Assassination and the Spoils System [pp. 145-170]

7THE PiEINCE TOAr RH VIE T.
Never before have members of that body resorted to resignation
and rebellion because a President would not servilely surrender
to their usurpation. Never before have bribery'or corruption so
shameless, or faction fights so deplorable, disgraced a senatorial
election as in that just ended in New York. Thus, that spoils
system which holds the primary gates of the party, putting all
who pass them under servile pledges to obey secret orders; which
opens and shuts the doors to all official places, allowing none to
enter but the obedient favorites and henchmen of chieftains and
patronage monopolists; which brings the whole public service
under its degrading yoke, removing whom it will, and compelling
every official, however faithfully he serves his country, to pay arbitrary'taxes to the mercenary power by which in his person that
country is insulted; which supplies the funds, the official workers,
and the purchased votes that enable corrupt ahd cunning politicians to defy the public will and convert the administration to
their own use —that same spoils system we can also see plainly
standing behind Senators and Representatives, disarming many
of the courage to denounce a slavery they loathe, but giving more
the votes, the bribe-money, and the applause by which they are
emboldened in the work of prostituting their functions, undermining the constitutional power of the Executive, and destroying
together the honor, the character, and the stability of the government. And why should we be surprised that a system which,
through a whole generation, has debauched the national conscience and degraded the sense of official duty, which has given
birth to Barnards, Tweeds, Belknaps, and manifold abuses,
should now on the one hand present us with Conkling, the halfcrazed chieftain of a band of desperate factionists, aiming for
selfish ends to destroy the President's power and dignity, and
on the other hand with Guiteau, the half-crazed representative
of a throng of desperate office-seekers, aiming to destroy the
President's life? When, through the whole range of the public
service, the frantic office-seeker sees that no fidelity protects a
salary from pillage, that no character protects the official from
being ruthlessly sacrificed for others, that the obligations of
justice and the principles of the Constitution are habitually
spurned in filling the public offices; while ambition, selfishness,
and lust of power are potential forces-thus trampling every
I68