CHAPTER LXII

THE POLITICAL STORY, 1876-1896

(Civil Service and the Tariff)

734. UNTIL the Roosevelt administration, the average respectable citizen knew little definitely about the corruption rampant in business and politics, and was usually inclined to dismiss all accusations as groundless. One evil, however, was too spectacular to be ignored. In 1871 public opinion forced the unwilling Congress to pass an Act to rescue the Civil Service from the Spoils system. At first, President Grant seemed to favor the idea; but in practice he let his friends among the spoilsmen thwart the law and drive from office the men who wished to administer it honestly (§ 714). And in 1874 Congress refused to renew the small appropriation for the work,trusting to public disgust at the breakdown of the reform.

President Hayes was in earnest in the matter. His few removals from office were mainly to get rid of spoilsmen-as

§ 735]

CIVIL SERVICE REFORM

613 when he dismissed Chester A. Arthur from the New York Collectorship of Customs-and he issued a notable "Civil Service order" forbidding Federal employees to take part in political campaigns (cf. Jefferson's idea, § 448). This order, however, quickly became a dead letter. Post-office officials jeered at it; and the nation had not yet learned that no reform was possible except on this basis.

735. In 1880 the campaign was a struggle for office between the ins and outs to a degree unparalleled since 1824. Neither party took a stand on any live question. The Democrats railed at various Republican shames, but gave no assurance of doing better themselves. With a large part of the youth of the nation they were still discredited as "the party of disloyalty." The Republicans "pointed with pride" to their record as "the Grand Old Party that saved the Union and freed the Slave," but they had no program for the future. Twenty years before, the Republican party had been the party of the plain people, typified by Lincoln; but during its long lease of power the desire for political favors had drawn to it. all those selfish and corrupt influences which at first had opposed it. In the West two minor parties had appeared with real convictions, Prohibitionists and Greenbackers,but their numbers were insignificant.

In the Republican Convention a desperate attempt was made to nominate ex-President Grant, but the tradition against a third term was too strong. Ballot after ballot he received from 302 to 312 votes; but 379 were necessary, and the nomination finally went to a dark horse,-James A. Garfield. For the Vice Presidency the Convention named Chester A. Arthur (§ 734) to rebuke Hayes' reform tendencies. The Massachusetts delegation presented a resolution favoring Civil Service Reform, but it was voted down overwhelmingly-a certain Flanagan, delegate from Texas, exclaiming indignantly, "What are we here for?"

During the campaign, every Federal officeholder received a letter from the Republican National Committee assessing

a certain per cent of his salary for the Republican campaign fund. Officials who neglected to pay these "voluntary contributions" were "reported " to the heads of their departments for discipline. The vast public service, of two hundred thousand men, was turned into a machine to insure victory to the party in control. The practice had never before been followed up with such systematic shamelessness.1

Garfield was elected by a large electoral majority, but with only some 10,000 votes more than his opponent in the country at large. The new President found a third of his time consumed by office-seekers. They "waylaid him when he ventured from the shelter of his home, and followed him even to the doors of the church where he worshipped." Four months after his inauguration he was murdered by a crazed applicant for office.

736. Meantime, more scandal! T. W. Brady, one of the highest officials in the postal service, had conspired with a group of contractors—including a United States Senator -to cheat the government out of half a million dollars a year. On certain "star routes," the legal compensation for carrying mail had been increased enormously by secret agreements for pretended services, and then the surplus had been divided between the contractors and the officials.

When this investigation began, Brady demanded that Garfield call it off. Not gaining this favor, he published a letter written by Garfield during the campaign, showing that he (Garfield) had urged the collection of campaign funds from officials. On the other hand, President Arthur surprised the reform element by his good sense and firmness, by the cordial support he gave to Civil Service Reform, and by the faithful ness with which he pressed the trial of the star-route thieves.

1 Such collections from officials were made an excuse by them for demanding higher salaries. As always, the people paid. The following contrast shows progress. In the recent campaign (1916) the Republican National Committee asked thousands of voters for subscriptions; but the circular closed with the injunction,-"If you are a Federal officeholder, please disregard this request."

§ 738]

CIVIL SERVICE REFORM

615

Those trials were spectacular. Important newspapers impudently whitewashed the criminals; and insolent boasts were made freely that no jury would convict such "high and influential men." Through technicalities and delays, the bigger criminals did all escape.

737. These events focused attention again on the need of Civil Service reform. Congress, however, remained deaf in the session of 1881-1882; and, in the congressional elections of 1882, another assessment letter to Federal officials was signed by three leading Republican statesmen. Popular indignation at these offenses made itself felt in the elections, and the next session of the chastened Congress promptly passed the Civil Service Act (January, 1883), providing that vacancies in certain classes of offices should be filled in future from applicants whose fitness had been tested by competitive examination, and that such appointments should be revoked afterward only "for cause." A Civil Service Commission, also, to oversee the workings of the law, was established. The law did not apply to heads of large offices, or to any office where the President's nomination requires confirmation by the Senate; and it was left to the President to classify from time to time the offices to be protected. President Arthur at once placed some 14,000 positions under the operation of the law.

738. For nearly twenty years, Mr. Blaine had been the idol of the Republican masses, and in 1884 he at last won the nomination for the Presidency-despite earnest opposition from a large "reform" element led by veterans like Carl Schurz, Andrew D. White, and George William Curtis, editor of Harper's Weekly, and by ardent young men like Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts and Theodore Roosevelt of New York. reformers took their defeat in various ways. Lodge swallowed his chagrin and supported the ticket. Roosevelt went west, to begin his ranch life in Dakota. The greater number became "Mugwumps," and supported Grover Cleveland, the Democratic candidate.

The

Cleveland had attracted attention as governor of New York

by his stubborn honesty and his fearless attitude toward the corrupt Tammany machine. His friends jubilantly shouted the slogan,"We love him for the enemies he has made"; and he was elected as a reform President, with the civil service issue in the foreground. But the great body of Democratic politicians were secretly or actively hostile to civil service reform; and the President's position was more difficult even than Jefferson's had been three generations before. In spite of the recent law, every Federal official was still a Republican. The Democratic office seekers were ravening from their quartercentury fast; and their pressure upon the head of their party for at least a share in the public service was overwhelming. With all his unquestioned sincerity and firmness, the President gave ground before this spoils spirit far enough to drive many Mugwumps, in disgust, back to the Republicans. Still, the administration marks a notable advance for a non-partisan service. It definitely established the principle of Hayes' Civil Service order against "offensive partisanship" by officials, prevented political assessments, and doubled the "classified" list.

739. When Cleveland became President, the war tariffs were still in force. By the trend of our history, too, high protection had become associated in the thought of the North with the preservation of the Union and the freeing of the slave; and the special interests, thriving on protection, knew how to take shrewd advantage of this habit of thought among the people.

With dogged persistence, Cleveland strove to lead the Democratic party to take up tariff reduction. In message after message, he called attention to the dangerous piling up of the surplus from the needless revenue; to the consequent opportunities for extravagance and corruption in expenditure; and especially to the unjust burdens upon the poorer classes of society from tariff taxation. In December, 1887, his message was given up wholly to this one topic, denouncing the existing tariff fiercely as "vicious" and "inequitable." During the following summer, by such argument, and by a despotic use of the President's power of "patronage" (§ 572), the House was