Thus hampered and beset, the Chief Magistrate of this nation wears out his term and his life in the petty services of party, and in the bestowal of the favors its ascendency commands. He gives daily audience to beggars for place, and sits in judgment upon the party claims of contestants.

The Executive Mansion is besieged, if not sacked, and its corridors and chambers are crowded every day with the everchanging but never-ending throng. Every Chief Magistrate, since the evil has grown to its present proportions, has cried out for deliverance. Physical endurance, even, is taxed beyond its power. More than one President is believed to have lost his life from this cause. The spectacle exhibited of the Chief Magistrate of this great nation, feeding, like a keeper, his flock, the hungry, clamorous, crowding, jostling multitude which daily gathers around the dispenser of patronage, is humiliating to the patriotic citizen interested alone in national progress and grandeur. . . .

The malign influence of political domination in appointments to office is wide-spread, and reaches out from the President himself to all possible means of approach to the appointing power. It poisons the very air we breathe. No Congressman in accord with the dispenser of power can wholly escape it. It is ever present. When he awakes in the morning it is at his door, and when he retires at night it haunts his chamber. It goes before him, it follows after him, and it meets him on the way. It levies contributions on all the relationships of a Congressman's life, summons kinship and friendship and interest to its aid, and imposes on him a work which is never finished and from which there is no release. Time is consumed, strength is exhausted, the mind is absorbed, and the vital forces of the legislator, mental as well as physical, are spent in the neverending struggle for offices.

In his first message to Congress, December 6, 1881, President Arthur, repeating the language of his letter of acceptance of the vice presidency, urged that "original appointments should be based upon ascertained fitness," that "the term of office should be stable," and that "the

investigation of all complaints and the punishment of all official misconduct should be prompt and thorough.' While distrusting competitive examinations as the sole test of a candidate's fitness for office, he nevertheless promised that "if Congress should deem it advisable at the present session to establish competitive tests for admission to the service," he would give the measure his earnest support." "12 On the very same day Senator George H. Pendleton of Ohio introduced a bill for the reform of the civil service, which was finally passed through the House and signed by President Arthur in January, 1883.

Be it enacted... That the President is authorized to appoint, by and with the advice of the Senate, three persons, not more than two of whom shall be adherents of the same party, as Civil Service Commissioners, and said three commissioners shall constitute the United States Civil Service Commission. . .

...

Sec. 2. That it shall be the duty of said commissioners: FIRST. To aid the President, as he may request, in preparing suitable rules for carrying this act into effect, and when said rules shall have been promulgated it shall be the duty of all officers of the United States in the departments and offices to which any such rules may relate to aid, in all proper ways, in carrying said rules . . . into effect.

SECOND. And, among other things, said rules shall provide and declare, as nearly as the conditions of good administration will warrant, as follows:

First, for open, competitive examinations for testing the fitness of applicants for the public service now classified or to be classified hereunder. . . .

Second, that all the offices, places, and employments so arranged or to be arranged in classes shall be filled by selections

1 Richardson, ed. Messages and Papers of the Presidents, Vol. VIII,

according to grade from among those graded highest as the results of such competitive examinations.

Third, appointments to the public service aforesaid in the departments at Washington shall be apportioned among the several States and Territories and the District of Columbia® upon the basis of population as ascertained at the last preceding census. . . .

Fourth, that there shall be a period of probation before any absolute appointment or employment aforesaid.

Fifth, that no person in the public service is for that reason under any obligations to contribute to any political fund, or to render any political service, and that he will not be removed or otherwise prejudiced for refusing to do so.

Sixth, that no person in said service has any right to use his official authority or influence to coerce the political action of any person or body. . . .

THIRD. Said Commission shall, subject to the rules that may be made by the President, make regulations for and have control of, such examinations, and, through its members or the examiners, it shall supervise and preserve the records of the same. . . .

...

FIFTH. Said Commission shall make an annual report to the President for transmission to Congress, showing . . . any suggestions it may approve for the more effectual accomplishment of the purposes of this act. [Secs. 3-5 provide for details of holding examinations, and for punishment by fines not exceeding $1000 or by imprisonment not exceeding one year, for falsifying the results of such examinations.]

to

Sec. 6. That within sixty days after the passage of this act, it shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury. arrange in classes the several clerks and persons employed by the collector, naval officer, surveyor, and appraisers . . . at their respective offices in each customs district where the whole number of such clerks and persons shall be all together as many as fifty. And thereafter, from time to time, on the direction of the President, the Secretary shall make the like classification or arrangement of clerks . . . in any other customs district. . . .

Within said sixty days, it shall be the duty of the Postmaster General . . . to separately arrange in classes the several clerks

etc.... at each postoffice, or under any Postmaster of the United States, where the whole number of said clerks and persons shall together amount to as many as fifty. . . .

Sec. 7. That after the expiration of six months from the passage of this act no officer or clerk shall be appointed . . . until he has passed an examination, or is shown to be specially exempted....

Sec. 8. That no person habitually using intoxicating beverages to excess shall be appointed to or retained in any office, appointment, or employment to which the provisions of this act are applicable. . . .

Sec. 10. That no recommendation of any person who shall apply for office or place under the provisions of this act which may be given by any senator or member of the House of Representatives, except as to the character or residence of the applicant, shall be received or considered by any person concerned in making any examination or appointment under this act.

Sec. 11. That no Senator, or Representative, or Territorial Delegate of the Congress . . . and no executive, judicial, military, or naval officer of the United States... shall directly or indirectly solicit or receive . . . any assessment, subscription, or contribution for any political purpose whatever, from any officer, clerk, or employee of the United States. . . .

...

Sec. 13. That no officer or employee of the United States mentioned in this act shall discharge, or promote, or degrade, or in any manner change the official rank or compensation of any other officer or employee . . . for giving or withholding or neglecting to make any contribution of money or other valuable thing on account of or to be applied to the promotion of any political object whatever.

Sec. 15. That any person who shall be guilty of violating any provision of the four foregoing sections shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall, on conviction thereof, be punished by a fine not exceeding five thousand dollars, or by imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years, or by such fine and imprisonment both, in the discretion of the court.

Approved, January sixteenth 1883.

Democratic

The Democratic convention which was to nominate 109. The Grover Cleveland on its second ballot met at Chicago, platform and July 8, 1884. On the next day it adopted as its platform candidate, the following scathing denunciation of the Republican party :

The Democratic party of the Union, through its representatives in national convention assembled, recognizes that, as the nation grows older, new issues are born of time and progress, and old issues perish; but the fundamental principles of the Democracy, approved by the united voice of the people, remain, and ever will remain, as the best and only security for the continuance of free government. The preservation of personal rights; the equality of all citizens before the law; the reserved rights of the States; and the supremacy of the federal government within the limits of the Constitution, will ever form the true basis of our liberties, and can never be surrendered without destroying that balance of rights and powers which enables a continent to be developed in peace, and social order to be maintained by means of local self-government. But it is indispensable for the practical application and enforcement of these fundamental principles that the government should not always be controlled by one political party. Frequent change of administration is as necessary as constant recurrence to the popular will. Otherwise, abuses grow, and the government, instead of being carried on for the general welfare, becomes an instrumentality for imposing heavy burdens on the many who are governed, for the benefit of the few who govern. Public servants thus become arbitrary rulers. This is now the condition of the country; hence a change is demanded.

The Republican party, so far as principle is concerned, is a reminiscence. In practice it is an organization for enriching those who control its machinery. The frauds and jobbery which have been brought to light in every department of the government are sufficient to have called for reform within the Republican party. Yet those in authority, made reckless by the long possession of power, have succumbed to its corrupting influence, and have placed in nomination a ticket [Blaine and Logan]

1884

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