is, inflicting upon this Republic--some, I say; not all, for it is
impossible to follow its subtle virus into all the channels through
which it exercises its poisonous influence. But I have said enough to
illustrate its pernicious effects; and what I have said is only the
teaching of sober observation and long experience.
And now, if such are the evils of the spoils system, what are, by way of
compensation, the virtues it possesses, and the benefits it confers?
Let its defenders speak. They do not pretend that it gives us a very
efficient public service; but they tell us that it is essentially
American; that it is necessary in order to keep alive among our people
an active interest in public affairs; that frequent rotation in office
serves to give the people an intelligent insight in the nature and
workings of their Government; that without it parties cannot be held
together, and party government is impossible; and that all the officers
and employees of the Government should be in political harmony with the
party in power. Let us pass the points of this defence in review one by
one.
First, then, in what sense can the spoils system be called essentially
American? Certainly not as to its origin. At the beginning of our
national Government nothing like it was known here, or dreamed of. Had
anything like it been proposed, the fathers of the Republic would have
repelled it with alarm and indignation. It did, indeed, prevail in
England when the monarchy was much stronger than it is now, and when
the aristocracy could still be called a ruling class. But as the British
Government grew more democratic, the patronage system, as a relic of
feudalism, had to yield to the forces of liberalism and enlightenment
until it completely disappeared. When it invaded our national
Government, forty years after its constitutional beginning, we merely
took what England was casting off as an abuse inconsistent with popular
government, and unworthy of a free and civilized nation. If not in
origin, is the spoils system essentially American in any other sense?
Only in the sense in which murder is American, or small-pox, or highway
robbery, or Tammany Hall.
As to the spoils system being necessary to the end of keeping alive
among our people an active interest in public affairs--where is the
American who does not blush to utter such an infamous calumny? Is there
no patriotism in America without plunder in sight? Was there no public
spirit before spoils systems and clean sweeps cursed us, none between
the battle of Lexington and Jackson's inauguration as President? Such
an argument deserves as an answer only a kick from every honest American
boot.
I admit, however, that there are among us some persons whose interest
in public affairs does need the stimulus of office to remain alive. I
am far from denying that the ambition to serve one's country as a public
officer is in itself a perfectly legitimate and honorable ambition. It
certainly is. But when a man's interest in public affairs depends upon
his drawing an official salary, or having such a salary in prospect, the
ambition does not appear so honorable. There is too pungent a mercenary
flavor about it. No doubt, even among the mercenaries may be found
individuals that are capable, faithful, and useful; but taking them as
a class, the men whose active public spirit is conditional upon the
possession or prospect of official spoil are those whose interest in
public affairs the commonweal can most conveniently spare. Indeed, our
political life would be in a much healthier condition if they did not
take any part in politics at all. There would be plenty of patriotic
Americans to devote themselves to the public good without such a
condition. In fact, there would be more of that class in regular
political activity than there are now, for they would not be jostled out
by the pushing hordes of spoils-hunters, whose real interest in public
affairs is that of serving themselves. The spoils system is therefore
not only not a stimulus of true public spirit, but in spreading
the mercenary tendency among the people it has served to baffle and
discourage true public spirit by the offensive infusion in political
life of the mercenary element.
The view that the spoils system with its frequent rotations in office is
needed to promote among the people a useful understanding of the nature
and workings of the Government, finds, amazing as it may seem, still
serious adherents among well-meaning citizens. It is based upon the
assumption that the public service which is instituted to do certain
business for the people, should at the same time serve as a school in
which ignorant persons are to learn something about the functions of
the Government. These two objects will hardly go together. If the public
service is to do its business with efficiency and economy, it must of
course be manned with persons fit for the work. If on the other hand it
is to be used as a school to instruct ignorant people in the functions
of the Government--that is, in the duties of a postmaster, or a revenue
collector, or an Indian agent, or a Department clerk--then we should
select for such places persons who know least about them, for they have
the most to learn; and inasmuch as such persons, before having acquired
the necessary knowledge, skill, and experience, will inevitably do
the public business in a bungling manner, and therefore at much
inconvenience and loss to the people, they should, in justice to
the taxpayers, instead of drawing salaries, pay something for the
instruction they receive. For as soon as they have learned enough really
to earn a salary, they will have to be turned out to make room for
others, who are as ignorant and in as great need of instruction as the
outgoing set had been before. Evidently this kindergarten theory of
the public service is hardly worth discussion. The school of the spoils
system, as it has been in operation since 1829, has educated thousands
of political loafers, but not one political sage.
That the Government will not work satisfactorily unless all its officers
and employees are in political harmony with the ruling party, is also
one of those superstitions which some estimable people have not yet been
able to shake off. While they sternly resist the argument that there is
no Democratic and no Republican way of sorting letters, or of collecting
taxes, or of treating Indians, as theoretical moonshine, their belief
must, after all, have received a rude shock by the conduct of the last
three national Administrations, including the present one.
When in 1885, after twenty-four years of Republican ascendency, the
Democrats came into power, President Cleveland determined that, as a
general rule, officers holding places covered by the four-years-term law
should, if they had conducted themselves irreproachably, be permitted to
serve out their four-years terms. How strictly this rule was adhered to
I will not now inquire. At any rate it was adhered to in a great many
cases. Many Republican office-holders, under that four-years rule,
remained in place one, or two, or three years under the Democratic
Administration. President Harrison, succeeding Mr. Cleveland, followed
a similar rule, although to a less extent. And now President Cleveland
again does the same. Not only did we have during his first term the
startling spectacle of the great post-office of New York City remaining
in the hands of a postmaster who was not a Democrat, but recently of
the Collectorship of the port of New York, once considered the most
important political office in the country, being left for a year or more
in possession of a Republican.
It is clear, the Presidents who acted thus did not believe that the
public interest required all the officers of the Government to be in
harmony with the party in power. On the contrary, they thought that
the public interest was served by keeping efficient officers in their
places, for a considerable time at least, although they were not in such
harmony. And no doubt all sensible people admit that the common weal did
not suffer therefrom. The theory of the necessity of political accord
between the administrative officers of the Government and the party
in power has thus been thoroughly exploded by actual practice and
experience. Being obliged to admit this, candid men, it is to be hoped,
will go a step further in their reasoning. If those two Presidents
were right in thinking that the public welfare was served by keeping
meritorious officers not belonging to the ruling party in place until
they had served four years, is it not wrong to deprive the country of
the services of such men, made especially valuable by their accumulated
experience and the training of their skill, by turning them out after
the lapse of the four years? If it was for the public interest to keep
them so long, is it not against the public interest not to keep them
longer?
* * * * *
But all these evidences of progress I regard as of less importance than
the strength our cause has gained in public sentiment. Of this we had
a vivid illustration when a year ago, upon the motion of Mr. Richard
Watson Gilder, the Anti-Spoils League was set on foot for the purpose
of opening communication and facilitating correspondence and, in case
of need, concert of action with the friends of Civil Service reform
throughout the country, and when, in a short space of time, about 10,000
citizens sent in their adhesion, representing nearly every State
and Territory of the Union, and in them, the most enlightened and
influential classes of society.
More encouraging still is the circumstance that now for the first time
we welcome at our annual meeting not only the familiar faces of
old friends, but also representatives of other organizations--Good
Government clubs, working for the purification of politics; municipal
leagues, whose aim is the reform of municipal governments; and
commercial bodies, urging the reform of our consular service. We welcome
them with especial warmth, for their presence proves that at last
the true significance of Civil Service reform is being appreciated in
constantly widening circles. The Good Government Club understands that
if the moral tone of our politics, national or local, is to be lifted
up, the demoralizing element of party spoil must be done away with. The
Municipal League understands that if our large municipalities are to be
no longer cesspools of corruption, if our municipal governments are to
be made honest and business-like, if our police forces are to be kept
clear of thugs and thieves, the appointments to places in the municipal
service must be withdrawn from the influence of party bosses and
ward ruffians, and must be strictly governed by the merit system. The
merchants understand that if our consular service is to be an effective
help to American commerce, and a credit to the American name, it must
not be subject to periodical partisan lootings, and our consuls must not
be appointed by way of favor to some influential politician, but upon
a methodical ascertainment of their qualifications for the consular
business; then to be promoted according to merit, and also to be
salaried as befits respectable agents and representatives of a great
nation. With this understanding, every Good Government Club, every
Municipal League, every Chamber of Commerce or Board of Trade must be
an active Civil Service Reform Association. But more than this. Every
intelligent and unprejudiced citizen, when he candidly inquires into the
developments which have brought about the present state of things, will
understand that of the evils which have so alarmingly demoralized our
political life, and so sadly lowered this Republic in the respect of the
world, many, if not most, had their origin, and find their sustenance,
in that practice which treats the public offices as the plunder of
victorious parties; that as, with the increase of our population, the
growth of our wealth, and the multiplication of our public interests,
the functions of government expand and become more complicated, those
evils will grow and eventually destroy the very vitality of our free
institutions, unless their prolific source be stopped; that this force
can be effectually stopped not by mere occasional spasms of indignant
virtue, but only by a systematic, thorough, and permanent reform. Every
patriotic citizen understanding this must be a Civil Service reformer.
You may ask how far this understanding has penetrated our population.
President Cleveland answers this question in his recent message. Listen
to what he says: "The advantages to the public service of an adherence
to the principles of Civil Service Reform are constantly more apparent,
and nothing is so encouraging to those in official life who honestly
desire good government, as the increasing appreciation by our people of
these advantages. A vast majority of the voters of the land are ready to
insist that the time and attention of those they select to perform for
them important public duties should not be distracted by doling out
minor offices, and they are growing to be unanimous in regarding party
organization as something that should be used in establishing party
principles instead of dictating the distribution of public places as
rewards for partisan activity."
With gladness I welcome this cheering assurance, coming from so high an
authority. If such is the sense of "a vast majority of the voters of the
land, growing to be unanimous," it may justly be called the will of
the people. If it is the will of the people, what reason--nay, what
excuse--can there be for further hesitation? Let the will of the people
be done! Let it be done without needless delay, and let the people's
President lead in doing it! Then no more spoils and plunder! No more
removals not required by public interest! No more appointments for
partisan reasons! Continuance in office, regardless of any four-years
rule, of meritorious public servants! Superior merit the only title to
preferment! No longer can this be airily waved aside as a demand of a
mere sect of political philosophers, for now it is recognized as the
people's demand. No longer can Civil Service reform be cried down by
the so-called practical politicians as the nebulous dream of unpractical
visionaries, for it has been grasped by the popular understanding as a
practical necessity--not to enervate our political life, but to lift
it to a higher moral plane; not to destroy political parties, but to
restore them to their legitimate functions; not to make party government
impossible, but to guard it against debasement, and to inspire it with
higher ambitions; not pretending to be in itself the consummation of all
reforms, but being the Reform without which other reformatory efforts in
government cannot be permanently successful.
Never, gentlemen, have we met under auspices more propitious. Let no
exertion be spared to make the voice of the people heard. For when it is
heard in its strength it will surely be obeyed.
End of Project Gutenberg's American Eloquence, Volume IV. (of 4), by Various