ny mention of his name was enough to start a
flow of coarse denunciation. Strong hostility to his course of action
was manifested in Congress. Chairman Randall, of the committee on
appropriations, threatened to cut off the appropriation for office room
for the commission. A "rider" to the legislative appropriation bill,
striking at the civil service law, caused a vigorous debate in the House
in which leading Democrats assailed the Administration, but eventually
the "rider" was ruled out on a point of order. In the Senate, such party
leaders as Vance of North Carolina, Saulsbury of Delaware, and Voorhees
of Indiana, openly ridiculed the civil service law, and various attempts
to cripple it were made but were defeated. Senator Vance introduced a
bill to repeal the law, but it was indefinitely postponed by a vote of
33 to 6, the affirmative vote being cast mainly by Republicans; and in
general the strongest support for the law now came from the Republican
side. Early in June, 1887, an estimate was made that nine thousand civil
offices outside the scope of the civil service rules were still held by
Republicans. The Republican party press gloated over the situation and
was fond of dwelling upon the way in which old-line Democrats were being
snubbed while the Mugwumps were favored. At the same time, civil
service reformers found much to condemn in the character of Cleveland's
appointments. A special committee of the National Civil Service Reform
League, on March 30, 1887, published a report in which they asserted
that, "tried by the standard of absolute fidelity to the reform as it
is understood by this League, it is not to be denied that t this
Administration has left much to be desired." At a subsequent session of
the League, its President, George William Curtis, proclaimed that the
League did not regard the Administration as "in any strict sense of
the words a civil service reform administration." Thus while President
Cleveland was alienating his regular party support, he was not getting
in return any dependable support from the reformers. He seemed to be
sitting down between two stools, both tilting to let him fall.

Meanwhile, he went on imperturbably doing his duty as he saw it. Like
many of his predecessors, he would rise early to get some time to attend
to public business before the rush of office seekers began, but the bulk
of his day's work lay in the discharge of his compulsory duties as an
employment agent. Many di