Carl Schurz

“ If you think, sir, that the existing civil service system has defects which should be remedied, then I ask you, in all candor, do you see no other way to accomplish that object than this sure method utterly to ruin and destroy the system? Must you needs burn down the whole house to make a chimney draw? ”

“ And you will certainly not deny that distributing offices by favor is an essentially aristocratic practice. I am therefore right in speaking of the spoils system as the rule of an aristocracy of influence.
Opponents of the competitive merit system are fond of pretending that it removes the offices from the reach of the people. But are not under the spoils system the offices open only to those of the people who have the aristocracy of influence at their backs? Can it be said that the offices are open to the people if they are open only to the favored few? ”

“ If the lowly, the laboring men, the men without influence, understood this competitive system—as some day, I trust, they will understand it—they would be aware that this alone opens to them and their children the road to public employment consistently with their self-respect and dignity as men, and that, without it, they will never be able to attain office unless becoming the political slave of somebody. ”

“ Governor:—We appear here with the respectful request that you will not permit the bill now before you, known as the civil service bill, to become a law.
As citizens living under a constitutional government we are all in duty bound to uphold the fundamental law of the State. The higher the officer of the State, the more weighty becomes the obligation he assumes when taking this oath: “I do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the State of New York, according to the best of my ability.” ”

“ With proud confidence in the sense of National honor, in the virtue and the wisdom of the American people, I venture to predict that as they wiped out the blot of slavery from the National escutcheon, so they will surely at last sweep away the barbarism and corruption of spoils politics. It is true, a violent and noisy effort is now in progress to wrest from the reform the ground it has conquered. The party in power, which has been most positive in its pledges to support and advance the reform, is urged by some of its members with furious cries to dishonor itself by breaking its word ”

“ I know that the incompetent and dishonest persons that infested the service generally got their places by such pressure. I know that no man, however able and worthy, could get a place without the favor or influence of some powerful person, save in very exceptional cases. I know that when I was a Department chief myself, all sorts of incompetent or disreputable persons were pressed upon me for appointment with a force and persistency extremely difficult to withstand. ”

“ The American people need the stimulant of party spoil in the shape of offices, to create in them that interest in public affairs without which democratic institutions would perish. If the spoils of office are withdrawn from our party contests by civil service reform, then another stimulant, namely, money, will take their place. The spoils of office are, therefore, necessary to prevent general bribery and corruption by money. ”

“ Only when public places are to be reached by free and open competitive tests accessible to all, and are conducted with honest impartiality—that is, when the element of personal or political favor or influence is entirely excluded from selection for office, when the favor of the millionaire and of the party chief combined weigh nothing against a simple demonstration of merit—only then will the poor man, the man without influential backing, the man who depends entirely upon his own worth, be sure to have his fair and equal chance. ”

“ We are, therefore, very far from begging here for the life of the reform movement. That is well enough assured. We ask only that trouble which is altogether useless and unnecessarily disturbing, be avoided. We may add by way of friendly caution that the time is not far when public men will be as sorry to have figured as the aiders and abettors of the barbarous and corrupt spoils system, as, in the North at least, other public men are sorry for having in the past made a record as aiders and abettors of slavery. ”

“ Why, sir, we do not reason upon any mere assumption at all! We reason upon the universal experience that whenever appointing officers had such discretionary power, they, in nine cases out of ten, were cajoled, urged, bullied into compliance with the pressure of influence. ”

“ Surely, if we mean to keep good faith with the people and with our own consciences, we shall exert our whole ingenuity to remedy the alleged defects by means in entire harmony with the constitutional mandate. ”

“ If this were so, then indeed we should have to despair of the capacity of man to govern himself. But I pronounce it a foul and atrocious calumny. Never was a more wanton, a deadlier insult thrown into the face of a high-minded and patriotic people. And every honest American heel should lift itself to kick the vile slanderer into the sea! ”

“ During the forty years I have been more or less actively connected with public life, I have witnessed and taken part in a great many things. I have served my apprenticeship as a practical politician. I started under what is currently called the spoils system, when the distribution of offices as rewards for political or personal service was the recognized rule, and the present civil service reform was not yet thought of. ”

“ The competitive examinations prescribed by the constitution are, therefore, beyond question, in every essential point such as were provided for by the civil service law at the time when the constitution was adopted—that is to say, in point of fact, what true competitive examinations were universally understood to be wherever a civil service system like ours was in practice. ”

“ Here is a rule that seems to be too broad or too narrow, and I order it to be changed thus and so; or, I fail to find here proper methods for the ascertainment of character or of practical skill or experience, and I direct that such methods be adopted, or that the departments be consulted as to the line the examinations should follow. You, as governor, can do all this. You can do everything consistent with the fundamental principle of the constitutional mandate. There is absolutely no obstacle in your way—and we shall all be happy to aid you in making the system more effective and beneficial. ”

“ Now some scores or some hundreds of candidates who have reached that minimum trot around from one appointing officer to another to show themselves fit—in itself a wonderful arrangement, ludicrous enough to extort a smile from a mummy. ”

“ Yes, there are indeed some men among us, fortunately a small minority, who will take an interest in public affairs only for personal reward, and are patriots for revenue only. It would be much better for our public morals, as well as for the dignity and welfare of the American people, if those mercenary bands ceased to take their interest in our public affairs, and to disgust and crowd out and to rule better citizens than themselves. ”

“ And every man and woman in the Department was stimulated in his or her work by the inspiring consciousness that every one of them had his chance according to merit, and that no longer the aristocratic rule of personal favor or political influence prevailed in the Department, but the rule of justice equal to all. ”

“ Being thus independent of the appointing-power, the examinations have the essential prerequisite of impartiality and freedom from influence. This system, therefore, gives everybody an equal chance without favor and is essentially democratic. ”

“ They would be aware that every place withdrawn from honest competition and put within the discretion of the appointing-power is, as a rule, put beyond their reach, because it can be attained only by persons having the favor and influence of the powerful behind them. ”

“ It was to institute of my own motion, without being bound to do so by law, a system of competitive examinations for that Department, to determine the appointments I had to make. I thus voluntarily stripped myself of my own discretionary power, and I did it for my own protection as well as for the good of the service. For when after that act Members of Congress or other political potentates came to me to unload upon my Department their favorites or hangers-on, I said to them: “Welcome, gentlemen. Send on your men. ”

“ The fitness of the applicants shall be determined by examination, to be conducted by the person or persons holding the power of appointment or promotion, or by some person or board designated by the person holding such power of appointment, and the rating on such examination for fitness shall not exceed in any case 50 per cent. ”

“ Commissioner. “Sorry; you seem to have lots of 'merit,' but no 'fitness' to speak of.” Now comes the rating. “Merit,” 50; “fitness,” zero; total, 50. A candidate with the millionaires or party committee's or bosses influence appears. “How much is four times four?” asks Mr. Commissioner. “Sixteen,” cheerily answers the candidate. “Excellent!” says Mr. Commissioner. “You have not much 'merit,' but 'fitness' plenty and to spare.” Rating: For “merit,” 35; for “fitness,” 50; total, 85. The poor, uninfluential “merit” man walks sadly off, and the “fitness” man with strong backing gets the place. ”