Year: 1875

Our national capital promises to be for the
next fortnight n scene of unusual activity
The meeting of Congress will of course BRING
together the usual number of politicians, and
"statesmen,n and lobbyists of the bustling
people who have business at the Departments,
or schemes to come before Congress, and the
curious people who will be there merely as
spectators But besides these there will be,
indeed already are gathering there, process
sion which no man can number. with aspira-
tons that no Government can respond to,
and appetites it would drain the Treas
They are flowing in from all quar-
ters orators, editors, committeeman men
who have made sacrifices for the cause, men
who have never bolted, or kicked, or scratched
ticket, and men who have just come over
and brought great strength to the party men
who have sat up nights to save a " deestrlck,"
and men who have led fOrlorn hopes and kept
the party together-and all of them breathing
the accents Of patriotism, favored more or less
with the stimulating decOctiODs which serve 10
keen the love Of country warm. These are
patriots who have como up through great
tribulation to do something handsome for the
country in the Civil Service and to stand by
"the Constitution 1t is the desire of
their hearts to support the Constitution. lhey
are fiocking to Washington for that purpose.
They are willing to take the oath to support
the Constitution which everybody has to take
before drawing pay, and with wild self-aban-
donment to give their whole attention to it, to
the exclusion of all other business. The facil-
tiles for supporting the Constitution are greater
lust now at Washington than anywhere else
in the country. For. look ye, there's new
order of things in one branch of COngress-a
new party in power. And there are, conse-
quently, great opportunities for people who
have been resting for several years to relieve
the men who have been carrying the Constitu-
ton on their shoulders all this time. And so
"they are coming, Father Abraham, SIX hlhd-


cred thousand more


Here will be men, earnest and sincere men.


with eager eyes and shining pantaloOns, who
from the slopes of the Sierra or the prairies of
tho great West. from the forests of
Maine or the Louisiana lowlands, heard long
ago the "SeCond Relief called and leaned
toward Washington in answer. Some OF them
had saved out of scanty earnings enough to
! pay their fare to the capital, some borrowed,
and s0me-no, no, perish the thought III any
one OF them had MT the money and could not
| beg or borrow it, he walked; he must have
walkcd-or perhaps Travelled on free
pass; he would MT steal. But there
they are, or will be, full of zeal
for the cause, reelling with enthusiasm, and as
over6owing with tender "reminiscences of the


great campaign as an Od-fashioned fire
engine company with stories of where each
member was "when the fire broke out" And
they are ready for anything-that involves
| looking after the Constitution between drinks
and signing pay-rOls at stated periods. They
will not object to acting rs clerks, or assistant
clerks, or deputy clerks they are wiling to be
doorlleepers or assistant dOorkeepers, or sit
in the rotunda in the uniform Of
policeman, or go down into the folding
room and help wrap up what remains of the
mother tongue after Congress has got through
with it and printed it. They ii serve any
where, in anybody's department, SO they be
permitted to sustain the Constitution and
draw regular pay. Each Democratic member
of Congress has procession of his own; no
member of the majority need be lonesome so
| long as there's place left untitled OF n change


waits to be made.


There's great comfort in the thought that





ing on Washington is actuated by single
motive animated by one thought. thrilled by
one purpose, and that is to reform the Civil
Service and purify the politics OF the country.
| Through the press and on the stump, with
| voice and pen, i'll tho reccsseo OF the COM
! mttee-rOOm and on the platform. IL caucus
| aud convention. they have denounced the recl-
lessness and selfshness and partisanship with
which the Opposition has administered the
| Civil Service, and hayo constantly demanded
| Reform. And We, who have deplOred the prac-
| tice of using the Offices as rewards for party
| seryice-what a comfort it Is to us to
know that in one branch of Congress party
has come into power which has consistently
opposed this degrading practice whenever and


wherever il has been in the minority. When
we consider this immense mass of willing
citizens who will shortly be standing from


twenty to hundred deep behind every
place within the disposition of the House of
Representatives, and think how they have
| abOred for the cause and how they viii re-
| form and purify the service as soon as they
| get good whack at il, it makes us-well, words
are feeble-we can only mutey wonder and adj


miro. And yet what a remarkable circumstance
! it would be if out Of all these intense and ca
| ger patriots there should Mt one single soul
| think to suggest as n reason for his appoint


ment to place held by another, that he is


better qualified in any particular for the


Office than tho present incumbent. Would it


not be the queerest thing i'll the world if every


mothers sou Of them should urge party ser


vice instead of fitness or ability as the reason
| for his anpoinimpnt2 OF course there il MT