or a principle of American politics. No party can claim
exemption from the sin of using the civil list for party ends. The
Whig, Democratic, and Republican parties, in the distribution of
"patronage," in Federal, State, and municipal governments, are alike
obnoxious to censure. The poison has infiltrated every vein and artery
of the body politic. Every branch of federal and of State service has
suffered from the vicious maxim that offices are spoils to be divided
among the victors in a party contest. Too often the condition precedent
to appointment is unquestioning submission to party decrees,
indiscriminate support of party candidates and party measures. The
right to remove incumbents is now a conceded Presidential prerogative,
acquiesced in by all parties.

The power of removal, under the influence of a false political
philosophy, has been perverted into the duty of removal so as to give
the offices to the winning party. A new President of different politics
from his predecessor is expected to make sweeping changes, amounting
even to a "total administrative cataclysm." The appointment of a
political antagonist excites surprise, and requires an explanation or
apology. Experience of the working of an office, ability, honesty,
fitness, are not conclusive. "Off with his head," is the remorseless
decree when a place is needed for a partisan. Each incoming
administration is bedeviled by hordes of applicants, as greedy as the
daughters of the horseleech. The plagues of Egypt scarcely symbolize
the number and clamorousness of the mendicants. General Harrison,
honest old man, in one month fell a victim to the tormentors, and
General Taylor's death was probably hastened by a similar infliction.

Executive patronage is dependent on the revenue and expenditures of the
Government and on the number of persons employed by the Government, or
who receive money from the public treasury. To appoint and remove at
will is a dangerous prerogative, royal in its proportions. Some of the
ablest statesmen and constitutional lawyers have denied the right of
the President to remove without cause, especially in such appointments
as required the concurrence of the Senate.[3] The practice of the
Government seems to have settled the question differently. Conceding
_pro hoe vice_ the constitutionality, the evils, as illustrated in our
history, are none the less great.

[3] Reports to the Senate in 1825, 1835, and 1844, contain able
di