

NEW YORK. 



609 



of any degree, and whether State or Federal, for the 

 purpose of thwarting or controlling the popular wish, 

 should not be tolerated. 



Subordinates in public places should be selected and 

 retained for their efficiency, and not because they may 

 be used to accomplish partisan ends. The people have 

 a right to demand here, as in cases of private employ- 

 ment, that their money be paid to those who will ren- 

 der the best service in return ; and that the appoint- 

 ment to and tenure of such places should dependf upon 

 ability and merit. If the clerks and assistants in pub- 

 lic departments were paid the same compensation and 

 required to do the same amount of work as those em- 

 ployed in prudently conducted private establishments, 

 the anxiety to hold these public places would be much 

 diminished, and, it seems to me, the cause of civil-ser- 

 vice reform materially aided. 



The system of levying assessments for partisan pur- 

 poses on those holding office or place can not be too 

 strongly condemned. Through the thin disguise of 

 voluntary contributions this is seen to be naked ex- 

 tortion, reducing the compensation which should be 

 honestly earned, and swelling a fund used to debauch 

 the people and defeat the popular will. 



I am unalterably opposed to the interference by the 

 Legislature with the government of municipalities. I 

 believe in the intelligence of the people when left to 

 an honest freedom in their choice, and that when the 

 citizens of any section of the State have determined 

 upon the details of a local government, they should 

 be left in the undisturbed enjoyment of the same. 

 The doctrine of home-rule, as I understand it, lies at 

 the foundation of republican institutions, and can not 

 be too strongly insisted upon. 



Corporations are created by the law for certain de- 

 fined purposes, and are restricted in their operations 

 by specific limitations ; acting within their legitimate 

 sphere they should be protected ; but when by combi- 

 nation or by the exercise of unwarranted power they 

 the same authority which created 



loulcl restrain them and protect the rights of the citi- 

 zen. The law Lately passed for the purpose of adjust- 

 ing the relations between the people and the corpora- 

 tions should be executed in good faith, with an honest 

 design to effectuate its objects, and with a due regard 

 for the interests involved. 



The laboring classes constitute, the main part of our 

 population. They should be protected in their efforts 

 peaceably to assert their rights when endangered by 

 aggregated capital, and all statutes on this subject 

 should recognize the care of the State for honest toil, 

 and be framed with a view of improving the condition 

 of the working-man. 



We have so lately had a demonstration of the value 

 of our citizen soldiery in time of peril that it seems to 

 me no argument is necessary to prove that it should 

 be maintained in a state of efficiency, so that its use- 

 fulness shall not be impaired. 



Certain amendments to the Constitution of our State, 

 involving the management of pur canals, are to be 

 passed upon at the coming election. This subject af- 

 fects diverse interests, and, of course, gives rise to op- 

 posite opinions. It is in the hands of the sovereign 

 people for final settlement ; and as the question is thus 

 removed from State legislation, any statement of my 

 opinion in regard to it at this time would, I think, be 

 out of place. I am confident that the people will in- 

 telligently examine the merits of the subject, and de- 

 termine where the preponderance of interest lies. 



The expenditure of money to influence the action of 

 the people at the polls, or to secure legislation, is cal- 

 culated to excite the gravest concern. When this per- 

 nicious agency is successfully employed, a representa- 

 tive form of government becomes a sham, and laws 

 passed under its baleful influence cease to protect, but 

 are made the means by which the rights of the peo- 

 ple are sacrificed, and the public Treasury despoiled. It 

 is useless and foolish to shut our eyes to the fact that 

 this evil exists among us ; and the party which leads 

 in an honest effort to return to better and 



purer meth- 



ods will receive the confidence of our citizens and se- 

 cure their support. It is willful blindness not to see 

 that the people care but little for party obligations 

 when they are invoked to countenance and sustain 

 fraudulent and corrupt practices. And it is well for 

 our country and for the purification of politics that 

 the people, at times fully roused to danger, remind 

 their leaders that party methods should be something 

 more than a means used to answer the purposes of 

 those who profit by political occupation. 



An incident of the canvass which attracted 

 some attention was a letter of Secretary Folger 

 to a Republican meeting at Albany, in which he 

 spoke of the effect of Democratic success upon 

 the material interests of the country in the fol- 

 lowing terms : 



As the barometer tells of atmospheric changes im- 

 perceptible to the senses, so the state of the great 

 markets of the country shows the sentiment of the busi- 

 ness of the country as to political events. Take one 

 instance. The Ohio election took place on Tuesday, 

 the 10th day of this month. It resulted in a gain to 

 the Democratic party of several Congressmen for the 

 next Congress. At once there arose a jubilant claim 

 from the organs of that party that the next House of 

 Eepresentatiyes would be Democratic. How did busi- 

 ness and capital regard that claim and the consequence 

 of it, if true ? It is estimated from well-founded data, 

 that on Wednesday, the llth day of October, the day 

 following, there was a shrinkage of values in the great 

 properties of the country of over forty millions of 

 dollars. That shrinkage has been going on since. Do 

 the business interests of the country look with dread 

 to a return of the Democratic party to a control of Fed- 

 eral legislation? Is it a well-founded dread? Will 

 the election of the Democratic ticket in the State of 

 New York increase it, and give it greater reason for 

 existence? These are questions for hesitating Kepub- 

 licans to ponder. 



Both candidates for Governor were ques- 

 tioned by the Civil- Service Reform Association 

 as to their -sentiments toward the cause which 

 it represented. Mr. Folger, in his reply, said : 



In any public capacity in which I may be placed I 

 will use the legitimate influence that I have thereby to 

 further legislation desirable for the improvement of 

 the public civil service, and well devised therefor, 

 and to that end will call the attention to the matter of 

 any body which I have the right to address upon such 

 a subject. 



I have already, in an official capacity, more than 

 once, in communication with my subordinates, de- 

 clared that they need not feel forced to give for party 

 purposes, and have promised them immunity if they 

 refuse ; and have declined sanction of a tour of visita- 

 tion of request for contributions. 



Mr. Cleveland's reply contained the follow- 

 ing: 



I have no hesitation in saying that I fully approve of 

 the principles embodied in the Pendleton bill relating 

 to this subject, and that I should be glad to aid in any 

 practical legislation which would give them a place in 

 the management of the affairs of the State and of mu- 

 nicipalities, so far as they can be made applicable there- 

 to. I believe that the interests of the people demand 

 that a reform in the national and State administrative 

 service should speedily become an accomplished fact, 

 and that the public should receive honest and faithful 

 service at the hands of well-fitted and competent ser- 

 vants. When contests between parties are waged for 

 the purpose of securing places for professional poli- 

 ticians, of high or low degree, whose only recom- 

 mendation for appointment is their supposed ability 

 to do partisan service, the people are apt to be de- 

 frauded by the displacement of tried and faithful ser- 



VOL. xxn. 39 A 



