89 CIVIL SERVICE REFORM. Since the adoption by the Democratic President, Andrew Jackson, of the “ Spoils System,” the country has been cursed with office seekers. He believed rotation in office was beneficial, especially if the vacancies could be filled with Democrats. “To the victors belong the spoils,” said he, and he carried his belief into execution. From the beginning of the Nation it was the custom to remove Government officials only for just cause. Washington made but nine removals in eight years; Madison five, and John Quincy Adams two. Jackson made 734 “to reward supporters and strengthen the party!” The abuse grew rapidly. The lives of Presidents and Congressmen were made a burden by the demands upon their time and the dissatisfaction resulting, if all applicants were not provided for. President Garfield said, in a speech at Williams College: “One third of the working hours of Senators and Representatives is hardly sufficient to meet the demands made upon them in reference to appointments for office.” President Harrison died within a month of his inauguration, worried to death, it is said, by office-seekers. “In the New York Custom House,” says Hon. Dorman B. Eaton, “from 1858 to 1862, of the 690 subordinates, 389 were removed, nearly all for political purposes. In five years preceding 1871 there were 1678 removals!” Republicans had learned this lesson from Democrats. After the Republican party took up the matter, and instituted reform methods by competitive examinations, from July, 1878, to February 20, 1881, nearly two and a half years, only forty-four removals were made, and all for cause, none-for political reasons. Last year Congress passed the act which forbids assessments for political purposes under heavy fine and imprisonment, and makes selection for office, not on the ground of partisan influence but for merit. Three Commissioners were appointed, and competitive examinations arranged. About 14,000 places are now classified. The Democratic party opposed this reform from the first, deprived Senator Pendleton of his office because he favored it, and their highest officials are looking eagerly to the time when they can turn the more than 100,000 office holders out. George William Curtis truly said at the Chicago Convention: We are confronted with the Democratic party, very hungry, and, as you may well believe, very thirsty; a party without a single definite principle; a party without any distinct national |x>licy which it dares to present to the country;
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