The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1889-07-16
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
The President and the Patronage.
the Editor OF the IndlanapOlis .Journsl:

Inc freSluent anu Al faIrOna$es
To the Editor OF the Indianapolis Journal:
Your editorial in yesterdays Journal, un-
der the head, 1.-The President and the
Patronage" was certainly Opportune, and
the situation was SO clearly and forcibly
presented that it ought to have a general
circulation, and should be read by every
Republican voter in Indiana. 1t will un-
questionably have a good effect. If all the
applicants for public favors could fully
comprehend the embarrassing conditions by
which the President is sometimes sur
rounded in the disposal of patronage they
would, in all likelihood. be inclined to exer-
else in an eminent degree that browning
virtue-charity. But, unfortunately, the
applicants for political favors do not al
ways understand this, neither do they take
into consideration that there are other APP
plicants for the same positions whose
Claims are equal with their own, and not
being blessed with a .sup~erabundance of
the virtue charity, we have in the disap-
pointed one a ''grOwler," n a grOwler is
only, one degree removed from a sore
No other Republi can President has ever
had so much difficulty to contend
with in disposal of public patron
age as President Harrison. not
With the Inauguration of Abraham Lin
coin and the installing of the Republican
party in power came the Democratic
rebellion of 1916. This afforded inpu-
merable avenues-sluice-gates-by which
the immense pressure for Office could be
relieved. The courageous and the ambl-
tiOus could readily secure commissions in
the army or the navy, while those of a less
assertive nature, the quiet and the
sedate. could easily obtain civil ap-
pointments, either at home or abroad.
But with the close of the rebellion followed
the abolition of thousands of offices which
the war had necessitated, and year by
year the number of offices has been grow
ing less and less; so it is safe to presume that
the list of appointments now at the disposal
of the President Is twenty times less than
under Lincoln. While on the other hand,
with the growth and development of the
population, has also come a corresponding
increase in the number of applicants for
the few appointments remaining at the dis
posal of the President; and in the disposal
hampered and restrained by that un-Amer-
lean rule, the civil-service law, which had
its origin and growth in British soil, and
engrafted upon our institutions. by
of the George William Curtis
stripe. Could those possessed with
an etching palm" for Office understand
this, there would be, instead of a tendency
to "soreheadism," a desire to help, and sup
port. and encourage the President In his
every effort to bring the affairs of the gov
eminent back to that high state of excel
lence which it had before that calamity
came upon 1.-THE Cleveland administra-
ton. But if he cannot have this support,
though there be here and there complaints
and predictions of failure among the
disappointed ones-and what admins
tration has not had them by the hundred!-
yet we feel continent that the man who did
not make "A single mistake in all his public
utterances during the campaign. is not go
ing TO make many mistakes in his appoint
ments. Neither is he going to let his adj
ADMINISTRATION be q failure. Though there
may be here and there a white cap upon
the political sea, yet underneath these is
repose and confidence.
The people are with President Harrison.
They have confidence in him., and If he
does not make any greater mistake in tho
future than he has in the past, they will
! still be with him at the end Of his first four