No Men, However, Are More Apt
At Such Work Than Americans, Or More Able To Exert Themselves At
Their Posts.
They are not idle.
Independently of any question of
remuneration, they are not indifferent to the well-being of the work
they have in hand. They are good public servants, unless corruption
come in their way.
While speaking on the subject of patronage, I cannot but allude to
two appointments which had been made by political interest, and with
the circumstances of which I became acquainted. In both instances a
good place had been given to a gentleman by the incoming President -
not in return for political support, but from motives of private
friendship - either his own friendship or that of some mutual friend.
In both instances I heard the selection spoken of with the warmest
praise, as though a noble act had been done in the selection of a
private friend instead of a political partisan. And yet in each
case a man was appointed who knew nothing of his work; who, from age
and circumstances, was not likely to become acquainted with his
work; who, by his appointment, kept out of the place those who did
understand the work, and had earned a right to promotion by so
understanding it. Two worthy gentlemen - for they were both worthy -
were pensioned on the government for a term of years under a false
pretense. That this should have been done is not perhaps
remarkable; but it did seem remarkable to me that everybody regarded
such appointments as a good deed - as a deed so exceptionably good as
to be worthy of great praise.
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