIn. You do
not understand the ciyil service law Mr.
President. Its examinations are not made
or those inside, but for those outside. Your
heory Of nactnn would defeat the law.
GU have not dared TO weed out the incom-
letents. Judge lIdgcrton concluded with q
criticism Of the conduct of one of the other
commissioners without mentioning his name
tod fn.