The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 26, July 1922 - April, 1923 Page: 298
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
cinnati platform is asserted by the Governor. The resolution thus
emphasized is as follows:
"Fifth-Under the Constitution the President and heads of
departments are to make nominations for office; the Senate is to
advise and consent to appointments, and the House of Repre-
sentatives is to accuse and prosecute faithless officers. The best
interest of the public service demands that these distinctions be
respected; that Senators and Representatives who may be judges
and accusers should not dictate appointments to office. The in-
variable rule in appointments should have reference to the hon-
esty, fidelity and capacity of the appointees, giving to the party
in power those places where harmony and vigor of administration
require its policy to be represented, but permitting all others to
be filled by persons selected with sole reference to the efficiency to
the public service, and the right of all citizens to share in the
honor of rendering faithful service to the country."
Governor Hayes does not seem to have entirely entered into the
fact that President Grant has distinguished himself in Civil Serv-
ice matters. "Party services" have had very slight consideration
under the Grant Administration. In the first place, Grant ap-
pointed his relatives; in the second place, the persons he knew;
in the third place, the friends of his relatives and acquaintances.
It was not until this supply was exhausted that Grant thought
of the party which, in his estimation, he had saved from defeat
by making the sacrifice of accepting the Presidency. This is not
exactly the fifty-year-old policy of which Governor Hayes speaks.
The worst blunders of Grant have not been in obeying, but in
disregarding the suggestions of members of Congress, who claimed
a share in the distribution of the patronage. Governor Hayes says
offices have become not merely rewards for party services, but for
services to party leaders. In Grant's case the Government has
been made to serve, as Carl Schurz says, as a milch cow for
Grant's relatives and favorites, and Grant's idea of Civil Service
Reform has seemed to be the perpetuation of his personal favorit-
ism; and it is this above all things the public want an end of.
The country has been degraded under Grant's administration by
improprieties in appointments unheard of under other adminis-
trations. Now, reform will not consist in keeping Grant's ap-
pointees in place; and the great danger of the Republican party
is, that the people will prefer Tilden to Hayes because the election
of the Democratic candidate would at least insure a thorough
change. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib,
too well. But Hayes promises ample change in "a strict regard
for the public welfare solely, in appointments."
The majority of the members of Congress do not feel that it
is a burden, intolerable or otherwise, to distribute the patronage
of their districts. On the contrary they regard this distribution298
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 26, July 1922 - April, 1923, periodical, 1923; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101084/m1/304/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.