Without the avalanche of testimony against this Presidential
pretension, it is necessary only to glance at the defences sometimes
set up; for such is the insensibility bred by Presidential example,
that even this intolerable outrage is not without voices speaking
for the President. Sometimes it is said, that, his salary being far
from royal, the people will not scan closely an attempt to help
relations,--which, being interpreted, means that the President may
supplement the pettiness of his salary by the appointing power. Let
John Adams, who did not hesitate to bestow office upon a few relations
of unquestioned merit, judge this pretension. I quote his words:--
“Every public man should be honestly paid for his services.… But he
should be restrained from every _perquisite_ not known to the laws,
and he should make no claims upon the gratitude of the public, nor
ever confer an office within his patronage upon a son, a brother, a
friend, upon pretence that he is not paid for his services by the
profits of his office.”[98]
It is impossible to deny the soundness of this requirement and its
completeness as an answer to one of the apologies.
Sometimes the defender is more audacious, insisting openly upon the
Presidential prerogative without question, until we seem to hear in
aggravated form the obnoxious cry, “To the victor belong the spoils.”
I did not suppose that this old cry could be revived in any form;
but since it is heard again, I choose to expose it; and here I use
the language of Madison, whose mild wisdom has illumined so much of
constitutional duty. In his judgment the pretension was odious, “that
offices and emoluments were the spoils of victory, _the personal
property_ of the successful candidate for the Presidency”; and he adds
in words not to be forgotten at this moment:--
“The principle, if avowed without the practice, or
practised without the avowal, could not fail to degrade any
Administration,--both together, completely so.”[99]
This is strong language. The rule in its early form could not fail to
degrade any Administration. But now this degrading rule is extended,
and we are told that to the President’s family belong the spoils.
Another apology, vouchsafed even on this floor, is, that, if the
President cannot appoint his relations, they alone of all citizens
are excluded from office,--which, it is said, should not be. But is
it not for the public good that they should be excluded? Such was the
wise judgment of Jefferson, and such is the testimony from another
quarter. That eminent prelate, Bishop Butler, who has given to English
literature one of its most masterly productions, known as “Butler’s
Analogy,” after his elevation to the see of Durham with its remarkable
patronage, was so self-denying with regard to his family that a nephew
said to him, “Methinks, my Lord, it is a misfortune to be related to
you.”[100] Golden words of honor for the English Bishop! But none such
have been earned by the American President.
Assuming that in case of positive merit designating a citizen for a
particular post the President might appoint a relation, it would be
only where the merit was so shining that his absence would be noticed.
At least it must be such as to make the citizen a candidate without
regard to family. But no such merit is attributed to the beneficiaries
of our President, some of whom have done little but bring scandal
upon the public service. At least one is tainted with fraud; and
another, with the commission of the Republic abroad, has been guilty of
indiscretions inconsistent with his trust. Appointed originally in open
defiance of republican principles, they have been retained in office
after their unfitness became painfully manifest. By the testimony
before a Congressional Committee, one of these, a brother-in-law, was
implicated in bribery and corruption. It is said that at last, after
considerable delay, the President has consented to his removal.
Here I leave for the present this enormous unrepublican pretension,
waiting to hear if it can again find an apologist. Is there a single
Senator who will not dismiss it to judgment?