corruption and irregularity will inevitably follow.

I shall

invite the attention of Congress to such measures as in my judgment will be best calculated to regulate and control the Executive power in reference to this vitally important subject.-Tyler.

I feel it my duty to bring under your consideration a practice which has grown up in the administration of the Government, and which, I am deeply convinced, ought to be corrected. I allude to the exercise of the power which usage rather than reason has vested in the Presidents of removing incumbents from office in order to substi tute others more in favor with the dominant party. My own conduct in this respect has been governed by a conscientious purpose to exercise the removing power only in cases of unfaithfulness or inability, or in those in which its exercise appeared necessary in order to discountenance and suppress that spirit of active partisanship on the part of holders of office which not only withdraws them from the steady and impartial discharge of their official duties, but exerts an undue and injurious influence over elections, and degrades the character of the Government itself, inasmuch as it exhibits the Chief Magistrate as being a party through his agents in the secret plots or open workings of political parties.

In respect to the exercise of this power nothing should be left to discretion which may safely be regulated by law, and it is of high importance to restrain as far as possible the stimulus of personal interests in public elections.— Tyler.

I shall cordially concur in any constitutional measure for regulating and restraining the power of removal.-Tyler.

The herd of office seekers are the most unprincipled persons in the country. Patronage is injurious to a President.-Polk.

The appointing power vested in the President imposes delicate and onerous duties. So far as it is possible to be informed, I shall make honesty, capacity, and fidelity indispensable prerequisites to the bestowal of office, and the absence of either of these qualities shall be deemed sufficient cause for removal.-Taylor.

The appointing power is one of the most delicate with which the Executive is invested. I regard it as a sacred trust, to be exercised with the sole view of advancing the prosperity and happiness of the people. It shall be my effort to elevate the standard of official employment by selecting for places of importance individuals fitted for the posts to which they are assigned by their known integrity, talents, and virtues.-Fillmore.

Offices can be properly regarded only in the light of aids for the accomplishment of these objects, and as occupancy confers no prerogative nor importunate desire for preferment any claim, the public interest imperatively demands that they be considered with sole reference to the duties to be performed.-Pierce.

I should not become an inquisitor of the political opinions of the subordinate officeholder.-Buchanan.

I am opposed to removals to make places for our friends.-Lincoln in a letter to Congressman Stuart in 1840.

The unrestricted power of removal from office is a very great one to be trusted even to a Magistrate chosen by the general suffrage of the whole people, and accountable directly to them for his acts. It is undoubtedly liable to abuse, and at some period of our history perhaps has been abused.—Johnson.

REPEAL OF TENURE-OF-OFFICE ACTS URGED.

[First annual message of President Grant, December 6, 1869.]

It may be well to mention here the embarrassment possible to arise from leaving on the statute books the so-called tenure-of-office acts, and to earnestly recommend their total repeal. It could not have been the intention of the framers of the Con

stitution, when providing that appointments made by the President should receive the consent of the Senate, that the latter should have the power to retain in office persons placed there by Federal appointment against the will of the President. The law is inconsistent with a faithful and efficient administration of the Government. What faith can an Executive put in officials forced upon him, and those, too, whom he has suspended for reason? How will such officials be likely to serve an Administration which they know does not trust them?

NEED OF PURIFYING THE CIVIL SERVICE.

[Second annual message of President Grant, December 5, 1870.]

Always favoring practical reforms, I respectfully call your attention to one abuse of long standing which I would like to see remedied by this Congress. It is a reform in the civil service of the country. I would have it go beyond the mere fixing of the tenure of office of clerks and employees who do not require "the advice and consent of the Senate" to make their appointments complete. I would have it govern, not the tenure, but the manner of making all appointments. There is no duty which so much embarrasses the Executive and heads of departments as that of appointments, nor is there any such arduous and thankless labor imposed on Senators and Representatives as that of finding places for constituents. The present system does not secure the best men, and often not even fit men, for public place. The elevation and purification of the civil service of the Government will be hailed with approval by the whole people of the United States.

POLITICAL ACTIVITY NOT TO DETERMINE THE TENURE OF OFFICE.

[Executive orders of President Grant, April 16, 1872.]

The utmost fidelity and diligence will be expected of all officers in every branch of the public service. Political assessments, as they are called, have been forbidden within the various departments, and, while the right of all persons in official position to take part in politics is acknowledged, and the elective franchise is recognized as a high trust to be discharged by all entitled to its exercise, whether in the employment of the Government or in private life, honesty and efficiency, not political activity, will determine the tenure of office.

2. PERIOD OF OPERATION OF THE FIRST CIVIL-SERVICE RULES.

[Fourth annual message of President Grant, December 2, 1872.]

An earnest desire has been felt to correct abuses which have grown up in the civil service of the country through the defective method of making appointments to office. Heretofore Federal offices have been regarded too much as the reward of political services. Under authority of Congress, rules have been established to regulate the tenure of office and the mode of appointments. It can not be expected that any system of rules can be entirely effective and prove a perfect remedy for the existing evils until they have been thoroughly tested by actual practice and amended according to the requirements of the service. During my term of office it shall be my earnest endeavor to so apply the rules as to secure the greatest possible reform in the civil service of the Government, but it will require the direct action of Congress to render the enforcement of the system binding upon my successors; and I hope that the experience of the past year, together with appropriate legislation by Congress, may reach a satisfactory solution of this question and secure to the public service for all time a practical method of obtaining faithful and efficient officers and employees.

BENEFICIAL OPERATION OF COMPETITIVE EXAMINATIONS.

[Special message of President Grant, April 18, 1874.]

The rules, as they have heretofore been enforced, have resulted beneficially, as is shown by the opinions of the members of the Cabinet and their subordinates in the departments, and in that opinion I concur; but rules applicable to officers who are to be appointed by and with the advice and consent of the Senate are in great measure impracticable, except in so far as they may be sustained by the action of that body. This must necessarily remain so unless the direct sanction of the Senate is given to the rules.

APPEAL FOR SUPPORT FROM CONGRESS TO CONTINUE THE MERIT

SYSTEM.

[Sixth annual message of President Grant, December 7, 1874.]

The rules a lopted to improve the civil service of the Government have been adhered to as closely as has been practicable with the opposition with which they meet. The effect, I believe, has been beneficial on the whole, and has tended to the elevation of the service. But it is impracticable to maintain them without direct and positive support of Congress. Generally the support which this reform receives is from those who give it their support only to find fault when the rules are apparently departed from. Removals from office without preferring charges against parties removed are frequently cited as departures from the rules adopted, and the retention of those against whom charges are made by irresponsible persons and without good grounds is also often condemned as a violation of them. Under these circumstances, therefore, I announce that if Congress adjourns without positive legislation on the subject of civil-service reform I will regard such action as a disapproval of the system, and will abandon it, except so far as to require examinations for certain appointees to determine their fitness. Competitive examinations will be abandoned.

MORTIFICATION IF MERIT SYSTEM IS ABANDONED.

The gentlemen who have given their services, without compensation, as members of the board to devise rules and regulations for the government of the civil service of the country have shown much zeal and earnestness in their work, and to them, as well as to myself, it will be a source of mortification if it is to be thrown away. But I repeat that it is impossible to carry this system to a successful issue without general approval and assistance and positive law to support it. Id.

3. PERIOD SUCCEEDING THE ABANDONMENT of the rules. PARAMOUNT NECESSITY FOR REFORM.

[Inaugural address of President Hayes, March 5, 1877.]

I ask the attention of the public to the paramount necessity of reform in our civil service—a reform not merely as to certain abuses and practices of so-called official patronage which have come to have the sanction of usage in the several departments of our Government, but a change in the system of appointment itself; a reform that shall be thorough, radical, and complete; a return to the principles and practices of the founders of the Government. They neither expected nor desired from public officers any partisan service. They meant that public officers should owe their whole service to the Government and to the people. They meant that the officer should be secure in his tenure as long as his personal character remained

untarnished and the performance of his duties satisfactory. They held that appointments to office were not to be made nor expected merely as rewards for partisan services, nor merely on the nomination of Members of Congress, as being entitled in any respect to the control of such appointments.

PLEDGE OF THE COUNTRY FOR REFORM.

The fact that both the great political parties of the country, in declaring their principles prior to the election, gave a prominent place to the subject of reform of our civil service, recognizing and strongly urging its necessity, in terms almost identical in their specific import with those I have here employed, must be accepted as a conclusive argument in behalf of these measures. It must be regarded as the expression of the united voice and will of the whole country upon this subject, and both political parties are virtually pledged to give it their unreserved support. Id.

DIVORCE OF THE SERVICE FROM POLITICS.

[Executive orders of President Hayes, May 26, 1877.].

EXECUTIVE MANSION, May 26, 1877.

MY DEAR SIR: I have read the partial report of the commission appointed to examine the New York custom-house. I concur with the commission in their recommendations. It is my wish that the collection of the revenues should be free from partisan control and organized on a strictly business basis, with the same guaranties for efficiency and fidelity in the selection of the chief and subordinate officers that would be required by a prudent merchant. Party leaders should have no more influence in appointments than other equally respectable citizens. No assessments for political purposes on officers or subordinates should be allowed. No useless officer or employee should be retained. No officer should be required or permitted to take part in the management of political organizations, caucuses, conventions, or election campaigns. Their right to vote and to express their views on public questions, either orally or through the press, is not denied, provided it does not interfere with the discharge of their official duties.

Respectfully,

Hon. JOHN SHERMAN,

Secretary of the Treasury.

IMPERSONAL SELECTIONS FOR APPOINTMENT.

[First annual message of President Hayes, December 3, 1877.]

R. B. HAYES.

In addition to this I recognize the public advantage of making all nominations as nearly as possible impersonal, in the sense of being free from mere caprice or favor in the selection; and in those offices in which special training is of greatly increased value I believe such a rule as to the tenure of office should obtain as may induce men of proper qualifications to apply themselves industriously to the task of becoming proficients. Bearing these things in mind, I have endeavored to reduce the number of changes in subordinate places, usually made upon the change of the general administration, and shall most heartily cooperate with Congress in the better systematizing of such methods and rules of admission to the public service and of promotion within it as may promise to be most successful in making thorough competency, efficiency, and character the decisive tests in these matters.

CONTINUANCE OF APPROPRIATION FOR EXAMINATIONS ASKED.

I ask the renewed attention of Congress to what has already been done by the Civil Service Commission appointed, in pursuance of an act of Congress, by my predecessor to prepare and revise civil-service rules. In regard to much of the departmental service, especially at Washington, it may be difficult to organize a better

system than that which has thus been provided and it is now being used to a considerable extent under my direction. The commission has still a legal existence, although for several years no appropriation has been made for defraying its expenses. Believing that this commission has rendered valuable service and will be a most useful agency in improving the administration of the civil service, I respectfully recommend that a suitable appropriation, to be immediately available, be made to enable it to continue its labors. Id.

NEED OF REFORM IN THE NEW YORK CUSTOM-HOUSE.

[Special message of President Hayes, January 31, 1879.]

To the Senate of the United States:

I transmit herewith a letter of the Secretary of the Treasury, in relation to the suspension of the late collector and naval officer of the port of New York, with accompanying documents.

In addition thereto I respectfully submit the following observations:

For a long

The custom-house in New York collects more than two-thirds of all the customs revenues of the Government. Its administration is a matter not of local interest merely, but is of great importance to the people of the whole country. period of time it has been used to manage and control political affairs. The officers suspended by me are and for several years have been engaged in the active personal management of the party politics of the city and State of New York. The duties of the offices held by them have been regarded as of subordinate importance to their partisan work. Their offices have been conducted as part of the political machinery under their control. They have made the custom-house a center of partisan political management. The custom house should be a business office. It should be conducted on business principles. General James, the postmaster of New York City, writing on this subject, says:

"The post-office is a business institution, and should be run as such. It is my deliberate judgment that I and my subordinates can do more for the party of our choice by giving the people of this city a good and efficient postal service than by controlling primaries or dictating nominations."

The New York custom-house should be placed on the same footing with the New York post-office. But under the suspended officers the custom-house would be one of the principal political agencies in the State of New York. To change this, they profess to believe, would be, in the language of Mr. Cornell in his response, "to surrender their personal and political rights."

Convinced that the people of New York and of the country generally wish the New York custom-house to be administered solely with a view to the public interest, it is my purpose to do all in my power to introduce into this great office the reforms which the country desires.

With my information of the facts in the case, and with a deep sense of the responsible obligation imposed upon me by the Constitution "to take care that the laws be faithfully executed," I regard it as my plain duty to suspend the officers in question and to make the nominations now before the Senate, in order that this important office may be honestly and efficiently administered.

R. B. HAYES.

RESTRICTION OF PATRONAGE TO THE NARROWEST LIMITS.

[Executive orders of President Hayes, February 4, 1879.]

EXECUTIVE MANSION, February 4, 1879.

MY DEAR GENERAL: I congratulate you on your confirmation. It is a great gratification to me, very honorable to you, and will prove, I believe, of signal service to the country. My desire is that the office be conducted on strictly business principles and according to the rules for the civil service which were recommended by the