Year: 1869

OFFICE LAW.


We suppose there is little reason to
doubt that the bill repeating the Tenure
of-Office act will pass the Senate, as it
has the House. The repeal will be gen.
orally approved by the people, who,
knowing that the public service is revolt
ingly corrupt, desire that General Grant
should be deprived Of every excuse for
falling to reform it. As between the
rascally Republican officials who now
hold places and any possible use the new
President may make of his power, the
people do not hesitate moment to prefer
the arbitrary will of the latter.


We are willing to concede that the
power of removal for merely political
reasons, or removal without reasons, Is
subject to great abuse, and that it has
been greatly abused. But the expert
ment of different system, proceeding
from the motives it did, and attended by
the results it has, has pretty much dis
couraged any expectation of benefits
from giving a greater fxity to the tenure
Of Office. Whatever fate might have at
tended Mr.. Jenck's bill under more IA
vofablc circumstances, there is no chance
that it can be passed now. Our expert
ence Of fixed tenure, with cumbrous
and roundabout method of removal, has
poured odium upon what might, perhaps,
have been a promising reform. We
have thought that officers arc more likely
to fail in integrity than in capacity; and
that dishonesty is infinitely the greater
evil Of the two. The duties Of most ad-
ministrative Offices arc very simple. Our
whole history hardly furnishes men,
orablc example of any great detriment
to the public interests by the ignorance
or imbecility of merely ministerial off,
GERS. The chief evils to be guarded
against are frauds, defalcations, bribery,
collisions between officers Of the revenue
and those who ought to pay it. These
evils have grown to such height under
fxed tenure, that everybody feels that
the great urgency at present, is not to
keep men in Office, but to turn them out
Honesty is thing that can be tested on
ly by trial. Knaves are often so crafty,
so subtle, they so habitually cover their
tracks and conceal the evidence Of their
crimes, that they may remain long in Of
fee without any tangible evidence of their
guilt. They may be suspected, and yet
there may not be against them scintilla
of proof which might not be consistent
with innocence, although it raised sus-
picions of their guilt. If the President
has the power of prompt removal without
any necessity of giving reasons, or any
liability to review, he can clear out all
suspected persons at once, without injur-
ing their reputation if innocent, or wait
ing for complete evidence if they are
guilty. The real motive for removal
might do great injustice if the President
were compelled to disclose it; but if he
can remove without assigning any reason,
and this practice is habitual, no wrong
can be done, for no mans honesty is inn
peached. If there is tangible evidence
of malversation, the officer should be
prosecuted after his removal and made to
suffer the legal punishment; but when a
man is merely removed, he should be
deemed innocent until he is proved guilty.
This constant liability to removal cuts off
all possibility of chicaning defence
when there is guilt which the evidence
does not reach, and it invigorates ef6cien-
cy and fidelity. Such power is indeed
liable to great abuse but the abuses are
as nothing compared with the widespread
rottenness which has grown up under the
Opposite system.


When, as may often happen, the Pres
ident and Senate are of different politics,
the evils of fixed tenure become stu
pendous. Each branch of the appoint
ling power wishes to keep its own parti-


zans In Office, and knaves are furnished


with the ready defence of saying that


charges against their character are In


vented by political hostility. The effect
rIis, to cut the sinews of responsibility al.


together, and leave no source against off


cial corruption but the slow. tedious, cum.
brous forms of legal prosecution, where
, a flaw in the Indictment, or evidences
morally conclusive but legally inadmissi
! bic, or the slackness or connivance oi
prosecuting officers, may enable scoundrel;
to go scot free. This is surely bad sys
; tenn it is not easy to imagine anything
worse. 1t has brought about suoha state
of things, that if General Grant shall bC
honest, efficient and resolute, in using the
power about to be restored to the Presi
t dent, it will be long time before any
t scheme for giving fixed tenure of of
, fee eau even get hearing World.
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