The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1892-11-17
might as well ego the whole hog" The
sicker it gets the sooner it will recover
provided il RECEIVERS at all.
THE POLITICAL sPoILs EVIL.

ing Mr.. Lincoln's first administration,
recently presented number of auto
graph letters to library in Des Moines,
among which were three written by Mr..
Lincoln shortly after his inauguration.
All of them related to appointments to
Office. The first. dated March IL 1861,
and addressed to the Postmaster-gen-
era,, said: "The bearer, Mr.. C. T.
Thompson, is a Virginian, who wishes
to get. for his sor. small place in your
department.. think Virginia should be
heard in such cases. 1t is probable
that Virginia was heard. The next,
dated March 10, also addressed to the
Postmaster-general, related To the ap-
p0intment of postmaster at Cleveland,
o., and suggested that, as Senator
Wade had considered the case and con-
cluded not to interfere" and as no other
member of Congress interfered, Mr..
Edwin Cowles had better be appointed.
The third letter is characteristic en- ough
to be printed In full:
EXECUTIVE MANSION,
WASHINGTON. April "a. 1852.
Hon. Postmaster general:
My Dear Sir-Tbe member of Congress
from the district including Tiffin, o., calls
on me about the postmaster at that place.
i believe turned over dispatch to you
sion, so as for them to be heard. or some
thing of the sort If nothing, or nothing
amounting to anything. has been done,
think the suspension might now be sus-
pended and the commission 60 forward.
Yours truly. A. LINCOLN.
t. Ill -. -. kHo< #
letters were written within two weeks
after Mr.. Lincoln's Inauguration, and
the third within two months. 1t is
striking commentary on the ofice-seek-
ing phase of American politics that at
such time as that the President of the
United States should have been pes
tered by applicants for Office and their
friends. When these letters were writ
ten the country was on the verge of
civil war. Two of them are dated a
month before the firing on Fort Sumter
and one ten days after that event.
The government was being dissolved
and the Union was going to pieces.
The greatest war of the century
was about to be inaugurated, and re-
publican government was about to be
put to its supremest test. Yet in the
midst of this crisis Mr.. Thompson, of
Virginia, called to see the President
about getting ga small place" for his son
in the Postoffice Department.; Mr..
Cowles gets the ear of the President
long enough to get him to write letter
suggesting his appointment as post
master at Cleveland; and the member
from the Tiffin district calls at the
White House and gets the President to
write an autograph letter suggesting
that the commission in that case had
better 60 forward to the members man.
These were but three cases of thou
sands. 1t is almost amusing to think
that while President Lincoln was franz
ing the first proclamation calling for
volunteers and was nerving himself to
meet the first onset of the rebellion, he
should have been distracted by such
small-beer affairs as these. Yet, if
truth were known, it is probable that
the distribution of patronage consumed
large part of his time.
Things are not as bad now as they were
then, but the patronage question still
continues to be a source of the greatest
possible annoyance and embarrassment
to q President and to the heads of de-
partments. In Mr.. Lincoln's time civil
service reform had not yet been heard
of. Every Office in the government was
open to q scramble, and all the little
places, as we'll as all the big ones, and
all the intermediate ones besides, were
part of the spoils. That was the rule
at that time. and nobody as yet ques-
toned the prOpriety of it. 1t was a
source of unspeakable annoyance to the
President and every head of depart
ment. The civil-service law has re-
moved many subordinate positions from
the list of political appointments, and in
so far is great relief to those who have
the appointing power. but it should be
still further extended, and doubtless
will be. 1t Is safe to say that no person
will ever serve as President or as men,
her of the Cabinet without being con-
WINGED, not only of the wisdom, but of
the absolute necessity of some
such law. We predict that every
President will not only approve. but try
to extend the system. One of President
Cleveland's last executive acts was to
extend the law to the railway mail
service. If he had not done so, no
doubt President Harrison would. and it
is probable the latter will, before he
goes out of Office, extend ito some other
classes or branches of the public service
not now embraced in it. The system is
as necessary for the protection of the
President and heads of departments
from the overwhelming pressure for
Office as it is to protect the public serv-
ice, the public morals and the govern
ment itself from slow but inevitable de-
struction. All intelligent and patriotic
Americans who have made any study of
the subject must admit that the purifi-
cation of American politics and the
progress of good government depend on
the permanent establishment of a sys-
tenn of civil-service reform which shall
reduce the official spoils of politics to a
minimum.