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


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 for 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 admins
trations are not as good as ours,
and If we signalize our ascendency
in every branch of the government
by wild aad bcastly 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 ehuw that we are
as great fools as we are liars.
The President of the United
States as COMMANDMENT 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
czar of Russia; our history as ma
tion 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.
idential prerogatiye with safe.
guards of law aud precedent; there
is no promise in any democratic
platform that we will out-ostracise
the republicans and after we have
wiped uut our old scores with
them reform the civil service;
ought we, if Mr.. Cleveland were
made of the stuff which would
yield to our pressure. to write the
!nfamy of broken promises into
the history Of our party, particu-
lahy when those promises touch
matters of vital interest to the
preservation O. our government
judge not.
The current statemen that "Mr.
Cleveland will do differently this
time, -. implying as it does that
with Office peddling, etc, he will
make his administration as cheap
and paltry 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
a service; and to suppose Cleve-
land from this mountain top OF
privilege will plunge into the deep
hell OF spoils-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
crutch and threaten to demolish
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 utierance to the fatal ignu-
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 fshwoman's tongue
is in training for the assault on
the principles To which he has
dedicated his life, il he iorgets that
the spoilsmen may make a truce
but will never make peace he
ought on the fourth Of March 90 to
the lunatic asylum instead OF the
white house. We have no choice
between a 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
republicans first; ! believe that
this consideration will have the
| place with the president-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 demo-
crat ia Office whom Harrison could
remove; know that the cruel pro-
scriptiOn to whicn we have been
subjected deserves reprisal, but
doubt the policy of il; 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 entaug
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
~ aud chairman of the CON
mittee or resolutions in another
haYe been appealed To to use the
influence I 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 10 assert that if civi
service reform is a humbug there
IS no humbug about my faith in il
nor my adherence to it; nor il
there any humbug in the convic
ton that the path to lasting party
ascendency lies not in our holding
al The nnicea nor half of Them hnI