Carl Schurz

“ Hideous and absurd as such performances must appear to the intelligence and the moral sense of mankind, and humiliating as they are to the patriotic pride of the American citizen who has the good name and the welfare of his country at heart, we might regard them now as mere lingering remnants of vicious old habits which are still desperately struggling against the advent of a better order of things. ”

“ And here is what the candidate of the Republican party, now President McKinley, said when in his letter of acceptance he asked for the votes of the people: “The pledge of the Republican National Convention that our civil service laws shall be sustained, and thoroughly and honestly enforced, is in keeping with the position of the party for the last twenty-four years, and will be faithfully observed. Our opponents decry these reforms. They appear willing to abandon all the advantages gained after so many years of agitation and effort. ”

“ That under the Cleveland administration a number of removals and partisan appointments were made against which the civil service reformers felt themselves called upon to remonstrate is true. But that the persons so appointed are, if objectionable, protected in their places by the civil service rules is not true. There is absolutely nothing in the civil service law or in the rules that would prevent the present administration from removing any person in the classified service who is incompetent, dishonest, or otherwise unsuitable for official position. ”

“ Neither should we be surprised to see crowding upon the President and the heads of departments the real or pretended party “workers” to claim as their rewards post-offices or consulships or revenue places. ”

“ They encourage a return to methods of party favoritism which both parties have denounced, which experience has condemned, and which the people have repeatedly disapproved. The Republican party earnestly opposes this reactionary and entirely unjustifiable policy. ”