"HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, _July 26th, 1867_.
"MY DEAR GOVERNOR,--We have got over another day, thanks
to an election case, without action on the silver bill. We believe
now that we shall be able to defeat action, if not vote down the
measure. It has been a hard fight, and, if we win, it will be due to
considerations of expediency rather than of principles on the part
of the Southern members.
"The object of this note is mainly to suggest something in regard to
the civil-service plank. A very intelligent newspaper man says that
the real issue is not so much in the personnel of the clerks as in
the modes and machinery of administration in the several departments
of the Govt. In other words, that the abuses are largely due to the
defective organization of the department, that the business has
outgrown the methods and machinery devised by Hamilton, and that it
is the framework of the government machine which needs reformation,
reconstruction, and adaptation to the requirements of the public
business. In this view, the mere appointment and discharge of a few
clerks is of but little consequence, compared with such a reform in
the mode of conducting the public business.
"This crude statement seems to contain the germ of a position in
politics in regard to civil service, far higher and more practical
than the declaration of Hayes.
"The P. S. dept. may be instanced to illustrate the state of
affairs. When it was a small affair it was not of such consequence,
and before the days of railroads and telegraphs indispensable,
perhaps, that it should use its receipts to pay its expenses and
pay over to the Treasury any balance that might remain at the end
of the fiscal year. Now, however, when the receipts are very great,
they should be paid all into the Treasury, and the expenses drawn
thence by warrant, as in other departments of the government. This
is not the case, but the Postmaster-General, having the control
of the money, authorizes and allows expenditures, such as repairs
and improvements to buildings, amounting to large sums, without
any authority from Congress, such as is necessary in the other
departments for such outlays.
"So the bookkeeping of the government is not in accordance
with the experience of the times, but is crude, old-fashioned,
unsatisfactory, and even contradictory. Now a broad declaration from
you that you will endeavor to reform these abuses which are of a
gravity far greater than the incompetence or negligence of clerks,
and that this reform is the most urgent and will receive careful
attention would, I think, strike the public favorably.
"Faithfully y'rs,
"ABRAM S. HEWITT.
"Scott Wicks, of Ill., one of our best members, and who stood by us
on the banking and currency committee, has lost his renomination in
consequence. It is a severe blow to him and to me, and if we win he
must be taken care of. He is a first-class man.
"I do not think you begin to appreciate the bitterness of these
Western inflationists."