APPOINTMENTS TO OFFICE
Among the great satisfactions in the life of public men is
that of sometimes being instrumental in the advancement to
places of public honor of worthy men, and of being able to
have a great and salutary influence upon their lives. I have
always held to the doctrine of what is called Civil Service
Reform, and have maintained to the best of my ability the
doctrine of the absolute independence of the Executive in
such matters, as his right to disregard the wishes and opinions
of members of either House of Congress, and to make his appointments,
executive and judicial, without advice, or on such advice
as he shall think best. But, at the same time, there can
be no doubt that the Executive must depend on some advice
other than his own, to learn the quality of men in different
parts of this vast Republic, and to learn what will be agreeable
to public opinion and to the party which is administering
the Government and is responsible for its administration.
He will, ordinarily, find no better source of such information
than in the men whom the people have shown their own confidence
by entrusting them with the important function of Senator
or Representative. He will soon learn to know his men, and
how far he can safely take such advice. He must be careful
to see to it that he is not induced to build up a faction
in his party, or to fill up the public offices with the partisans
of ambitious but unscrupulous politicians. When I entered
the House of Representatives, before the Civil Service Reform
had made any progress, I addressed and had put on file with
the Secretary of the Treasury a letter in which I said that
I desired him to understand when I made a recommendation to
him of any person for public office, it was to be taken merely
as my opinion of the merit of the candidate, and not as an
expression of a personal request; and that if he found any
other person who would in his judgment be better for the public
service, I hoped he would make the selection without regard
to my recommendation.
I have never undertaken to use public office as personal
patronage, or to claim the right to dictate to the President
of the United States, or that the executive was not entirely
free, upon such advice as he saw fit, or without advice, if he
thought fit, in making his selection for public office.
It has been my good fortune to have influenced, or I think
I may fairly say, procured the appointment to public office
of many gentlemen who would not have been appointed without
my active efforts. I have no reason to be ashamed of one
of the list. I believe that the following gentlemen, beside
others less distinguished, who have been very satisfactory,
able and faithful public servants, owe their appointment to
my original suggestion, or would not have been appointed without
my earnest efforts.
Charles Devens, Attorney-General; Alanson W. Beard, Collector
of the Port of Boston; Horace Gray, first to the office of
Reporter of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, and later
to that of Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United
States; J. Evarts Greene, Postmaster of Worcester; Thomas
L. Nelson, Judge of the District Court of Massachusetts; Francis
C. Lowell, Judge of the District Court of Massachusetts; Howell
E. Jackson, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the
United States; John D. Washburn, Minister to Switzerland.
I think I may also fairly claim that the election of William
B. Washburn as Governor of Massachusetts was due not only
to the fact that I originally proposed him as a candidate,
but to my active efforts in the campaign which preceded the
Convention which nominated him.
There is no man in this list of greater ability or of higher
quality of manhood than Evarts Greene. Mr. Greene was compelled
by the illness of his wife to remain fast-bound in one spot,
instead of going to some large city where his great talent
would have commanded a very high place indeed in his profession
as editor. When he edited the Worcester _Spy,_ it was one
of the most influential Republican newspapers in the country.
The _Spy_ got into pecuniary difficulties. Mr. Greene, with
some reluctance, accepted the office of Postmaster, an office
which, according to usage in such cases, was in my gift.
Just before Postmaster-General Wanamaker, whose executive
ability no man will question, went out of office, he requested
Mr. Greene to send to the Department an account of the improvements
he had made and proposed in the post-office service. This
was sent in a circular all over the country to other like
post-offices.
Just before Mr. Greene died, President Roosevelt visited
Worcester. In passing the post-office, where the persons
employed in the service were collected, he stopped and said
he was glad to see "what we have been accustomed to consider
the record post-office." This, as may well be believed,
gave Mr. Greene great satisfaction.