ad of dictating the distribution of public places as
rewards for partisan activity."

With gladness I welcome this cheering assurance, coming from so high an
authority. If such is the sense of "a vast majority of the voters of the
land, growing to be unanimous," it may justly be called the will of
the people. If it is the will of the people, what reason--nay, what
excuse--can there be for further hesitation? Let the will of the people
be done! Let it be done without needless delay, and let the people's
President lead in doing it! Then no more spoils and plunder! No more
removals not required by public interest! No more appointments for
partisan reasons! Continuance in office, regardless of any four-years
rule, of meritorious public servants! Superior merit the only title to
preferment! No longer can this be airily waved aside as a demand of a
mere sect of political philosophers, for now it is recognized as the
people's demand. No longer can Civil Service reform be cried down by
the so-called practical politicians as the nebulous dream of unpractical
visionaries, for it has been grasped by the popular understanding as a
practical necessity--not to enervate our political life, but to lift
it to a higher moral plane; not to destroy political parties, but to
restore them to their legitimate functions; not to make party government
impossible, but to guard it against debasement, and to inspire it with
higher ambitions; not pretending to be in itself the consummation of all
reforms, but being the Reform without which other reformatory efforts in
government cannot be permanently successful.

Never, gentlemen, have we met under auspices more propitious. Let no
exertion be spared to make the voice of the people heard. For when it is
heard in its strength it will surely be obeyed.

End of Project Gutenberg's American Eloquence, Volume IV. (of 4), by Various

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