HENDRICKS, SHERMAN, BANCROFT -1884 -1891 227 



President, my second point is this: The State of New 

 York is, of course, of immense importance to the Repub- 

 lican party, and it has been carried in recent years by a 

 majority of a few hundred votes. There are more than 

 fourteen thousand school districts in the State, and in 

 nearly every one of these school districts there are a cer- 

 tain number of earnest men anywhere from a handful 

 to a houseful who believe that since the slavery ques- 

 tion is removed from national politics, the only burning 

 question which remains is the i spoils system ' and the 

 reform of the civil service. Now, you have only to mul- 

 tiply the fourteen thousand school districts by a very 

 small figure, and you will see the importance of this ques- 

 tion as regards the vote of the State of New York. I know 

 whereof I speak, for I have myself addressed meetings 

 in many of these districts in favor of a reform of the civil 

 service, have had correspondence with other districts in 

 all parts of the State, and am sure that there is a deep- 

 seate.d feeling on the subject in great numbers of them, 

 a feeling akin to what used to be called in the anti-slavery 

 days ' fanaticism, 'that is, a deep-seated conviction that 

 this is now the most important question before the Ameri- 

 can people, and that it must be settled in precedence 

 to all others." 



The President received what I had to say courteously, 

 and then began a reply to us all. He took at first rather 

 a bitter tone, saying that he had a right to find fault 

 with all of us; that the Civil Service League had de- 

 nounced his administration most unjustly for its relation 

 to the spoils system ; that he was moving as rapidly in the 

 matter as circumstances permitted; that he was anxious 

 to redeem the promises made by the party and by himself ; 

 that he had already done something and purposed to do 

 more ; and that the glorifications of the progress made by 

 the previous administration in this respect, at the expense 

 of his own, had been grossly unjust. 



To this we made a short rejoinder on one point, stating 

 that his complaint against us was without foundation; 



