The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 26, July 1922 - April, 1923 Page: 299
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Bryan-Hayes Correspondence
as the most remarkable evidence of their power and the most
precious of their privileges as great men; and they have quar-
reled with Grant chiefly because he preferred his worthless
brothers-in-law and cousins, and old cronies, to the party workers.
Grant was deeply of the opinion that if he could get his nine
brothers-in-law and his forty forty-second cousins into the public
service he was promoting Civil Service reform. Governor Hayes
need not lay the flattering unction to his soul that, if he is elected
President, the Congressmen will be happy to throw their intoler-
able burdens at his feet. They will exert themselves to retain
their ancient privileges unvexed by Grant's brothers-in-law and
the wide ramifications of his nepotism. The proper beginning of
Civil Service reformation would not by any means be found in
tenderness about the removal of Grant's appointees. No other
President ever made as many appointments not fit to be made.
Of course these are not the persons in office to whom the language
of Hayes applies, that they should be secure while their character
is good and services satisfactory. They never had character and
have performed no satisfactory service. Grant has considered
neither the country nor the party, and reformation means rooting
out his favorites, and abolishing the abuses that he has established
as the sacred things of his Administration. That which we wish
to have clear before the country is that fixing upon it Grant's ap-
pointees as an official class is not Civil Service reform; and we
would guard the words of Governor Hayes under consideration
from all possible misconstruction on this subject. If Governor
Hayes conducts the administration upon the principles he has laid
down, he will have liberal use first for the pruning knife.
The best assurance of the seriousness of Governor Hayes in his
purpose of reforming the Civil Service, is to be found in his vol-
untary statement that he thinks the work could best be done by
one who is under no temptation to use his patronage to re-elect
himself, and his assurance that he will inflexibly refuse to look
beyond a single term. This is a declaration that ought to make,
as it will make, a very favorable impression upon the people at
large, and the character of Hayes warrants us in accepting it with-
out qualification.
On the currency question, the Republican candidate tells us,
in the first place, that he stands by his record, which, as it stands,
is intelligible. His language is sharp and accurate. He expressly
recognizes the legal-tender notes as a form of public indebtedness.
They are the representatives of a forced loan, and the understand-
ing that they are so is the beginning of practical wisdom in Amer-
ican finance. The "uncertainty inseparable from an irredeemable
paper currency" is alluded to in forcible terms, as inflicting in-
jury upon all our interests. This is an intelligent statement of
the great cause of the depression of business. It is uncertainty299
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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/m1/305/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.