The Helena independent., 1892-04-29
CIVIL SERVICE REFORM.
Address Of Mr.. George William
Curtis Before the Annual
League Meeting.
Universal Necessity for Ourbing
the Arbitrary Exercise Of
Executive Power.
Power of tho Crown and tho Party Con-
trasted--H Record of tho Present
Administration.

Power of tho Crown and tho Party Con
trasted--Hscord Of the Present
Administration.
BA1r1MoRr. April 2s.--The annual meet
ing Of the National Civil Service Reform
league met here to-day. The chief address
of the day was delivered by George William
Curtis.
In the course of his remarks Mr.. Curtis
said: In the legal security of liberty prog
reBs has been always effected by regulating
the executive power which is the fnal force
In all politically organized communities
. The great charter. the great remonstranoe.
the petition of rights Of England, were all
declarations against the arbitrary exercise
OF executive power, and steadily diminished
by jealous popular care, this power grad
ually became mainly the arbitrary control Of
patronage. For this arbitrary control the
English tory had always plausible plea,
and in the middle Of the last century when
England had becn freshly reminded by
Culloden and the romantic enthusiasm
for Prince Charles that the Hanoverian
throne was not yet secure, David Hume
in his essay upon the Independenoy of
Parliaments, made better argument for
patronage under the British constitution
than could ever be made for il under ours.
1t was essential. he said, to the balance of
the constitution. The house OF commons
did not assert its supremacy over the other
branches Of the government only because 1t
did not think it its interest to do 90. The
patronage Of the crown, he said, with the
#aid Of honest members alone maintained
the royal power. That is to say the king
bought votes enough to supplement- the
votes Of his friends. "We may call this
influence he says, for Hume was an hon
est man, "by the invidious nppellations Of
corruption and dependence, but some de-
gree and some kind Of it are inseparable
from the very nature Of the constitution,
and necessary to the preservation Of our
mixed government"
ii Mr.. Leoky points out the coincidence Of
FHume's view with that of Paley, who
attributes the loss of the American colonies
fto the want of royal patronage extensive
enough as he says, Ito countcract that rest
less, arrogating spirit which in popular as
semblles, when left to itself. will never
brook an authority that checks and inter
.feres with it's own This is the tribute of
the moral philosopher to the necessity and
Fieasonableness of the spoils system, q
tribute which is echoed in the political
Gently set forth under the name Of the
political moralist, Mr.. Richard Croker, il
the North American Review, plea, I NAV
add, which wns promptly and thoroughly
exposed BY our friend and associate, Mr..
Dorman B. Eaton.
oppression, and when the republic began
All the formation of the first state constitu-
tions during the revolution the chief dis
tlnotlon OF those constitutions was the At
tempted restraint Of that power BY distri
button between the legislature or the coun-
|cil and the governor. With the same ieal-
Dusy the trainers OF the constitution II
establishing the national government lin
lted 1 the executive power of appointment
Ihey provided that only with the advice
and consent of tho senate should the presi-
dent appoint certain specified officers,
while the congress- should provide at its
pleasure for the appointment OF othe 9.
The constitution thus reserves to the SEN
ate practical veto upon the appointing
power and to congress the designation of
the methods of appointment of ali inferior
officers.
The people had assumed their own GOV
ernnent, but as they could not administer
it directly it was administered by agents
selected by party or the organized majority,
but under such restrictions us the whole
body of voters, or the people, might i'm
pose. Tho crown had vanished. There
was no king or permanent executive, |
There were president and legislature
elected by the people for limited terms, |
But the practical agency of the government
was party, and whoever WAS elected presi-
dent party remained in the inisttation |
MS permanent as king and with the same
control OF the executive power. But ex-
ecutlve power. whether in the hands of a |
king or party, does not change its nature,
not safely. be trusted. Buckle says that no
lnnn is wise enough and strong enough to
be vested with absolute authority, 1t fires
his brain and maddens him. But this
which ID true of an individual is not less
true of an aggregate of individuals or a
party. party or majority needs watch
ing as much as king.
civil service reform, therefore, ia but
another successive step in the DEVELOPMENT
of liberty under law. It is not eccentric
nor revolutionary. It is 9 logical measure
OF political progress. In the light of
gencles OF republic in the nineteenth CEN
tuly instead of a monarchy in the thir-
teenth and seventeenth centuries, in the
spirit OF the wise jealousy of the constitu-
ton, in the interest of free institutions and
of honest government it proposes to re-
strict still further the executive power as
exercised by party. 1t is measure based
upon the observation of a century during
which government by party has developed
conditions and tendencies and perils which
SoulO AoS AhVo u60u 1OTo6een IN detail.
although at the beginning of party govern
ment under the constitution, Washington
said OF party spirit sit exists under differ
snt shapes IN all governments more or less
stided, controlled or rsprsssed; bnt in
those of popular form. it is seen in it's
enemy
-, The experience of century has justified
WashinRton's words. The superstition of
divine right has passed from king to
party, and the old fiction of the Law in
that the king can do no wrong
has become the practical faith of preat
in this republic III regard to
party. Armed with the arbitrary power of
patronage party overbears the free express
SION OF the popular will and entrenches
Itself IN Illicit power. It makes the whole
civil service drilled and disciplined army /:
whose living depends upon Carrying cleo.
tions at any cost for the party which oon-
trolls it. Patronage has bat to capture the
local primary meeting and it Commands
the whole party organization. Every mem
Der of the party must submit or renounoe
his party allegiance and with it the
qualification of his political ambi.
tion, and such ia the malipn force
of party spirit that in what seema
H.