AND AMERICAN DEMOCRACY SEVENTY YEARS AGO 287 



son's name than all his good work. The abominable 

 slough of debauchery in which our civil service has 

 wallowed for half a century is not only a disgrace to 

 the American people, but it is probably the most 

 serious of all the dangers that threaten the continu- 

 ance of American freedom. Its foul but subtle miasma 

 poisons and benumbs the whole body politic. The 

 virus runs through everything, and helps to sustain all 

 manner of abominations, from grasping monopolies 

 and civic jobbery down to political rum-shops. And 

 for a crowning evil, so long as it stays with us, it is 

 next to impossible to get great political questions cor- 

 rectly stated and argued on their merits. 



Under all the administrations previous to Jackson's 

 our civil service had been conducted with ability and 

 purity, and might have been compared favourably with 

 that of any other country in the world. The earlier 

 Presidents proceeded upon the theory that public office 

 is a public trust, and cannot, without base dishonour, 

 be treated as a reward for partisan services. They 

 conducted the business of government upon sound 

 business principles, and as long as a postmaster showed 

 himself efficient in distributing the mail, they did not 

 turn him out because of his vote. From the first, 

 however, there were well-meaning people who could 

 not comprehend the wisdom of such a policy. When 

 Jefferson's election brought with it a change of party 

 at the seat of government, there were some who 

 thought it should also bring with it a wholesale change 

 of office-holders. But such was not Jefferson's view 

 of the case. The name of " Jeffersonian Democrat," 

 as applied to a certain class of hungry place-hunters in 

 our time, is an atrocious libel upon that great man. 



