w generally recognized. In the resolutions of
the great parties, in the reports of Departments, in the debates and
proceedings of Congress, in the messages of Executives, the gravity of
these evils has been pointed out and the need of their reform has been
admitted.

To command the necessary support, every measure of reform must be
based on common right and justice, and must be compatible with the
healthy existence of great parties, which are inevitable and essential
in a free state.

When the people have approved a policy at a national election,
confidence on the part of the officers they have selected and of the
advisers who, in accordance with our political institutions, should be
consulted in the policy which it is their duty to carry into effect
is indispensable. It is eminently proper that they should explain it
before the people, as well as illustrate its spirit in the performance
of their official duties.

Very different considerations apply to the greater number of those who
fill the subordinate places in the civil service. Their responsibility
is to their superiors in official position. It is their duty to obey
the legal instructions of those upon whom that authority is devolved,
and their best public service consists in the discharge of their
functions irrespective of partisan politics. Their duties are the
same whatever party is in power and whatever policy prevails. As a
consequence it follows that their tenure of office should not depend
on the prevalence of any policy or the supremacy of any party, but
should be determined by their capacity to serve the people most
usefully quite irrespective of partisan interests. The same
considerations that should govern the tenure should also prevail in
the appointment, discipline, and removal of these subordinates. The
authority of appointment and removal is not a perquisite, which may
be used to aid a friend or reward a partisan, but is a trust, to be
exercised in the public interest under all the sanctions which attend
the obligation to apply the public funds only for public purposes.

Every citizen has an equal right to the honor and profit of
entering the public service of his country. The only just ground of
discrimination is the measure of character and capacity he has to make
that service most useful to the people. Except in cases where,
upon just and recognized principles--as upon the theory of
pensions--offices and promotions are bestowed as rewards for