Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 July 1877 — THE PRESIDENT’S ORDER TO OFFICE HOLDERS. [ARTICLE]

THE PRESIDENT’S ORDER TO OFFICE HOLDERS.

"It will ruin the Republican parly,” say the nervous patriotic people sometimes called jnachine politicians, as they discuss the late order of President Hayes prohibiting governmtnt officers acting as officers of political organizationsWould it Bild up the party were they permmed to pack primaries and manage conventions? If so, will somebody who knows all about it please tell why it was th at during the second term of General Grant’s presidency, when federal officers, from customs collectors down to croKS-roads post masters, were the conspicuous “leaders” in all. assemblies of lhe Republican party —when they managed the whole machinery of conventions, making such nominations as they 7 pleased, rejecting those distasteful to them from whatever cause —when they assessed, collected and disbursed money to influence elections—when they placed government patronage where they though tit would do the party the most good—why was it that the Republican party under this regime, as it was with the Democratic party under Mr. Buchanan, lost strength and influence and numbers, instead—o£ gaining,, in a ratio that increased in exact proportion with the interference of the office-holders? We have dis tinet recollection of a convention of the Republican party held at Plymouth, four or five years ago; to nominate a candidate to represent this district in congress, where the beauties of federal interference were practically illustrated. A majority of the delegates to that convention came there from their constituents opposed to the renomination of the gentleman then representing (lie district in congress. But the route agents, post masters and revenue collectors who held their conimisJions under the sulfrance of that gentleman, by the practice of most arbitrary measures were enabled to manage lhe convention and nominate their master over the preference and judgment of the rightful delegates. He was elected, because the people are patient, long Buffering and slow to wrath, prefering that an outrage be once committed and condoned than to hastily resent it when by doing so they might endanger cherished jn’inciplesofseemingly greater magnitude. But itwashis last race. The victory fraudulently won, and subsequent dishonesty, forever destroyed his influence, and the' next campaign resulted in the election of a Democrat and an honester man to occupy the seat he had disgraced.

Federal. interference, that is to say the interference of those holding federal offices, never saved Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Indiana, Louisiana, nor any Southern state, to the Republican party. In each and all of these states where the federal office-holder has beeniuost officious in managing political conventions and nominating local and state candidates the Republican party has dwindled in substance, until to-flay in some of them the. last sliadoV even of a Republican organization has become undiscernable in the depth of the darkness of defeat. It has been swept away, wiped out, annihilated; and this, too, in the palmiest days ol the office-holder’s reign, when he Lad, not only federal patronage and the sympathy of the Chief Executive of the nation, but also armed troops, to sustain him. If it be true that the Republican party is really dead—not merely in a weak and comatose condition -—it is the disease of office-holders’ interference, and not the remedy now being applied as a restorative, that was fatal. Where, then, is. the sense in clinging to a disease bo disastrous and so fatal in its effects?. The people of the United States are so thoroughly imbued with the principles of liberty, and so jealous

of their rights, that they resent with stern indignation these persistent attempts to abridge those rights by the introduction of machinery and appliances which practically tend to the establishment of an office-holding aristocracy in their midst. In republics public officers are the servants, not the masters, of the people. Their duty is to obey, not to dictate. They are elected or appointed to perform specific labors for the benefit of the people, not to compel the people'to labor tor them We are glad that President Hayes js wise enough, is statesman enough, is Republican enough to comprehend this subject. And we are glad he is honest enough and courageous enough to compel usurping servants to attend strictly to their legitimate business, and cease encroaching upon the exclusive rights of the people.