Political Science Of The State

284 POLITICAL SCIENCE.
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public affairs. We are obliged to illustrate it by that which
is of constant occurrence in the United States. For some
time after the present government began, it is believed that
inferior offices were never given or taken away on account
of party differences. But, as time went on, it became evident
that the spirit of party was destined to control the general
government and that of the states, more and more ; those
persons who had been actively serviceable to a party began
to think that they had a right to a reward from the party;
and as no other reward on a great scale was possible besides
the emoluments and honors of office bestowed on them, or at
their request on their friends, there must be, in a revolution
of parties, a general displacement and reappointment, so far
as the offices were worth having. Meanwhile, with the rapid
growth of the country, the number of offices grew immensely,
and with the feeling that office was the reward of party servi-
ces, the successful candidates for congress everywhere were
appealed to by those who had helped to put them in their
places, for the payment of their wages. These, in turn, soli-
cited the chief magistrate at Washington and the heads of
departments, for their creatures, and it began to be thought
and believed that every member of the national legislature
had a right to insist on being, within his district, an almoner
of the government. To these claims every recent adminis-
tration has been obliged more or less to yield. The attempt
to introduce a system of civil service based on competence
and character, has ignominiously failed. The country and the
government cannot, without extreme difficulty, get out .of
this rut of corrupt political bargaining ; the best nominations
must often be defeated; men 'otherwise worthy have to be
agents for the reward by office of those whom they despise;
independence and personal honor are gradually driven out
of politics. The whole business is inconceivably disgusting,
it is believed,*to many, who know it best but are forced along
against their will into appointing or recommending persons
in whom they do not confide. In the states the appointing
power is small, but here elections being in the hands of cau-