PATRONAGE LIKE ARCHIMEDES'S LEVER

175

President. Hence it is that the Secretaryship of State has been the apple of discord under all administrations succeeding that of Mr. Jefferson. It was the bone of contention between Mr. Gallatin and Mr. Robert Smith. There are more here besides myself (looking at Mr. Macon) that know it. It has been the apple of discord, ay, and of concord too, sir, since. It has been the favorite post and position of every bad, ambitious man, whether apostate Federalist or apostate Republican, who wishes to get into the presidency, * * * 'honestly if they may, corruptly if they must.' It has been that which Archimedes wanted to move the world, * * * 'a place to stand upon,' ay, and to live upon too, sir, and, with the lever of patronage, to move our little world."

Senator Littleton W. Tazewell of Virginia says (p. 602) "I utterly deny the correctness of this doctrine, which seeks to create a new, substantive, and fruitful source of power, in existing or future Presidents, from the past practices of their predecessors. And I deny more strongly, if I may do so, the authority to enlarge the volume of power issuing from this newly discovered fountain by the process of induction and reasoning by analogy. Let it be once granted that the practice of one President gives a legitimate authority to his successor, and that this authority may be enlarged by analogies, and it must be obvious to all that the power granted by the people to the Executive, although made by the Constitution but a school-boy's snow-ball, in a few turns would become a monstrous avalanche, that must one day crush themselves."

Senator John Chandler of Maine says (pp. 633, 634, 635): "Hardly a session of Congress passed but what some power, some patronage was gained by the Execu tive. * In this government the departments

* *

173 POWERS SHOULD BALANCE LIKE A SEE-SAW.

were to balance each other. How was this balance to be kept up? Not by constantly increasing the power of one department of the government; but the House of Representatives should take care of the portion committed to them, the Senate theirs, and the President his. * * * Balance anything. Get a rail and play at seeGive one a little more than the other, and away he would go. So it was with these powers. Give one of them only a hair's breadth more than it have, and the balance would be destroyed. Governments were made on the suspicion that all those who had power would go wrong."

saw.

ought to

* * *

The forefathers not only had reason to be jealous of power, but they had reason to complain of the evils of the patronage system many years before the Declaration of Independence. Sir Thomas Erskine May, in his Constitutional History of England since the Accession of George III, says that many of the colonial officeholders sent from England were of little account--were deemed good enough for the Colonies, but not for England.* The most lucrative colonial salary, he says, would often be earned by deputy. He quotes a letter of Lieut.-Gen. John Huske, written in 1758, as follows (ii, 529):

As to civil officers appointed for America, most of the places in the gift of the Crown have been filled with broken members of Parliament, of bad, if any, principles-valets-de-chambre, electioneering scoundrels, and even livery servants. In one word, America has been for many years made the hospital of England.

Sergeant S. Prentiss, that brilliant orator of Mississippi, spoke, in 1838, of "that tree of Sodom-executive patronage," and "the saturnalia of officeholders," who, "like the locusts of Egypt, plagued the land." He also said (Appendix Cong. Globe, 1838, vii, 878-883):

Since the avowal of that unprincipled and barbarian motto, that to the victor belong the spoils," office, which was intended for the use and benefit of the people, has become but the plunder of party. Patronage is waved like a huge magnet over the land, and demagogues, like iron filings, attracted by a law of their nature, gather and cluster around its poles. Never yet lived the demagogue who would not take office.

*

*Such men were more mischievous in a Colony than at home. * * To allay discontent, the government finally surrendered to the local Governors all appointments under £200 a year, to be filled from among the citizens of the several Colonies.-E. F. WATERS.

CHAPTER IX.

COMPARATIVE POLITICAL ECONOMY.

Its Utility.The Civil Service Systems of England, Canada, British India, Germany, France, Sweden, Norway, and China.

A SHORT account of the civil service laws and customs of a few representative nations is a fitting conclusion to this book. Comparative political economy, past as well as present, is a useful and instructive study. It ought to be made a distinct branch of study in all governments, for it is full of information and promise. Like comparative anatomy (and pathology also, for nations suffer with diseases as it were), it reveals new sources of light. It is as broad as the earth itself, and as various as the divisions and subdivisions of men. If the combined wisdom of the world does not at least approximate perfection, what will?* The bigot and the narrow-minded man only will reject useful laws or regulations because they were originated in England, France, China, or India. The time may come when it will be said of the United States of 1888, "They had only the fragment of a government, for they either rejected or were ignorant of the wisdom of other nations." What would be thought of a nation that rejected the telegraph because it had its origin in another nation? Washington's recommendation, which was approved by Jefferson, of the establishment of a National Univer* Let us avail ourselves of the wisdom and experience of former ages. Let us aggregate the knowledge of every nation.-J. Vining. Comparison is the essence of every science.-Thos. H. Huxley. For facts about the civil service systems of the British Colonies, Saxony, Bavaria, Switzerland. Holland, Belgium. Italy. Austria. Russia. Turkey, Egypt, Persia, Japan, Mexico, Cuba, Hayti. Venezuela. Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, &c., see 11th Rept. U. S. C. S. Com,

178

HISTORY OF ENGLISH EXAMINATIONS.

sity for "the education of our youth in the science of government" was certainly a wise one.

The English civil service law is much like our own; but it contains provisions that ours does not, namely. Preliminary examinations are held for the purpose of weeding out those who are "too stupid or ignorant to have a chance on a competitive trial." Pensions are granted, provided the official has served ten yearsone sixtieth of the original salary being allowed for ten years of service, and an additional sixtieth for each succeeding year till the fortieth, when the increase stops. Pecuniary embarrassment, caused by an officeholder's imprudence, forfeits "that honorable position in the service which is necessary to give him a claim to promotion or increase of salary from length of service." There is a "movable clerical force of all work," that goes "from department to department, as convenience may require." These salutary regulations are worthy of imitation.

Mr. Dorman B. Eaton says that promotion examinations for the customs service were begun in England by Lord Liverpool in 1820; that non-competitive examinations were begun by Lord Melbourne between 1834 and 1841, but that "the decisive part of the contest between patronage and open competition was be tween 1845 and 1855, though the victors did not take possession of the whole field until 1870." Lord Mel bourne favored competitive examina ions, but they were thought to be "too great an innovation to begin at once." The order for the competitive system of examination was issued on May 21, 1855.

In Canada an act was passed in 1882 providing for non-competitive civil service examinations. It was amended in 1883, '84, '85, '86, '88, and '89. aminations are (1) preliminary, for lower grade offices;

The ex

6

THE PRACTICAL REQUIREMENTS IN CANADA. 179

(2) qualifying, for clerkships and higher grade offices; (3) promotion, for those already in the service. These examinations are held once a year, the two former in November, the last in May. The examinations are held simultaneously throughout the Dominion, and are conducted by subexaminers. The written papers are transmitted to the Board of Examiners at Ottawa, where they are examined and valued. The successful candidates in the preliminary and qualifying examinations receive certificates and have their names printed in the Official Gazette. Candidates who pass the preliminary examination, have the option of taking the qualifying one also. The examinations embrace the elementary branches of education, but candidates are permitted to take certain prescribed optional subjects. These are translating English into French and French into English, book-keeping, short-hand, type-writing, and précis' writing. The last consists in condensing the salient points of reports, &c., into about a fourth of the printed matter. For the inside service, that is, for those employed in the different departments at Ottawa (the capital), there is an additional allowance of $50 per annum for every additional optional subject, not exceeding four, in which a candidate may pass. In most cases an annual increase of salary is allowed, but it cannot exceed the prescribed limit of the respective classes. Having reached this limit, it remains stationary until the candidate is promoted to a higher class. When a vacancy occurs in a class next above the one in which an employé is serving, he may, on passing the promotion examination, be promoted to it. He thus reaps the advantage of a double increase of salary-(1) by promotion; (2) by annual increase. Examinations are held in either the English or French language, at the option of the candidate. Thirty per cent.