Bnowden.j °UU [Marcb 15, 



The primary and paramount object of all service is, to 

 promote that which is best for the people at large, without 

 distinction of party ; whereas, under a corrupted system, it 

 is customary to consider all the offices of the country as the 

 common property of the party in power, to be distributed 

 to their partisans as rewards for services rendered, or as 

 implements to be used for future party purposes. No one 

 will deny that this is the fact, and yet, it is an utter perver- 

 sion of the true and legitimate objects for which the offices 

 were created. 



The number of officers or places under the government is 

 quite insignificant in comparison with the population of the 

 country, and it is of very little moment to the great bulk 

 of the people whether John Smith, Jones, or Robinson hold 

 office or place; but it is of the highest importance that 

 whosoever does hold the same, be skilled, intelligent, polite 

 and trustworthy. 



How are these essential qualities to be obtained? Is it 

 by rotating a man in or out of office for a political purpose, 

 or in having his continuance in place dependent upon his 

 ability to carry a precinct or a ward convention in partisan 

 contests, or, on the contrary, are not the offices more likely 

 to be well and acceptably filled by having those holding 

 them understand that so long as they are honest, attentive 

 and faithful in the discharge of their duties, they will be 

 retained and promoted for meritorious conduct when an 

 opportunity presents? The continuance of a faithful and 

 intelligent officer increases his opportunities for usefulness 

 to the public. One of the evils, and not a small one, attend- 

 ing our present defective system is, that we are, by our short 

 tenure, constantly put to the inconvenience and expense of 

 educating new men. 



