Rensselaer Union, Volume 11, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 May 1879 — The Officers of the Senate. [ARTICLE]

The Officers of the Senate.

The Democrats would have done better at the beginning of the session if they had boldly taken possession of all offices connected with the Senate, or had announced their intention to do so as fast as they could train their men to fill them, instead of making a profession of moderation which they never had the slightest intention of carrying into practice. They would then have braved public opinion and received their censure all at once. As it is, they find themselves compelled to return again and again to the subject and to undergo the criticism of their opponents on each occasion. When the Secretary, the Sergeant-at-Arms and the Chief Executive Clerk were removed, Mr. Bayard declared, in substance, that the process of decapitation would stop there, and that there was no purpose in his party to make a clean sweep of the subordinate offices. But Mr. Bayard is more successful as a figure-head than as a prophet, and his predictions, -though they sounded very well at the time, have not been verified. If, indeed, he had any expectation that they would be, it was not shared by his Democratic associates, or by those who are familiar with their practices and their necessities. A few days ago another slice was taken by the majority, and on Friday, Mr. Wal- : lace, of Pennsylvania, who, as the sharpest manager his party ever.had in his State, knows the value of patronage in keeping up the motive power of tne Democratic machine,, moved to place the appointment of all subordinates in the hands of the Secretary and the Ser-geant-at-Arms. This proposition strikes at a rule of the Senate which has been respected with entire fidelity for the past quarter of a century. That rule has a double basis. In part, it is founded on the principle that the Senate, either directly or through the action of its presiding officer, should retain control of all appointments of officers required for the transaction of its business. In fact, also, it is founded on the necessity, which is peculiarly urgent in the Senate, that officers whose fidelity and efficiency are essential to the orderly conduct of business should be retained in the places for which they had proved their fitness without regard to changes in the political sentiments of Senators. For neither of these principles do the majority care at present. They realize only that a few modest salaries are within their reach, that they are sorely pressed to seize them and distribute them among their needy followers, and that the only convenient way to accomplish this, without further scandal, is to put the matter in the hands of the Secretary and the Sergeant-at-Arms, who can arrange it without the troublesome interference of the minority.

Mr. Anthony showed without difficulty, in the debate on Friday, that when the present rule was adopted by a Senate overwhelmingly Democratic it received the unanimous approval of the leaders of the party. That was twenty-five years ago, and the geptlemen, who, like Mr. Mason, were able to assign excellent reasons»for the rule, probably had little thought that it would be necessary at any time to repeal it in order to get rid of officers appointed from the then almodt"unformed Republican party. Perhaps, were they in the Senate now, they would hesitate to apply their own reasoning, as those Senators dtf who succeed them. But it is due to their well-established reputation for ability to conclude that if they wished to overturn their own work, they would discover some better excuse for doing so than the stupid and bald plea of partisan necessity. The old Southern leaders would have blushed to declare, as Mr. Sauls'oury did on triday, that they wanted these petty offices for “ their friends;” that they wanted to “divide the patronage,” and could not afford to acknowledge the restraints either of consistency or of sound public policy. They never would have brought themselves to the mortification of voting down a resolution embodying their own views and couched in their own words. But neither the statesmanship nor the 'political capacity of the Saulsburys and Hills oFto-aayisequal to that of the men who, whatever we may, think "of the principles which they maintained, did observe a certain dignity and spUrespect, to which the Democratic leaders of the present are completely strangers.

This incident of the Senate offices has an interest quite exceeding that which arises from the amount of “ patronage” involved or from the importance of tfife functions of the officers. Very likely, after a sufficient series of experiments, the Democrats will find men of their own stripe 1 who will do the work of the Senate well enough. The point which concerns the public is that the. party which for the first time in twenty yean has gained control of both houses of Congress is utterly blind and deaf to any principle of public administration except that rude, wasteful and demoralizing one which decrees the spoils to the victor. It has not the slightest conception of the necessity which intelligent opinion has for the past ten years recognized, with ■ constantly-increasing clearness and, earnestness, that the public business should be left in the hands of competent officers, wherever the fitness of these has been thoroughly tested. The Democrats seem bent on proving that nothing but the cohesive power of public plunder can keep them together- and that they cannot afford u« deal justly and in an enlightened manner, with even me smallest group of p«WBs. lor- with those which decent regards for established rules add traditions flirbid them to touch. If this is what compelled to acknowledge now, we can readily imagine what would be the copsdqusnce if they obtained full possession of the Government. The insatiable and unscrupulous greed of patronage Which forces them to clutch at the few insignificant offices of. Jhe .Senate m woola.mate them tarn upside down every Department of the Government. The results can bo so easily imaginadtha*.it tenot necessary to dwell Ok Y» Times.