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How Can Slavery Be Peacefully Abolished?

How Can Slavery Be Peacefully Abolished? image
Parent Issue
Day
17
Month
November
Year
1845
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

power oi appomting btate offieera in t Executive, and found many weighty re sons for believing that it wöüld be mui bètter for ihe public were the greater pa of them elccted by the people of the Stat orofthe respectivo localities to whi their functions are confined. We intended to say something of tl amount of Patronage vested in the N tional Executive, but we find a summai already made to our hands in the follov ing article from the Cincinnati Herald. THE POWER OF PATRONAGE " Some of the newspapers have a ready noticed an article in the Septemb number of the Democratie Review, o "Poliiical Patronage." it is a valuabl article for the exposure it makes of great evil, but tho remedy it proposes impotent. " According to the calculations oftli writer of the article. the General Goi ernment controls theappointment of aboi 14,000 postmasters, 14,000 deputies c clerks, 3,000 mail contractorsnnd agent; and 2,000 revenue and light house off cers, making in al! 33,000 public depenc ents, whose dulies are local, and whos residencias tire scattered through ever' city, townshi,) and village in the country This is exclusive of all Cabinet officers with their troops of clerks and depend ents; of the Army and Navy lists, embracing their thousands; of the Diploma tic and Consular Corps; of the Registers Receivers, Surveyors, nnd other officer connected wiih our Public Land System of the Indian Agencies; of the Jobber: and Contractors upon Government works and the Providers under Government con tracts. " Of the Patronage of the State Governments to which the writer refers, we now take no note."We may estímate then all the offices, the appointment to which is controlled by Ihe General Government, at about 60,000. Supposing thaton an avernge each incumbent represents three persons, we have a class of persons, numbering one hundred and eighty thousnnd under the influence of the General Government. But the office-seekers oul-number the office-holders. " We are informed," says the writer of the article alluded to, "that there were on the Ist of August lasf, upwards of 4,000 applicanfs for places in the Custom House at New York city." Taking this as a guide for calculation, the conclusión is arrived at thnt there are some 800,000 pniriots thronghput the Union actively engaged in eíTorís to serve their country - that is, o obtain office. - We suppose this, however, to be extrivagant, and shall set down the number of office-seekers in the proportion of four to each office, which wil] give about 240,000, representing the capital and social and poiitical substance of 720,000 persons. HereMhen we have a class of three hundred thousand persons, one-eighth of all the votes cast for Presidential election in 1840, directly and vitaUy concerned, and nearly a million of persons, indirectly but selfishly interested, in the determination of every Presidential question, and to a fearful ex tent the power of governmental patronage. "Needwe wonder at the fury of the patriotism that marks our Presidential contests? At the embittered struggles of party? At the immense corruption which such a Power generales in the Government, and the incalculable evil produced by its exereise on the moráis of the nation? " The writer of the article most forcibly remarks - "It wül be sufficientty conclusiveupon all who esleem the end of Government to be the welfare of the governed. that centralizing power by patronage in the hands of Executive officers, tends- - " I. To interfere with and obslruct the fair representation of the public will. " 1. By organizing and dispersingan f lm V nt ï"i t 1 1 t ï 1 1 i i I man i l-n i f íKia nmi r■ ■ 'J v ■ lllllUUIIIlUt IHV.11 ÜUV14 1 11JV, VjVHIlJ" try interested in perpetuating a particular goernmental policy from oluer molives than the public good. "2. By aggregating the peo)!e inlo large parties upon a few questions of common interests, by which all minor and local inlerests are swallowed up, and in the nnme of party fidelity the citizen is sacrificed to the partisnn. "II. That it leads to the selection of incompetent and unsatisfactory public office rs: ; 1. Because an Executive can have no adequate opportuniiy or menns to investígate the claims of the various applicants, and, "2. He is under a conlinual temptation to select available instruments to secure his own polilical end.--, rather than competent officers to secure those of the public. "III. That it crea tes a temptation to multiply offices for the purpose of creatingor rewarding political or personal friendo. "IV. That it tends to bring into discredit the character and reputotion of men who have fatily earned the coi.fi. dence of the people by their purity and cnpacity as men and as statesmen, and also 11 V. To ïower the standard of public service by creating an interest favorable ta the selection of unscrupulous officers. "VI. That it lends to interfere grievously with the liberty of opinión and discussion, by Rubjecting the political sentiments of a} classes to the most unrelenting party lyranny." So much for the evils of National nppomtmentï to offïcp. The next inqHjiry tht tinturnlly nrics is n reference to an adequate remcdy. Thfi writpr in the Democrntic Review (.roposes the election of the grenfer part of these officers. The Herold opposrs tiii.s on the ground that tho electivo offices are noi filled withcandidates ns wel! qualified as thoae whi 3 aro filled by nppointment. This, howe j. er, tnay wel! bo duubted. The ncomt ms tency and rrmlemennors nf persons ö pointed to office lesa excite the public - tetion, because the cliaracter of the ca didales s not so closelyujrutinizcd hv t people before they become püblic offícei he But admitting that thc oíTices ould I filled with incumbents yf no betler cli racter, still tbe olher reasons tbr eleciti rt officcri would exist wilh all ihoj wrigl We are not prepared ni present to c: , hibit in detail an exact plati "f llie be manner of elecling this army of oflicer ie but we will throw out some suggestioi for consideration. Somo ot' the ofHoe

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Subjects
Signal of Liberty
Old News