MR. PRESIDENT,--If I have rightly read the history of my country,
there was before Vicksburg an army commanded by three generals from
Ohio,--General Grant, General Sherman, and General McPherson. Now, if I
rightly understand the proposition of the Senator from North Carolina,
he would require that the generals in command of our Army should be
taken geographically,--not according to their merits, not according to
their capacity to defend this Republic and to maintain with honor its
flag, but simply according to the place of their residence,--and no
three generals should be in command from one State. Do I understand the
Senator aright?
MR. ABBOTT. My amendment reads, “as far as practicable.”
MR. SUMNER. Very well,--“as far as practicable.” I would inquire of my
friend whether fitness for office or service in other departments of
the Government does not depend upon capacity, talent, preparation, as
much as in the Army? I ask the Senator if it is not so?
MR. ABBOTT. The purpose of this amendment was not to override
all such considerations; it was to give an expression of the
sense of the Senate that States should not be ignored in the
distribution of this sort of patronage. Nothing in it prevents
three generals from Ohio being in the command of one army, or
the appointment of three Cabinet officers from Ohio; but it is
simply to express the sense of the Senate that these things
ought to be done with something like fairness and justice, as
between the different States.
MR. SUMNER. I take it there is no Senator who does not accept the
general idea of the Senator from North Carolina, that all things should
be done in fairness, and that all parts of the country, every portion
of this great Republic, should be treated with equal respect and honor.
That is clear. But first and foremost above all is the public service:
that must be maintained; it must not be sacrificed; and how can it be
maintained, unless you advance to prominent posts in this service those
who are the most meritorious, and who can best discharge the duties of
the post?
I merely throw out this remark, and call attention to this point, that
Senators may see to what this proposition tends. If it were fully
carried out, it would reduce the public service of this country to one
dead level. Men would go into it merely because they lived in certain
places, not because they had a fitness for the posts to which they were
advanced. Perhaps I am mistaken, but I see no reason why there should
be three Ohio generals in command before Vicksburg, and not three Ohio
citizens in eminent civil service. To my mind the attainments and the
talents required in civil service are as well worthy to be recognized
as those that are required in military service, and I see no reason
for a rule that shall allow talent to be taken without any reference
to geographical limit in the military service which is not equally
applicable to the civil service.
Now, as to our friends who have recently come into this Chamber, I
beg them to understand, that, so far as I am concerned, there is no
disposition to deny or to begrudge them anything to which, according
to geographical proportions, they may be entitled; but I beg them to
consider that time is an essential element of this transition through
which we are passing.
MR. FESSENDEN. Will my friend allow me to make a suggestion to
him?
MR. SUMNER. Certainly.
MR. FESSENDEN. I merely wish to allude to the notorious fact
that for half a century before the Rebellion the proportion of
persons in civil office in the Departments in Washington from
the Southern States was very nearly, if not quite, two to one
to those from all the other States. They had the control, and
had pretty much all the offices, for years and years.
MR. SUMNER. We are now in a process of transition, and I was observing
that time is an essential element in that process. What the Senator
from North Carolina aims at cannot be accomplished at once. The change
cannot be made instantly. The men are not presented from the States
lately in rebellion in sufficient numbers, in sufficient proportion,
with competency for these posts. I know that there are gentlemen there
fit to grace many of these posts, but I know also that there is not
relatively the same proportion of persons fit for the civil service as
there is in the other parts of the country; and our friends from the
South, it seems to me, must take this into consideration kindly, and
wait yet a little longer.