Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-02-19


S. Thompson to qualify in his stead. Judge
Edgerton accuses the President of attempt.
ing to carry water on both shoulders, and
thus being deluged by the weight of his load.
WASHINGTON, February 1S.-Judge A.
P. Edgerton, who was recently removed
from the Office of Civil Service Commission
er, has written an open letter to the Presi-
dent. He saws among other things:
l was indebted to you 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 accept
ance. 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. Of course. if you be-
heved me unfit for the position or neglectful of
duty, you should have removed me long ago.
but presume there were prudential and polIti-
cal reasons why you did not make the removal
until after the election. In this regard it would
almost seem as if you were willing to play false
with the MuSwumps to enable you to win with
the Democrats And here permit me to define
the term "Mugwump" as referring to class of
political reformers who have the spirit of re-
formation without the common sense and good
judgment to reform, as reforms are not affect
ed by unjust personal denunciations, but by
reason.
AN UNPLEASANT DILEMMA.
The result of the election placed you in
dilemma from which few people would have
known how to extricate themselves. You
found man your hands whom the Mug
wumps 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 be secured. Accordingly, it appears that
YOU decided upon the removal of the head of
the commission; and deeming Mr.. Thompson a
good enough Mugwump for them, you there
fore demanded my resignation that you might
appoint him. apparently as an atonement for
your previous inaction.
Mr.. President, with due courtesy to the high
office you hold, allow me to say that you are a
very peculiar man, a positive man-postively
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 credulous, since they most believe them
selves, and advise most with their fellow fiat
tererS and worst enemles.n Being one of that
kind of 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.
JOk VAL ALSO QUOTED.
Juvenal says; There is nothing man will
not believe in his own favor" Youwere credu-
lous enough to believe that you were elected
President by the Mugwumps, and therefore
you permitted them to malign your real friends
and to fiatter 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 confdcA cAce, and as a result you
have suffered for tl1 want of friends. and your
wrecked and wrC cAled greatness has discov-
cred that there is 6o true success in life with
out the power and blessing of friendship You
have believed that your will and mower to en- |
force it was above all powers, but the will of
the people, expressed in Constitutional way
has taught you that there was a wiser and bet
ter way than that chosen by you.
Having sworn to support the civil service
law, 1t has been my constant effort to do so: bu
l never did swear to support Mugwump intert
probation of it, based on the monstrous assump-
tion that the commission independent of
law. How many poor unfortunates have been
denied the advantages and benefits of the law
by questions never contemplated byit and how
many expenses have been incurred through
unnecessary and devious requirements and
practice, it is not my purpose at this time to
state.
LESSON DULY LEARNED.
You will be censured and condemned be-
cause you put no trust in your own party, but
believed yourself to be better than your own
and greater than all parties You have ascer-
tanned that the many were not made for the
enc. If you can find as many reasons for re-
moving me as the Democratic party, through |
an indifference which was simply retaliatory
had for removing you, ! shall be quite willing |
to remain with you IN the gloom of defeat.
The Judge proceeds to give his under |
standing of the civil service law, and con- |
tinues:
You cause to be placed upon the Congress
S5O1ldt Record this announcement of a nomina-
tlon by you to be confirmed by the United |
States Senate. Hugh S. Thompson of South
Carolina, to the United States Civil Service
Commissioner in the place of Albert P. Edger-
ton, removed" do not ask you to give any
reason for this act. know, and so do YOU
that the only one you could give would be that
it was your will, for if you attempted to give
any other your own previous words would
prove it to be untrue. In my interview with
you before the removal you precisely dis
claimed having any reason for it except my re-
fusal to resign to enable you to make Mr.
nomination.
Removed" is a word of far-reaching poten-
cy, and especially when a record does not ex-
plain it. | am conscious of this and deenly
panied by the consciousness. The people have
the right to Know the truth in ali matters of
this kind, and for this reason only do l address
you. cannot, like you, make prayer for re-
let to the public such as the article seemed to
be in the Baltimore Sun of the l4th instant
This is the first time in the history of the Gov
rrnment that an outgoing President has found
his particular work during his term of office,
andshis claims upon his party and the country
Tor approval. Between the lines can be read
the special plea for reelection.
ANOTHER CASE OF REMOVAL.
can point to another removal than mine,
beyond parallel, to go down through history
when shall be forgotten. Before do So let
me refer, as proof of your ignorance of public
opinion, and not of your indifference to it, to
what you say in the Sun article of Mr.. Burnes,
of Missouri, as one not guilty of the ANNOYANCE
10 which you were subjected by the country
members of Congress introducing to Won their
constituents because he always presented his
constituents at public receptions. If Mr.
Burnes were living he could tell Won another
reason which he often told to others. that he |
had been rudely treated by YOU and had no |
respect for you personally, ana ascribed the !
lefeat OF the democratic party to your igno-
'ance OF II. 1t was necessary that you should |
make some such explanation for your attack
upon the "wav-back" members, but you were
Unfortunate in the selection of your witness |
1ne of the ablest and noblest legislators in |
Congress.
But to the case of removal, which must be-
,ome an important part of the history of the
,ountry / was on the floor of the House of
during the time the votes of
he Electoral College were counted and heard
he announcement of the result-that Benia- |
min Harrison was duly elected President of |
he United States-but the words that burned |
leeply through the empty boxes of the Ad-
ninistTatIon could not be officially added,
hough known to be true: I'm place of Grover
:ause removed +? The answer is now being
made in every home, in every business in the
and, and history will inscribe it upon all its
ecords.
WHAT BEAT CLEVELAND.
Judge Edgerton attributes Mr. Cleve-
and's defeat to his disregard of the opinion
Ind advice of the most eminent men of his i
party. and TO his political iDpratitude and