Lippincott'S Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science, Volume 26 December, 1880. - Various None (e book reader android txt) 📗
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Inclination, Or Possibly Even In Opposition To It, He May Well Stand
Hesitant As To His Likelihood Of Success. The Question May Confront Him
At Once: Is The Organization Of A Permanent Official Class In The
Administration Of The General Government Likely To Accord With The
Desires Of The People? And We May Add, Is It Consistent With The General
Character Of Our Form Of Government? Is It Not Attended By Conclusive
Objections?
It Is Not The Purpose Of This Article To Attempt Answering These
Questions Fully. We Do Not Propose To Throw Ourselves Across The Path
Of Those Undoubtedly Sincere, And Probably Wise, Students Of This
Subject Who Have Arrived At The Positive Conclusion That To Establish A
Permanent Tenure For The Great Body Of The National Office-Holders, And
To Appoint To Vacancies Among Them Upon The Tests Of A Competitive Or
Other Examination, Is The Panacea For All Our Public Disorders, The
Regenerative Process Which Will Lift Our Whole System Into A Higher And
Purer Atmosphere. We Do Not Say That These Gentlemen May Not Be Right,
But We Are Willing To Examine The Subject.
Upon Viewing, Then, The Tremendous Popular Activity In Local And State
Affairs--And We Must Reflect That There Is "More Politics To The Square
Foot" In Some Of The Newer States Than There Is In Pennsylvania--The
Inquiry Is Natural Whether This Stops Short Of All National Politics.
Certainly It Does Not. The Offices In The General Government, Though
Their Importance And Their Influence Are Usually Overestimated, Are A
Great Object Of Attention With The Whole Country. The Vehement
Democratic Movement Toward Them That Marked The Time Of Jackson Is Still
Apparent, Though It Proceeds With Diminished Force And Is Regulated And
Tempered By The Strong Protest Which Has Been Made Against The Scandals
Of The "Spoils System," And Against The Theory That Government By
Parties Must Be A Continual Struggle For Plunder. It Is Noticeable That
Volume 26 Title 1 (Lippincott'S Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science) Pg 47No Administration Has Ever Really Attempted The Formation Of An
Irremovable Body Of Officials. No Party Has Ever Yet Explicitly Declared
Itself In Favor Of Such A Policy. No Actual Leader Of Any Party, Bearing
The Responsibility Of Its Success Or Failure In The Elections, Has Ever
Yet Sincerely And Persistently Advocated The Measure. None Wish To
Undertake So Tremendous A Task. He Would Indeed Be A Powerful Orator Who
Could Carry A Popular Gathering With Him In Favor Of The Proposition
That Hereafter The Holding Of Office Was To Be Made More Exclusive--That
The People Were To Put Away From Themselves, By A Renunciation Of Their
Own Powers, The Expectancy Of Occupying A Great Part Of The Public
Places. Rare As May Be The Persuasive Ability Of The True Stump-Orator,
And Serene As His Confidence May Be In His Powers, There Would Be But
Few Volunteers To Enter A Campaign Upon Such A Platform As That. It
Would Be A Forlorn Hope Indeed.
The View Of The People Undoubtedly Is (1) That The Public Places Are
Common Property; (2) That Any One May Aspire To Fill Them; And (3) That
The Elevation To Them Is Properly The Direct Or Nearly Direct Result Of
Election. The Elective Principle Is Democratic. It Has Been, Since The
Beginning Of The Government, Steadily Consuming All Other Methods Of
Making Public Officers. In Most States The Appointing Power Of The
Governor, Which Years Ago Was Usually Large, Has Been Stripped To The
Uttermost. It Is Thirty Years In Pennsylvania Since Even The Judiciary
Became Elective By The People. And In Those States--Of Which Delaware
Furnishes An Example--Where Most Of The County Officers Are Still The
Appointees Of The Governor, The Tendency To Control His Action By A
Display Of The Popular Wish--Such An Array Of Petitions, Etc. As Amounts
To A Polling Of Votes--Is Unmistakable. The Governor Is Moved,
Obviously, By The People. And If To Some This General Tendency Toward
The Elective Idea Seems Dangerous, It Must Be Answered That It Is Not
Really So If The People Are In Fact Capable Of Self-Government.
Conceding This As The Foundation Of Our System, We Cannot, At This Point
And That, Expect To Interpose A Guardianship Over Their Expression.
To The Permanency Of Tenure It Is That We Have Given, And Expect Will
Generally Be Given, Most Attention. This Is The Essence Of The Proposed
"Reform." The Manner Of Selecting New Appointees Is Of No Great
Consequence If The Vacancies Are To Occur So Seldom As Must Be The Case
Where Incumbents Hold For Life. Whether The New Recruits Come In Upon
The Certificates Of A Board Of Examiners, Such As The British
Civil-Service Commission, Or Upon The Scrutiny Of The Executive And His
Advisers, As Now, Is A Consideration Of Minor Importance. It Is The Idea
Of An Official Class, An Order Of Office-Holders, Which Appears To Throw
Itself Across The Path Of The Democratic Activity Which We Have
Attempted To Describe. This Is The Point Of Conflict--If Any. We Might,
It Is True, Take Many Measures To Ensure The Colorless And Harmless
Character Of The System. Up To A Recent Time The Government Clerks In
England Were Deprived Of The Suffrage, In Order That They Might Be
Perfectly Indifferent To Politics. It Is Probable That In Time Our Own
Officials Would Lose The Ordinary Instincts Of A Democratic Citizenship,
And Would Regard With Coldness, If Not Contempt, The Activities That
Lead To A Renewal Of The Government. But However Smoothly They Might
Move In The Pursuance Of Their Clerical Routine, However Faultless They
Might Become In Their Round Of Prescribed Duties, Would They Not Still
Obstruct The Public Purpose? Would Not Even This Emasculate Order Of
Volume 26 Title 1 (Lippincott'S Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science) Pg 48Placemen, Standing Apart A Sacrificed Though Favored Class, Still
Present Themselves As Unpardonable Offenders? When It Should Be
Discovered That They Claimed The Possession In Perpetuity Of The Offices
In The National Government, And Had Organized Themselves As A Standing
Army Of Placemen, Can It Be Believed That They Would Not Be Swept Aside
By The Same Iconoclastic Onset Which Ended The Adams Administration?
We Do Not Pause Here To Represent The Apparent Inconsistency Of Desiring
To De-Citizenize A Large Number Of Intelligent Members Of The Community,
Or The Risk Of Creating A Class In The Republic Forbidden To Take Any
Active Interest In The Renewals Of Its Organization, Or The Impolicy Of
Diminishing The Force And Courage Of The Popular Will In Its Grapple
With The Problem Of Self-Government; But All These Comments May Suggest
Themselves.
Popular Expectancy, It May Fairly Be Declared, Follows All The Stations
Of Public Life With A Jealous If Not An Eager Eye. There Is Abundant
Evidence Of This In The County And Township Systems. Taking, For
Example, The Administration Of County Affairs In any Of The States, It
Will Be Found That The Officers, By A Rule That Seems Generally
Satisfactory, Hold During Short Terms, And Are Seldom Re-Elected
Immediately To The Same Place. The Rule Is Rotation--Giving A Large
Number Of Persons Their "Turn"--And Changes Are Regularly Made. A Man
Disappointed This Year For A Particular Place Waits Until The Time Comes
To Fill It Again, And In Many Counties, Other Things Being About Equal,
The Fact That He Has Waited Patiently And Now Presents The Oldest Claim
Governs The Selection. The Antipathy To One Who Seeks To Hold On To His
Place Beyond The Ordinary Term--The Dislike For A Grabber Who Desires
More Than Is Usually Assigned--Is A Perfectly Well-Known Feature In
Politics. The County System Of Pennsylvania Will Afford Abundant Proof
Of The Statements Here Made: The Terms Of The Officers, Who Are All
Elective, Do Not Average More Than Four Years, Even Including Such
Court-Officials As The Clerks And Prothonotaries, Whose Duties Are In
Some Particulars Technical And Difficult, Requiring An Acquaintance With
The Forms Of Legal Procedure. But It Is Further True That In The States
Where County Officers Are Appointed By The Governor No Protracted Tenure
Results. On The Contrary, The Pressure Upon Him Of The Public
Expectation Seldom Permits The Reappointment Of An Officer Whose
Commission Is Expiring.
With This Rule Of Change, Primary As Its Application Is, And Within The
Direct Comprehension And Control Of The People, There Does Not Appear To
Be Any General Discontent. It Is Accepted, So Far As We Can Discover, As
A Just And Proper System By Which An Equality Of Claims Upon The Common
Favor Is Maintained. It Is Reasonable To Presume, Therefore, That
Amongst A People Fairly Acquainted With Their Own Business, And
Possessing A Fair Education Both Of The Schools And Of Experience In
Life, Many Persons In every Community Are Competent To Serve As Its
Officials. At Any Rate, In The Midst Of These Usages We Discover No
Demand That The Terms Of Office Be Made Permanent, And That The
Place-Holders Be Put Beyond The Reach Of A Removal. There Is No Apparent
Realization That Such A "Reform" Is Demanded; And If It Be Difficult, As
Has Been Stated, To Awaken Popular Enthusiasm In behalf Of A Permanent
Tenure In The National Civil Service, There Seems To Be Nothing In The
Rules Of Primary Politics To Help Smooth The Way.
It May Be Asked Now Whether It Is Not Almost Certainly True That Some
Volume 26 Title 1 (Lippincott'S Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science) Pg 49Sound Principle Lies In The Methods Which An Intelligent Community,
Unrestrained By Ancient Conventional Ideas Or Repressive Systems Of Law,
Applies To Its Own Political Organization. Is Not This Instinctive
Democratic Plan An Essential Principle Of A Government Founded Upon
Equal Rights? _Is It Not A Law Of Change Which Characterizes The Civil
Service Of A Democracy, And Not A Law Of Permanence?_
We Can Hardly Doubt That The Facts Which Have Been Stated Concerning The
Disposition Of The People Toward The Offices In Their Government Are
Capable Of A Philosophical Explanation; And As They Proceed With Evident
Freedom And Naturalness From The Very Bosom Of Communities Accustomed To
Independent Thought And Action, The Conclusion Is Irresistible That This
Is The Temper And The Tendency Of A Free Government. Startling As It May
Be To Propose Change Rather Than Permanency In The Civil Service, That
May Prove To Be Best Adapted To Our Wants. Consciously Or Not, Such A
Rule Has Been Established By The People Themselves; And While It Has
Scarcely Found A Formal Presentation, Much Less Had Careful Examination
And Argument, There Can Be Little Doubt That
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