The Post-Office In The States Is Also Burdened By Another Terrible
Political Evil, Which In Itself Is So Heavy
That one would at first
sight declare it to be enough to prevent anything like efficiency.
The whole of its
Staff is removable every fourth year - that is to
say, on the election of every new President; and a very large
proportion of its staff is thus removed periodically to make way for
those for whom a new President is bound to provide, by reason of
their services in sending him to the White House. They have served
him, and he thus repays them by this use of his patronage in their
favor. At four hundred and thirty-four post-offices in the States -
those being the offices to which the highest salaries are attached -
the President has this power, and exercises it as a matter of
course. He has the same power with reference, I believe, to all the
appointments held in the post-office at Washington. This practice
applies by no means to the post-office only. All the government
clerks - clerks employed by the central government at Washington - are
subject to the same rule. And the rule has also been adopted in the
various States with reference to State offices.
To a stranger this practice seems so manifestly absurd that he can
hardly conceive it possible that a government service should be
conducted on such terms. He cannot, in the first place, believe
that men of sufficient standing before the world could be found to
accept office under such circumstances; and is led to surmise that
men of insufficient standing must be employed, and that there are
other allurements to the office beyond the very moderate salaries
which are allowed.
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