Indian chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1882-1902, 1892-11-24


our name; pledges we were glad 10
make % secure the support OF a
certain class Of voters, namely:
} that we should preserve all that
had been gained in establishing
the civil service Of the United
States on a basis Of merit. and to
administer all the affairs Of the
United States in the spirit Of the
civil service reform. The de-
mands Tor administrative reform
in the last five national democratic
platforms mean civil service re-
form or they mean nothing; there
! is no other respect worth mention.
ing in which republican adminis-
trations are not rs good as ours,
and if we signalize our ascendency
in every branch Of the government
| by q wild and beastly debauch of
spoils we are common liars and
the appeal we must make to the
people in two years and again in
four years will show that we are
as great fools as we are liars.
The President of the United
States as Commander-in chief of
our army and navy and purveyor
of civil offices from Florida to
Alaska has more power for evil
and less power for good than any
sovereign in Europe including the
car of Russia; our history as ma
ton for twenty five years is fraught
with the prostitution Of this power
to personal and party ends;we have
beer restored to power on a dis
tinct pledge to surround this pres
ideniial prerogatiye with safe
guards Of law aud precedent; there
Is no promise in any democratic
platform that we will out-ostraeise
the republicans and after we have
wiped out our old scores with
them reform the civil service;
ought we, il Mr.. Cleveland were
made OF the stuff which would
yield to our pressure. to write the
infamy of broken promises into
the history Of our party, particu-
larly when those promises touch
matters Of vital interest to the
preservation o our government?
| judge not
The current statement that Mr.
Cleveland will do differently this
timef implying as it does that
with Office peddling, etc, he will
make his administration as cheap
and paitry as some Of its prede
cessors, is a gross reflection on the
president and his party. No pres
ident since Lincoln has had an
opportunity to do his country such
service; and to suppose Cleve-
land from this mountain top OF
privilege will plunge into the deep
hell of ls-mongering is not to
reason after experience. You were
a witness AT Chicago of the indig-
mites with which the spoils crowd
sought to brand the ex- president;
you saw Gen. Sickles brandish his
erutch and threaten to demollsh
the Michigan banner with the pic
ture of Cleveland upon it; you
heard that forty minute TRADE of
Bourke Cochran in which he gave
classic utterance to the fatal igno-
rance and depravity of Tammany /
and heaped the scurrility of his !
taskmasters upon Cleveland, all |
for the reason that the latter had |
dared to stand between the tiger
and its prey. 1t is now evident
that Tammany has succumbed to
the inexorable logic of events and
thrown itself upon the forbearance
OF its conquerors. Cleveland will
not be churlish nor revengeful, but
if he should forget that Sickles'
crutch is still ready to swing and
that Cockran's hshwoman's 5 tongue
is in training for the assault ON
the principles to which he has
dedicated his life, il he torgets that
the spoilsmen may make a truce
but will never make peace he
ought on the fourth Of March go to
the lunatic asylum instead of the
white house. We have no choice
between party army, a party
navy and a partisan civil service;
if we hold to the latter we cannot
much longer escape the two form.
er; we cannot reform the civil ser
vice by getting even with the
first; | believe that
this consideration will have the
place with the presidcnt.elect, as
it should.
! am far from asserting that no
democrat ought to take office or,
under proper conditions, to seek
it ; doubt that there is a demo-
crat in office whom Harrison could
remove; | know that the cruel pro-
scription to which we have been
subjected deserves reprisal, but |
doubt the policy Of it; when as
many democrats as republicans
are in Office it may be time to stop;
| want to be one OF the democrats,
at that time, free from all entang-
lements, who shall support the
president IN his attempts to de-
partyize the civil service of the
United States; as chairman Of one
Of the conventions of our par
~ and chairman of the com
mittee on resolutions in another ,
| have been appealed to to use the
influence | am supposed to pos
sess in one way and another; while
| am willing to do anything in my
power for any friend or neighbor.
| feel bound to assert that if civil
service reform is a humbug there
is no humbug about my faith in il
nor my adherence to it; nor is
there any humbug in the convic-
ton that the path to lasting party
lies not in our holding
all the Offices nor half of them but
in seriously applying ourselves to