The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1889-02-23
A Singing Letter.

Judge A. P. Edgerton, who was
recently removed from the Office of
civil.service commissioner, has writ
ten an open letter to the President,
from which we make the following
extracts:
was indebted to you for the only
appointiye Office / ever held. You
now declare by your action that you
regret the appointment. l., 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 administra-
ton, and on the day before my re-
moval. If 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 any explanation of news
paper or other statements and charges
rejecting upon me which may have
come to your knowledge. If any of
these were ever made known to you,
such knowledge was withheld from
me. No intimation was ever made
to me by you, or by any one acting
for you, that my opinions or actions
were not approved by you. l GER
tainly could not be expected to make
inquiry of you concerning charges, or
of your opinions, which were never
disclosed to me.
OF course. if you believed me unfit
for tho nOcifInn n nnrl. ,nf FIJI nf dltU
you should have removed me long
ago, but presume there were prudent
political reasons why you did not
make the removal until after the
election. In this regard it would al
most seem as if you were willing to
play false with the mugWumps to
enable you to win with the Demo-
Gratis. And here permit me to define
the term "mugWump" as referring
10 class of political reformers who
have the spirit of reformation with
ment to reform, as reforms are not
effected by unjust personal denunci-
alton, but by reason. The result of
the election placed you in dilemma
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 becoming their representative
in the future would be weakened or
defeated if some assurance of your
fidelity to their cause could not he
secured. Accordingly it appears that
you decided upon the removal of the
head of the commission, and deeming
Mr.. Thompson, good enough mug
wump for them, you therefore de-
manded my resignation, that you
might appoint him. apparently as an
atonement for your previous mac
ton.
\
Mr.. President, with due courtesy
to the high office you hold, allow me
to say that you are very peculiar
man, a positive man, positively
wrong or positively right. and there
fore, an unsafe man to trust !; and
that element in your character. | be-
lieve, led to your defeat.
Pope says: 1.-THE most positive
men are the most incredulOus, since
they most believe themselves, and
advise most with their fellow fatter-
ers and worst enemies" Being one
of that kind of positive men yourself,
you have kept some men of like
character around you who are posi-
tive only in their malice and conceit.
They fiatter you and have the conceit
that would magnify themselves and
the malignity that would detract
from others. Juvenal says "There
is nothing man will not believe in
his own favor"
4 X
Removed" is a word of far-reach-
ing potency, especially when a rec
ord does not explain it. l am con-
sciOus of this, and deeply panied by
the consciousness. The people have
the right to know the truth in all
matters of this kind, and for this
reason only do 1 address you. 1 cam
not, like you, make prayer for re-
lief to the public such as the article
seems to be in the Baltimore Sun of
the 14th instant, This is the first
time in the history of the govern
ment that an outgoing President has
found it necessary to advertise
through the newspapers his particu-
lar work during his term of office,
and his claims upon his party ana
the country for approval.
X X X
But the cause of the removal, which
must become an important part of
the history of the country was on
the floor of the House of Represen.
tatives during the time the votes of
the electoral college were counted,
and heard the 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, then known to be true, sin
place of Grover Cleveland, removed. :"
By whom and for what cause re.
moved the answer is now being
asked in every home, in every BUSH
ness in the land, and history will in.
scribe it upon all its records.