CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. (CIVIL-SBRVICE REFOBM.) 



181 



" Now, Mr. President, one word as to the 

 natural inherent justice of this case aside from 

 all political views of it, or any partisan view ; 

 what is right, what is just. According to this 

 preamble, it is right and just that men should 

 take their chances in procuring office, and have 

 a fair chance in accordance with their ability, 

 their intelligence, and their fitness for the place ; 

 all tax- payers and all citizens should stand upon 

 grounds of equality, taking chances alike, with 

 no favored class and no proscribed class. 



" What is the state of things in this repub- 

 lican Government of ours? There are now, 

 it is said, about 55,000,000 people ; there are 

 about 110,000 officers and persons holding em- 

 ployment under the Government, and those 

 places are held by Republicans almost invari- 

 ably. It is true the Senator from Massachu- 

 setts told us a while ago that the President of 

 the United States now stands pledged to sign 

 and support a measure for civil-service reform. 

 "Why does he stand so? What new-born idea 

 has put him on that platform ? I speak kindly 

 of him personally, for I have great regard for 

 him ; but his political course we have a right 

 to discuss. Wh.at administration, at any time 

 since tbe foundation of this Government, has 

 ever been more proscriptive, so far as appoint- 

 ments to office are concerned ? How many 

 Democrats has he left in, holding offices of any 

 importance? Some of his predecessors were 

 more liberal on that subject. But when he 

 came in I presume those having influence re- 

 quired of him that he should make a clean 

 sweep, and he has made it as near as any ad- 

 ministration ever can. 



" What, then, is the modest proposition here ? 

 It is to give to the Republican party, accord- 

 ing to the theory of the advocates of the bill, 

 especially the theory of the Senator from Mas- 

 sachusetts, a permanency in these offices. What 

 is the Republican party of this country? It 

 is a minority of the people of this country. 

 In 1876 Samuel J. Tilden was elected President 

 of these United States, and he got a popular 

 majority of about 250,000. In 1880 James A. 

 Garfield was legally and constitutionally elected 

 President of these United States, but he was 

 elected by a plurality only ; adding the Demo- 

 cratic vote and the Greenback vote together, 

 he was beaten on the popular vote by over 

 300,000 majority.' The Republican party, then, 

 are a minority of the people of the United 

 States, and yet they hold to-day almost all the 

 offices connected with the Government of the 

 United States. Is it right, Mr. President, as a 

 naked question of justice, equity, and fair play, 

 that this state of things should continue ? They 

 have had this advantage for twenty-two years. 

 How long has this minority a divine right to 

 govern this country ? 



" No, if we are to have a just and equitable 

 civil-service reform, let it be a reform of the 

 abuses of the party that has so long wielded 

 the power of the Government, and let that 

 reform be put upon the basis that in future 



competitive examinations, when you ascertain 

 the two highest, the Democrat shall be pre- 

 ferred until one half the office-holders are 

 Democrats. I can see an equity in that ; not 

 if you confine it, however, as this bill does, to 

 the lowest grade of officers ; but if you will 

 throw all the offices in these departments open 

 to competition when vacancies occur, and then 

 take the two highest and give the preference 

 to the Democrat until the Democrats have half 

 the offices, there is something like a just and 

 equitable civil service. You would have to 

 give the Greenback party some portion ; but I 

 am willing to meet this question anywhere 

 upon the equity and justice of the case. I do 

 not fear to go before the populace upon it, and 

 say that I do not favor this policy of civil ser- 

 vice, because of its injustice, its inequality, and 

 its want of equity. The Democrats perform 

 their part of the duties and bear their part 

 of the burdens of this Government ; they pay 

 their portion of the taxes ; they do their part 

 of the military service ; in a word, they do 

 faithfully the duties incumbent upon citi- 

 zens. 



" Why is it, then, that they should be pro- 

 scribed not only for the long period, when it 

 has already been so, but for all future time? 

 Why are they not worthy of their part in the 

 patronage and offices of the Government if 

 they bear their part in the burdens of the 

 Government? Will some Senator who is so 

 anxious for this civil-service reform please tell 

 me why it is that the Democrats have no equity, 

 no rights as a class? I know it has become 

 popular to prate about civil-service reform. 

 We have had it in Presidents' messages and in 

 reports of heads of the departments until it is 

 in everybody's mouth, and yet how delusive ! 

 In practice it amounted to nothing from the 

 very commencement, and now this bill pro- 

 poses to make it an engine of inequality, injus- 

 tice, and wrong to the larger half of the tax- 

 payers and voters and people of the United 

 States. 



"I will give my sanction to no such meas- 

 ure, and if no other man in this chamber votes 

 against it I will pride myself in recording my 

 vote against a measure that proscribes a ma- 

 jority of the people of the United States, with 

 which majority I act, and drives them from 

 public positions for almost a generation to 

 come, opens the way to the lowest grades that 

 we may come into the lowest positions only, 

 and leaves the balance to those already in, who 

 are all Republicans. I treat it on its equities, 

 I treat it on its justice, and denounce it as un-" 

 fair, as fraught with wrong, injustice, and in- 

 equality, and I ask any one who can to defend 

 it as a principle of equity. If the Democracy 

 had been twenty-two years in power, and had 

 the control of the offices and patronage of this 

 Government, I say to my colleagues on this 

 side you would hear a different voice-from the 

 other side, in my opinion ; I think they would 

 see, and have no difficulty in reaching the con- 



