^m Vi^f^m W mmm fVM Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924030464022 Cornell University Library JK649 1B68 olin 3 1924 030 464 022 THE CIVIL SERVICE. REFORT MR. JENCKES,'M>F.^SGrBE ISLAND, 1 — FROM THE JOINT SELECT COMMITTEE ON RETRENCHMENT, MADE TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, MAY 14, 1868. WASHINGTON: GOVEElfMEN'T PEINTIIJ-G OFFICE. 186 8. INDEX. Page. EEPORT OF THE COMMITTEE 1 Appendix A.— Extract from Paiton's Life of Jackson ] 8 Appendix B.— Joint Select Committee on Retrenchment 15 Interrogatories by the committee 16 Appendix C. — Extract from replies of public oflScers to interrogatories by the com- mittee : William Hunter, Assistant Secretary, of State 18 J. F. Hartley, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury 19 N. Sargent, Commissioner of Customs ' 20 J. M. Brodhead, Second Comptroller of the^'Treasury 22 Thomas L. Smith, First Auditor 22 John Wilson, Second Auditor 22 Stephen J. W. Tabor, Fourth Auditor '. 23 C. M. Walker, Fifth Auditor 25 H. J. Anderson, Sixth Auditor 26 E. A. Rollins, Commissioner of Internal Revenue 26 H. E. Hulburd, Comptroller of the Currency 28 F. E. Spinner, Treasurer of the United States 29 N. L. Jeffries, Register of the Treasury 29 S. M. Clark, chief of prinfing' division, national currency bureau 30 A. B. MuUett, supervising architect, Treasury Department 31 Benjamin Pierre, superintendent coast survey .' 31 Suggestions present by instructions from, and under the authority of. Attorney General Stanbery , .' 32 I. M. Binckley, acting attorney genei^al '. ..: 32 A. A. Harwoo,d, superintendent light-house board.' '... 32 W. S. Otto, Assistant Secretary of the Interior ; 32 Joseph H. Barrett, Commissioner of Pensions '. 33 Horatio Bridge, chief of Bureau of Provisions and Clothing 33 A. B. Eaton, Commissary General of Subsistence 33 St. John B. L. Spinner, First Assistant Postmaster General 34 H. B. Spofford, Librarian of Congress 34 Henry Barnard, Commissioner of Education 35 Letter of A. T. Stewart, esq. , of New York 35 Letter of W. A. Wellman, Boston, Mass 36 George F. Deming, superintendent United States assay oflSce, New York 36 A. Loudon Snowden, chief coiner United States Mint, Philadelphia 39 David, Howe, collector of internal revenue, Lincolnville, Maine 39 George P. Sewall, assessor of internal revenue, Oldtown, Mainet 39 S. H. Devereux, collector of internal revenue, Castine, Maine 40 E. S. J. Nealley, collector of customs, Bath, Maine 40 Isaac W. Smith, assessor of internal revenue, Manchester, New Hampshire.. - 41 W. C. Kittredge, assessor of ipternal revenue, Fairhaven, Vermont 41 W. L. Burt, Postmaster, Boston, Mass 41 A. B. Underwood, surveyor, Boston, Mass 41 Amasa Norcross, assessor of internal revenue, Fitchburg, Mass 43 Charles G. Davis, assessor of internal Revenue, Plymouth, Mass 43 John Nesmith, collector of internal revenue, Lowell, Mass 44 W. H. McCartney, collector of internal revenue, Boston, Mass 44 Thomas Russell, collector of customs, Boston, Mass 45 E. R. Tinker, collector of internal revenue. North Adam, Mass 46 Francis Osborn, naval officer, Boston ,. 46 John Sargent, collector of internal revenue, Boston, Mass 46 Alphonse C. Crosby, assessor of internal revenue, Rockville, Conn 46 David F. Hollister, collector of internal revenue, Bridgeport, Conn 46 John B. Wright, assessor of internal revenue, Clinton, Conn 47 Henry A. Grant, collector of internal revenue, Hartford, Conn 47 R. H. Avery, collector of internal revenue, Canastota, New York 47 M. B. Field, 'collector of internal revenue. New York, N. Y 48 C. S- Franklin, acting naval officer. New York 49 John S. Walton, United States treasurer, New York 49 IV INDEX Page. Appendix C— Continued : John P. Muiphy, assessor of internal revenue, Lockport, New York 49 Homer Franklin, assessor of internal revenue. New York, N. Y 51 D. B. Owens, collector of customs, Cape Vincent, New York 51 John F. Cleveland, assessor of internal revenue. New York, N. Y 52 A. C. Churchill, collector of internal revenue, Gloversville, New York 52 John M. Mason, collector of internal revenue, Yonkers, New York 52 Alonzo Alden, postmaster, Troy, New York 52 Abram Hyatt, assessor of internal revenue. Sing Sing, New York 53 Lewis Hall, assessor of internal revenue, Jamestown, New York 53 Joseph W. Gates, assessor of internal revenue, Lyons, New York 53 P. M. Neher, assessor of internal revenue, Troy, New York 53 E. W. Puddington, collector of internal revenue,Kingston, Ulster county, N.Y. 53 Dwight Webb, esq.. New York custom-house 53 Letter of Hon. J. "W. Hunter, Brooklyn, New York 66 F. S. McNeely, postmaster, Trenton, New Jersey 67 John B. Headley, collector of internal revenue, Morristown, New Jersey 67 C. E. Wright, collector of internal revenue, Wilkesbarre, Penn 67 J. Lee Engelbert, assessor of internal revenue, Westchester, Penn 67 C. S. Phillips, assessor of internal revenue, Philadelphia, Penn 68 T. Wilkins, collector of customs, Erie, Penn 68 Josiah P. Hetrick, collector of internal revenue, Easton, Penn 68 William McSherry, assessor of internal revenue, Littlestown, Penn 68 T. C. Gummert, acting assessor of internal revenue, Brownsville, Penn 69 T. J. Jordan, assessor of internal revenue, Harrisburg, Penn 69 William P. Lloyd, collector of internal revenue, Mechanicsburg, Penn 69 F. Z. Heebner, assessor of internal revenue, AUentown, Penn 69 Collector of customs, Philadelphia, Penn 69 D. E. Nevin, assessor of internal revenue, Allegheny, Penn 69 John B. Warfel, assessor of internal revenue, Lancaster, Penn 70 E. L. Wright, assessor of internal revenue, Frankfort, Penn 70 James B. Ruple, assessor of internal revenue, Washington, Penn 70 Abram B. Longaker, collector of internal revenue, Norristown, Penn 70 Henry H. Bingham, postmaster, Philadelphia, Penn 70 John W. Douglas, collector of internal revenue, Erie, Penn 70 F. E. Volz, collector of internal revenue, Pittsburg, Penn 70 Wesley I. Eose, collector of internal revenue, Johnstown, Penn 70 Charles H. Shriner, collector of internal revenue, Mifflinburg, Penn 71 B. F. Martin, collector of internal revenue, Columbus, Ohio 71 John S Hogin, assessor of internal revenue, Xenia, Ohio 72 W. P. Eichardson, collector of internal revenue, Marietta, Ohio 72 George B. Arnold, assessor of internal revenue. Mount Vernon, Ohio 72 George J. Anderson, collector of internal revenue, Sandusky, Ohio 73 F. Van Derveer, collector of internal revenue, Hamilton, Ohio 73 CaiT B. White, assessor of internal revenue, Georgetown, Ohio 73 George M. Woodbridge, assessor of internal revenue. Marietta, Ohio 73 James Lewis, assessor of internal revenue, Buoyrus, Ohio 73 J. M. Connell, assessor of internal revenue, Lancaster, Ohio 73 O L. Mann, collector of internal revenue, Chicago, Illinois 77 Duncan Ferguson, assessor of internal revenue, Eickford, Illinois 77 E. B. Noleman, collector of internal revenue, Centralia, Illinois 77 W. C. Flagg. collector of internal revenue, Alton, Illinois 78 Nathan M. Knapp, collector of internal revenue, Winchester, Illinois 78 Jackson Grimshaw, collector of internal revenue, Quincy, Illinois 78 Quincy Whitman, assessor of internal revenue, Ottawa, Illinois 78 C. M. Hammond, collector of internal revenue, Joliet, Illinois 78 H. L. Bryant, assessor of internal revenue, Lewistown, Illinois 78 David S. Little, collector of internal revenue, Lincoln, Illinois 79 Jonathan Biggs, assessor of internal revenue, Salem, Illinois 79 W. S. Cunningham, collector of internal revenue, Danville, Illinois 79 Hageman Tripp, assessor of internal revenue. North Vernon, Indiana 80 G. N. Stevenson, collector of internal revenue, Aurora, Indiana 80 William Grose, collector of internal revenue. New Castle, Indiana 80 A. H. Brown, collector of internal revenue, Indianopolis. Indiana 80 A.J. Pope, collector of internal revenue, Sigourney, Iowa 80 D. B. Henderson, collector of internal revenue, Dubuque, Iowa 80 Cole Noel, assessor of internal revenue, Adel, Iowa 81 Jos. E. Lancaster, collector of internal revenue, Nebraska City, Nebraska 81 F. Eenner, assessor of internal revenue, Nebraska City, Nebraska 81 INDEX. V Page. Appendix C— Continued: , J. C. Geer, collector of internal revenue, Boise City, Idaho Territory 81 F. W. Swift, postmaster, Detroit, Michigan 81 N. G. Isbell, collector of customs, Detroit, Michigan 82 D. Mills, assessor of internal revenue; Dakota Territory 82 F. W. Curtenieus, collector of internal revenue, Kalamazoo, Michigan 82 George Q. Erskine, collector of internal revenue, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 82 J. H. Warren, collector of internal revenue, Albany, Wisconsin 83 Luke A. Taylor, assessor of internal revenue, Prescott, Wisconsin 83 Jacob S. Bugh, assessor of internal revenue, Wautoma, Wisconsin 83 C. Shuter, collector of internal revenue, Sparta, Wisconsin 83 Thomas Moonlight, collector of internal revenue, Leavenworth, Kansas 83 Thomas L. Sternberg, assessor of internal revenue, Lawrence, Kansas 84 John S. McFarland, assessor of internal revenue, Owensboro', Kentucky 84 John E. Beckley, collector of internal revenue, Shelby ville, Kentucky 84 F. C. James, collector of internal revenue, Mount Sterling, Kentucky 84 W. J. Laudram, collector of internal revenue, Lancaster, Kentucky 84 Eolfe S. Saunders, collector of internal revenue, Memphis, Tennessee 85 Samuel F. Cooper, collector of internal revenue. Van Buren, Arkansas 85 Bernard Zwart, collector of internal revenue, Ironton, Missouri 86 John H. Fox, assessor of internal revenue, De Soto, Missouri 88 John Van Lear, assessor of internal revenue, Hagerstown, Maryland 88 E. H. Webster, collector of customs, Baltimore, Maryland 89 W. H. Smith, collector of Internal revenue, Easton, Maryland 89 William Welling, assessor of internal revenue, EUicott's Mills, Maryland 89 Geoge C. Tyler, collector of internal revenue, Onancock, Virginia 89 John B. Ailworth, assessor of internal revenue, Drummondtown, Virginia 89 John H. Hudson, assessor of internal revenue, Richmond, Virginia 89 John M. Donn, assessor of internal revenue, Norfolk 89 John H. Oley, collector of internal revenue, Kanawha Court-house, West Vir- ginia 90 A. G. Leonard, assessor of internal revenue, Parkersburg, West Virginia 90 W. Grant, collector of internal revenue, Greensboro', North Carolina 90 William E. Bond, collector of internal revenue, Edeutou, North Carolina 91 Jesse Wheeler, assessor of internal revenue, Greensboro', North Carolina 91 H. H. Helper, assessor of internal revenue, Salisbury, North Carolina 91 C. W. Dudley, assessor of internal revenue, Bennettsvillo, South Carolina 91 F. A. Sawyer, collector of internal revenue, Charleston, S. C 92 W. H. Watson, assessor of internal revenue, Atlanta, Georgia 92 W. P. Kellogg, collector of customs. New Orleans, Louisiana 92 E. G. Cook, collector of internal revenue, Hazlehurst, Mississippi 92 List of officers of the customs who answer the principal questions relative to the proposed reform affirmatively 93 List of officers in other branches of the service who answer the main questions affirmatively 94 List of officers who answer questions 33, 34, and 35 negatively 99 List of revenue officers who omit to answer the questions relative to the pro- posed reform : 99 List of officers who think the proposed reform inapplicable to their districts - .. 100 Appendix D. — Opinions of the earlier Presidents and others : Washington on appointments to the civil service — Letter to a naturalized citizen 100 Mary Worster, widow of General Wooster 101 David Stewart 101 Bushrod Washington 101 Joseph Jones 101 William Fitzhugh 101 John Armstrong 101 Monroe in reply to his letter opposing Hamilton's nomination as min- ister to England 101 Timothy Pickering, Secretary of War 101 Edward Carrington 102 Speech to both houses of Congress, December 7, 1796 102 President Jefferson refuses all offices to relatives 102 Letter to James Madison 102 James Monroe 102 William B. Giles 102 Eldridge Gerry 103 Levy Lincoln 103 Dr. Eush 103 VI INDEX. Page. Appendix D— Continued : . Henry Clay upon scramble for office 3 03 Josiah Quincy describes office-seeking members of Congress 103 Appendix E. — Testimony of the press, reviews, &c.: Chicago Tribune ■ 104 North American Review 105 National Quarterly Review 107 The Tobacco Leaf, New York 108 Newark Daily Advertiser 109 The Iron Age, New York 110 Boston Advertiser, February 6, 1868 Ill Republican, Bellfontaine, Ohio 112 The Round Table, New York, October 26, 1867 112 November9, 1867 113 November23, 1867 114 November 30, 1867 115 December 28, ]867 116 February 8, 1863 117 February 22, 1868 119 Boston Post, May29, 1868 120 New York Evening Post 121 New York Tribune 122 New York Herald 123 New YorkTribune 123 Chicago Republican 123 Appendix F.— Civil service in China : Literary attainments sole channel to the acquirement of office 124 General diffusion of education 124 Cultivation of letters opens door to official employment 125 "Four degrees of literary merit 125 Extraordinary exertion necessary to success 126 Most celebrated compositions in the Chinese language 127 Specimen of ancient poetry 127 Number of officers 128 Salaries of offices 128 Thirteen principal departments of government 128 Five departments of provincial civil government 131 Appointment of officers theoretically founded on literary merit 131 Salt monopoly 131 Commissariat department 131 Officers mutually responsible 132 Official espionage 132 Law forbidding a man holding office in his native province 132 Officer not allowed to marry in the jurisdiction under his control, nor any near relative hold office under him 132 Triennial catalogue made out of the merits and demerits of all officers in the empire ; 132 Name and standing of all officers published quarterly - 133 Tabular view of the offices, boards, tribunals, courts, and departments 133 Clerks and private secretaries allowed to the grandees 1 35 Who have a right to promotion to civil office 135 Reward and punishment 135 Treasury department and revenue service ] 36 Salaries of government officers ]37 Appendix G.— Civil service of Prussia: Ten causes of its efficiency i. 137 Forces of the administration 137 Public service open to all classes 138 Subordinate branches — how recruited j 38 Stringent scrutiny as to competency and fitness 139 Forces of the Prussian administration 139 Siipernumeraries in the civil service 143 Referendaries : I45 Appointment to civil office 146 Guarantees against mismanagement and fraud I49 Examination of treasm'y clerks 150 Probatory service of military men in civil service 150 Direct petitions to the King for subordinate offices 150 Land office , 151 INDEX. vir Appendix G — Continued : Railway service 152 Examination ] 52 Appendix H. — Eng;lish civil service : Improvement of tte English civil service 1 53 Comparative statement of expenditures 153 Statement of persons employed and amount of their salaries 153 Custom-house service . . . ; 354 Inland revenue service 1 55 Post office 159 Paymaster General's office 160 Colonial office 160 Foreign office 160 Home office 161 Treasury 162 Appendix I. — French service : Public administration; political education ; functionaries 162 Forces of the French service 163 General principles respecting admission to the French civil service 175 Appendix K. — Extracts from House report No. 8, 39th Congress, 2d session : Extracts from testimony of Abraham Wakeman, surveyor of customs, New York 177 Extract from testimony of J. H. Stedwell, deputy collector of customs at New York 177 Extract from a letter to Secretary of Treasury from Commissioner of Customs, relative to plans to prevent and suppress smuggling 178 Education and the administrative system of probation in Germany 181 France — Letter from Mr. Bigelow to Mr. Seward 190 Great Britain — civil service 201 40th Congress, \ HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. ( Report 2d Session. i I No. 47. CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. [To accompany bill H. R. No. 948;] May 25, 1868.— Ordered to be printed. Mr. Jenckbs, from the Joint Select Committee on Retrenchment, submitted the following REPORT. The Joint Select Committee on Retrenchment, who were by a concurrent resolu- tion of the two houses instructed to " consider the expediency of so amending the law under which appointments to the public service are now made, as to provide for the selection of subordinate officers after due examination by proper boards, their continuance in office during specified terms, unless dismissed upon charges preferred and sustained before tribunals designated for that 2Jurpose, and for withdrawing the public service froin being used as an instru- ment of political or party patronage," beg leave to submit the following report : I Prior to the adoption of the Constitution of the United States, the civil service / of the government included no other officers than those appointed by the Con- gress, of the confederation. The entire civil administration was committed to the governments of the States and officials appointed by them. There were no government revenue laws, and no government revenue offices; nor were there any e^fecutive departments, with their chiefs and staff of clerks and force of employes. Upon the adoption of the Constitution, the power to create offices and to appoint officers of the United States, independent of those of the States, and superior to them, for the purposes of the general government, first came into being. This power was exercised at first cautiously and with great discrimina- tion. Upon the organization of the government under the Constitution, the only civil officers recognized were those created by the Constitution, and the necessary officers for the transaction of the business of the first Congress. The first attempt to enlarge the number of civil officers in the exercise of the powers granted by the Constitution, was by the passage of " An act establishing an executive department to be denominated the Department of Foreign Affairs," passed July 27, 1789; and this act merely provided for the appointment of the head of that department, and a chief clerk. These two officers were then believed to be sufficient to transact all the business of the foreign relations of this government. I On the 31st of July, 1789, an act was passed " to regulate the collection of duties," which provided for a number of customs officers in the several districts which were declared to be ports of entry and ports of delivery, but the number of offices created by this act was less than 200. t The next act authorizing the appointment of civil officers is that establishing the Department of War, passed on the 7th of August, 1789, and this provided for two principal officers, and the possible appointment or employment of other subordinates. The acts " establishing light-houses" and " making provision for the cop,stipg trade, and for the registering and clearing of vessels," implied the 2 CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. employment of additional officers, and in fact admitted into the service of the United States all those who had heen employed under the authority of the several States, for the purposes and in the capacities named in the acts of Congress. The act establishing the Treasury Department, passed September 2, 1789, made provision for a Secretary of the Treasury, a Comptroller, an Auditor, a Treasurer, a Register, and an assistant to the Secretary of the Treasury ; and the act immediately following it, of the 11th of September, 1789, authorized the heads of departments to " appoint such clerks therein, respectively, as they shall find necessary," but limited the salary of each of said clerks to the sum of $500 per annum. These were the small beginnings of the civil service of the United States. Under the administration of President Washington, the whole number of employes in the departments of the civil service was said by him to be " a mere handfal," and the manner in which they were appointed, the great care which he took in the selection, and the personal supervision which he gave, as it was possible for a President then to do to all his appointees, will be referred to and shown by quotations from his correspondence and messages. By the acts " establishing duties on distilled spirits, on carriages, on selling wines by retail, on properties sold at auction, on stamps, on snuff, and on other articles," and by the act of March 2, 1799, " regulating the collection of duties on imports and tonnage," the number of these offices was increased ; but we have no authentic record of the number appointed and employed in each depart- ment until "the roll of the persons having appointment under the United States" was transmitted by President Jefferson to Congress on the 16th of Feb- ruary, 1802. So far as the committee have been able to ascertain, the small volume containing this " roll" is the first authentic publication of the names of the persons in the employment of the government of the United States. From this volume it appears that the total number of officers in the customs, or, as then called, " the external revenue," was 713, (less than the present force of the New York custom-house,) and their annual compensation amounted to $439,567; the number of officers in the internal revenue was 493, and their compensation was $113,000; the number of officers connected with the land office 8, and their annual compensation $4,765 26 ; the number of postmasters, 994, with an annual compensation of $69,900 ; while in all other departments of the civil establishment, including the officers at the seat of government and in the diplo- matic service, there were 414 receiving annually a total of $445,000. These were the small beginnings of a service which now numbers more than 53,000 persons, and whose annual compensation amounts to about thirty mil- lions of dollars. No other authentic record of the persons employed in the civil service was published until after the second war with Great Britain. On the 27th of April, 1816, Congress passed a joint resolution requiring the Secretary of State to compile and print once in every two years a register of all officers and agents, civil, military, and naval, in the service of the United States ; and the first attempt to comply with the requisitions of this joint resolution was published in the same year in a small octavo volume of 175 printed pages, which includes the names of all persons employed in the civil, postal, military, and naval departments of the United States. From that date we have registers published regularly in every second year, which have swollen from the small octavo vol- ume of 190 pages published in 1817, containing 5,608 names, (including 3,502 deputy postmasters and 154 assistants or clerks in post offices,) to the Blue Book of 1867, which contains 878 large octavo pages and over 60,000 names. ' By the Constitution and the acts of Congress passed in pursuance of the authority granted by the Constitution, the appointment of all these officers is vested in the President of the United States or in the heads of departments, or in the courts of law. The number actually authorized to be appointed by the CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 3 courts of law is very few, extending no farther than to the officers of the sev- eral courts. No person charged with the duty of making executive appointments was ever more careful in the selection of officers than President Washington. He was as solicitous about the character and qualifications of a person to be appointed in any of the custom-houses of the United States as if he was to be employed in his own household. He never inquired into the political opinions of any candidate for executive appointment. Private friendship was not only no recom- mendation to his favor, but was actually an obstacle to the appointment of any person claiming his favor for that reason. He was incapable of being swayed by political or private motives. "My friend ," he says in one of his letters, "I receive with cordial welcome to my house and welcome to my heart ; but with all his good qualities he is not a man of business. His opponent, with all his politics so hostile to me, is a man of business. My private feel- ings have nothing to do with the case. I am not George Washington, but President of the United States. As George Washington, I would do this man any kindness in my power. As President of the United States, I can do nothing." Persons appointed to office by a superior acting upon this principle were not considered subject to removal except for misconduct. During the eight years' administration of President Washington he removed but nine persons from office — six unimportant collectors, one district surveyor, one vice-consul, and one foreign minister. The last was Mr Pinckney, who was recalled from Paris, not for any misconduct of his own, but because his principles and conduct were offensive to the then government of France — the Directory. "All the other dismissals were for cause." Under the administration of President Adams nine subordinate officers were removed, but none for political opinion's sake. One head of a department was removed for cause. On the advent of President JefPerson to power, which was not only a change of administration but a change of party, and after one of the most violent and embittered political contests ever known, it was feared that he might use the power with which he was clothed to remove the subordinate officers of the gov- ernment on account of their opposition to his election, and for political reasons alone. But he took an early opportunity to set himself right on this question before the country ; and in a letter to Dr. Rush, written from Washington on the 24th of March, 1801, twenty days after his inauguration, he says, speaking of the obstacles which might " check the confidence " of the people in his admin- istration : The great stumbling block will be removals, which, though made on those just principles only on which my predecessors ought to have removed the same persons, will nevertheless be ascribed to removal on party principles. Then, after describing the classes of persons over whom the power of removal might be exercised, he says : Of the thousands of officers, therefore, in the United States, a very few individuals only, probably not twenty, will be removed, and those only for doing what they ought not to have done. I know that in stopping thus short in the career of removal I shall give great offence to metoy of my friends. That torrent has been pressing me heavily, and will require all my fotce to bear up against ; but my maxim is Jiat justitia, runt cwlum. In a letter written a few days after to General Knox, President Jefferson says: I am aware of the necessity of a few removals for legal oppressions, delinquencies, and other malversations may be misconstrued as done for political opinions, would produce hesi- tation in the coalition so much to be desired ; but the extent of these will be too limited to make permanent impressions. And in his celebrated letter to the merchants of New Haven, dated July 12, 1801, he concludes by saying : The only questions concerning a candidate shall be, is he honest? is he capable? is he faithful to the Constitution ? 4 CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. In the whole course of Lis administration, acting on the principles which he declared in his letter to Dr. Rush, President Jefferson removed but 39 persons; and he himself repeatedly and solemnly declared, and it has never been gain- said, that not one of them was removed because he belonged to the party opposed to his own The " thousands " of officers then in the civil service were less than five, and they now exceed fifty. Mr. Madison made five removals ; Mr. Monroe nine ; Mr. John Quincy Ada;ms two. Of course these removals were among the class of officers which required confirmation by the Senate ; but if we should inquire concerning the inferior officers who are within the scope of the bill herewith reported, we should find that the number of removals was even less in proportion to the whole. These officers were selected with great care and for theii' fitness to discharge the duties required of them, and retained their places although their chiefs might be removed. The committee have inquired from the sources of information acces- sible, but have not learned of a single removal among this class of inferior officers, except for cause, from the commencement of the administration of President Washington to the accession of President Jackson. The present system of appointment to office, which the proposed bill is an attempt to reform, commenced in the first month of the presidency of General Jackson. Down to this time all the offices in the civil service of the govern- ment had been considered to be held by the tenure 'of good behavior. No removals were made except for cause satisfactorily proved to the officer having the power of appointment. The following extract from a letter of General Dearborn, collector of the port of Boston, to Hon. W. H. Crawford, Secretary of the Treasury, in the year 1822, is an example of the care with which subor- dinate officers of the customs were selected and appointed, and an illustration of their fidelity and industry. I have employed no more clerks than I found indispensably necessary to the prompt and correct discharge of the duties of the office. Their duties are constant and arduous, and every moment of their time is employed ; in fact there has been so much labor for them that if motives of the most rigid economy had not governed, my feelings would have prompted me to increase the number. The duties of some are complicated, and of the highest respon- sibility, requiring clear heads, industrious habits, and the most honest exactness in the dis- charge of their duties. It is difficult to obtain characters well qualified for such stations, and the duties are so complicated and various, that it requires a long time to render them ready and useful. The following description of the duties of General Dearborn's cashier is written by a person who has personally an accurate knowledge of the Boston eustom-house : The bond and debenture clerks were at that time paid the highest salaries. Among this number of competent and hard-working employes was Mr Robert Farley, jr., the cashier, whose pay was but $800 per annum. Mr. F. received his appointment in 1819, when quite young, being not more than 18, and for five years, besides receiving and paying out on an average about four millions of dollars yearly, he acted as book-keeper, the duties of the two positions involving a great amount of labor. In addition to this, an important portion of the accounts since 1815 had been neglected, the sum of $2,800 in the impost had not been accounted for, and it devolved on him to journalize, post, and balance tTiem for the four years previous to his appointment. It was a most laborious task, performed out of office hours, and taking him fave long aud weary years to accomplish it. He worked not only in the hours of daylight, but often far into the night,, and contesses, {hat although he was fond of going to church, his practice was almost invariably to attend the afternoon service only, giving the forenoon of each Sunday to making up these back accounts. From among the many descriptions received by the committee of the present condition of the custom-house service, we select the following, which we believe to be applicable to more than one of those institutions : The revenue department of this government has been most shamefully maltreated, aud by all political parties, as they have successively come into power. Its various institutions, instead of subserving the public interests as they should, have been converted into hospitals, alms-houses, political fortresses, and places of refuge, (if not refuse.) Instead of capable officers, honest, respectable and faithful, brawling politicians, broken-down hacks, and imbecile persons have filled the places, through favoritism, nepotism, or corruption of some CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 5 kind. The government has lavished its funds, and for the purpose of having its business faithfully transacted it has appropriated an ample amount for that object ; but intrigue and favoritism have almost neutralized its legitimate and intended effects in several ways. Incompetent and inefficient men are foisted in ; they constitute the corps of loafers, whose time hangs idle on their hands, and who are continually hovering about the industrious, and are serious obstacles to these. By means of personal influence, and plenty of time to wield it, they generally secure the fattest salaries, especially at a season when salaries are raised. Dishonest persons are another corps, embezzlers, peculators, corrupt or venal ; these insinuate themselves into all branches as furtively as Ulysses managed to elude the searching hands of Polyphemus. Intemperate people also use the public fund, not for their families, but to distress and tantalize them. Partisans steeped in the elixir of ignorance disgrace the public books with their scrawling chirography, their blundering arithmetic, their dislocated orthography, and their downright assassination of grammar. The services of such seem to be venerated, and, therefore, they are very apt to sit in the highest places, and to be most richly remunerated for their actual impositions upon their great almoner, their direct employer. Nor is this all ; they are generally the most strongly fortified in their positions, while the well qualified, quiet, faithful, unobtrusive incumbent is often the first to be removed — for what ? To m.ake room for a green hand, of course inexperienced, and perhaps unable to make good the vacancy at any time or by any discipline of training. This makes the ofii- cial business limp, and perhaps inflicts serious damage upon it. Nor has the industrious, competent, faithful victim been removed from an easy and lucrative but from a decidedly laborious and meagerly paid station ; and if it be too difficult for his inexperienced successor, the business will be diminished, or he will be provided with an assistant, or another will be appointed his substitute, while he is transferred to an easier, and very likely more lucrative, post. But let me not weary you with my observations, which could be protracted almost nd infinitum. Suffice it to say that the government appropriates enough money to pay for the aggregate services rendered to it, but the appropriation is so unequally and unjustly distrib- uted that they who do the most work and the best qualified get scanty salaries, while the sinecure, semi-sinecure, and ill-qualified drones realize large and altogether disproportionate compensation. Itisso — truly so, incontrovertibly so, lamentablyso. Very few do the work, and are poorly paid ; they work in and out of hours, closely and incessantly ; salaries small. Others have most of the day for yawning, gadding, spinning yarns to the annoyance of others, snapping beans or corn, and reading newspapers, or writing for them, to while away the oiBcial interval. Soon as the hour of three arrives they are off quick as a flock of ducks at the discharge of a gun. They reap largely at the month's end, while the workers, who" have been employed during their neigjhbor's ennui, and who have been left behind, still plod on their drudgery, and at the end of the month receive but an unjust, a shameful pit- tance. Talk about injustice to factory operatives ; the custom-house clerk who does the work of others that really receive the pay is as unjustly treated as tbe operative. There are two iniquities : the work is unequally distributed, and the pay is unequally distributed. / / The change which commenced with the Presidency of General Jackson is I I too well known to need description, which is summed up in a single phrase, " to ' ' the victors belong the spoils." This means that the entire force of the civil service of the United States may be changed for mere political opinion, without any regard whatever to the qualifications or the meritorious services of the per-- son in office or the person seeking office. The manner in which this change of policy was announced, in which it was received, and its effect upon the public service are well described, if not altogether impartially, in a recent biography of President Jackson, which is quoted in an appendix to this report, marked A. From that time to the present, nearly forty years, the partisan obligations of the candidate for office have been held to be of more consequence than his qualifications for the place for which he is a candidate, and every administrative department of the government has been " us ed as an instrument of political or party patronage," the discontinuance of which system was one of the objects in view in the appointment of this committee. The evil effects of this custom of discharging well-trained officers, and of appointing unskilled persons in their places, has been well described by the present head of the Treasury Department. Secretary McOuUoch says : The importance of retaining tried and expmencrd clerks can hardly be overrated, and the estimation in which such are held by husioe.'^s men is too often exemplified by their ■withdrawal from the departoient under the inducement of salaries offered them much greater than existing laws permit them to receive from the government. There have been 531 resignations since January, 1866, many of them by persons competent and of considerable experience in their respective duties. Could ample salaries be paid and perma- nence of employment assured, independent of political questions, there could be no difficulty b CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. in organizing the department on a basis greatly superior in point of efficiency than any pri- vate establishment. A single experienced clerk can often perform loitk ease duties that could be but indifferently discharged by several inexperienced persons. The assistant secretaries and heads of bureaus, charged by law with duties and responsi- bilities of the highest importance, are less favored in respect to salary than bank-tellers and book-keepers in many private business houses. The clerks, particularly those holding promi- nent positions, as chiefs of divisions, many of them directing the operations of numerous others, receive at present little more than half the salary their services would command from private parties employing them in situations of like importance. This is especially true in regard to the clerks in the Secretary's office, upon whose experience, judgment, and integrity the Secretary must necessarily in a great measure rely for aid in the performance of his mul- tifarious duties. For the cost of the present system in the internal revenue department, and of the change of an assessor, the committee refer to the report of the special commissioner of the revenue. The committee, under the resolution directing their appointment, have made inquiries into the present condition of the administrative departments of the government and considered the remedies for the evil complained of, and present the hill herewith reported as best calculated to produce the desired result. The remedy proposed by this bill is not based upon conjecture, or inference, or concurrence of opinion ; but upon the direct and positive testimony of the greater number of the chief officers in the civil service. The committee pre- pared a circular letter, embracing 37 questions, addressed to the principal officers in the civil service of the grade required to be confirmed by the Senate, who have under them subordinates of the class within the scope of this bill, and they have received answers to these questions from more than 450 of these superior officers. The circular letter propounding these questions is hereto annexed, marked Appendix B. Abstracts from these reports, showing the present condition of the greater portion of the civil service, as represented by its chief officers, will be found in Appendix C to this report. The adverse report of John M. Connell, assessor 12th district, Ohio, is given in full. The opinions of the earlier Presidents and others upon the principles which should govern appointments to office, are given in extracts from their writings. Appendix D. Abstracts of civil service in other countries : China Appendix F. Prussia Appendix Gr. England Appendix H. France , Appendix I. Also portions of a report made in the 39th Congress, Appendix K. The committee also acknowledge the encouragement granted by the press to the advancement of this measure, and they submit extracts from articles in the North American Eeview, the National Quarterly Review, the Round Table, the Nation, the Chicago Tribune, the New York Tribune, the New York World, the Post and Advertiser of Boston, the New York Evening Post, and other papers and periodicals. Appendix E. They also acknowledge the services of Mr. Julius Bing, in his co-operation with the committee in their researches into the systems of other countries, and in digesting the reports received from the officers of our own service, and for his efficient assistance in many other matters connected with the performance of their duties. The phrase, " the civil service," is popularly used to designate all those persons in the employment of the government who are not in the military or naval service, and by whose labors the executive and administrative business of the country is carried on. This service now includes more than 50,000 officers, exclusive of that class which are required by law and by the Constitu- CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 7 tiafh to be confirmed by the Senate, and is more numerous than the whole force of the army and navy combined, as authorized by existing laws. About 30,000 of these are in the postal department, and the remainder — about 20,000 — are within the scope of the proposed bill. They are employed iu the various public offices in discharge of the public business throughout the United States. This service is divided into several branches and subdivided into numerous grades. The great proportion of offices under the control of the Department of State are those which require confirmation of the appointees by the Senate, and the num- ber of clerks and others employed in the proper duties of the department in Wash- ington is insignificant. In the Depai tment of the Treasury the number of officers is greater than in all the other departments combined: These officers are employed in a great diversity of duties ; some in the collection of revenues from customs, some in the assessment and collection of th* internal revenue, some in the care and keeping of light-houses, some in the coast survey, some in the office of the Treasurer of the United States, some in the office of the Eegister of the Treasury, many in the offices of the Auditors and Comptrollers of the Treasury, some in the Loan department, some in the office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Bureau of Internal Revenue, the Bureau of Statistics, in the printing and issuing of the currency, in the revenue cutter service, in the inspection of steamboats and steam-boilers, in the special agencies, and as police and detectives, and as special agents in the Bureau of the Commissioner of , Customs. , In the Department of the Interior there are also .a variety of duties. In addition to the general staff of that department, there are in the General Land Office a large number of officers who have charge of the public bnsmess relating to the public lands ; in the Patent Office, a number of persons skilled in technology, who decide upon the granting of patents for inventions ; in the Indian Office, a large number of persons who transact the business connected with the various Indian tribes ; in the Pension Office, those who attend' to the granting of pensions to invalid soldiers and to the widows and children of those who have lost their lives in the service. In the War Department there are all those who are employed in the Quarter- masters' Department, the Subsistence Department, the Pay Department, the Surgeon General's Office, the Ordnance Office, the Freedmen's Bureau, the Adjutant General's Office, the Engineer's Office, and the bureaus who have charge of the Washington aqueduct and the public buildings. In the Navy Department there are all the clerks at Washington and those attached to the bureaus and commissions and employed at the navy yards throughout the country. In the Post Office Department are all the clerks at Washington and also in the principal post offices throughout the country. The bill proposes to establish a board of commissioners who shall ascertain and determinev the standard of qualification required for a candidate for each class and grade of these inferior offices, and provides that every such candidate shall pass a satisfactory examination in such manner as the board of commis- sioners shall require before being appointed to any of these places, and shall serve satisfactorily during the period of probation, the limit and conditions of which shall also be fixed by the board before he shall be entitled to a perma- nent place in the service. It is an attempt to require a certain degree of fitness in every candidate for the office'which he wishes to hold, and to permit no one that does not possess the requisite qualifications to enter into the public service. Ample powers are given to the commissioners to establish rules and regulations which shall govern the examinations and probations, and the admission of all candidates to the public service, and to eject from that service all who may be found deficient in these qualifications, or who may be inefficient or incompetent from any other cause. a CIVIL SEEVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. APPENDIX A. EXTRACT FROM PAETON'S LIFE OF JACKSON, VOL. III., PAGES 209-225. Up to the hour of the delivery of General Jackson's inaugural address, it was supposed that the new President woiild act upon the principles of his prede- cessors. In his Monroe letters he had taken strong ground against partisan appointments, and when he resigned- his seat in the Senate he had advocated two amendments to the Constitution designed to limit and purify the exer- cise of the appointing power. One of these proposed amendments forbade the re-election of a President, and the other the appointment of members of Con- gress to any oflSce not judicial. The sun had not gone down upon the day of his inauguration before it was known in all official circles in Washington that the " reforms " alluded to in the inaugural address meant a removal from office of all who had conspicuously opposed, and an appointment to office of those who had conspicuously aided, the election of the new President. The work was promptly begun. Figures are not important here, and the figures relating to this matter have been disputed. Some have declared that during the first year of the presidency of General Jack- son 2,000 persons in the civil employment of the government were removed from office, and 2,000 partisans of the President appointed in their stead. This statement has been denied. It cannot be denied that in the first month of this administration more removals were made than had occurred from the foundation of the government to that time. It cannot be denied that the principle was now acted upon that partisan services should be rewarded by public office, though it involved the removal from office of competent and faith- ful incumbents. Colonel Benton will cot be suspected of overstating the facts respecting the removals, but he admits that their number, during the year 1829, was 690. He expresses himself on this subject with less than his usual direct- ness. His estimate of 690 does not include the little army of clerks and others who were at the disposal of some of the 690. The estimate of 2,000 includes all who lost their places in consequence of General Jackson's accession to power; and, though the exact number cannot be ascertained, I presume it was not less than 2,000. Colonel Benton says that of the 8,000 postmasters, only 491 were removed ; but he does not add, as he might have added, that the 491 vacated places comprised nearly all in the department that were worth having. Nor does he mention that the removal of the postmasters of half a dozen great cities was equivalent to the removal of many hundreds of clerks, book-keepers, and carriers. General Harrison, who had courteously censured General Jackson's course in the Seminole war, who had warmly defended his friend Henry Clay against the charge of bargain and corruption, was recalled from Colombia just four days after General Jackson had acquired the power to recall him. General Harrison had only resided in Colombia a few weeks when he received the news of his recall. A Kentuckian, who was particularly inimical to Mr. Clay, was sent out to take his place. The appointment of a soldier so distinguished as General Harrison to rep- resent the United States in the infant republic of Colombia was regarded by the Colombians as a great honor done them, and an emphatic recognition of their disputed claim to a place among the nations. A purer patriot, a worthier gentleman, than General William Henry Harrison has not adorned the public service of his country. His singular merits as a scholar, as a man of honor, as a soldier, and as a statesman, were only obscured by the calumny and eulogium incident to a presidential campaign My studies of the Indian affairs of the country have given me the highest idea of his valor, skill, and humanity. Samuel Swartwout was among the expectants at Washington — an easy, good- CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 9 natured man, most inexact, and even reckless, in the management of business; the last man in the whole world to be intrusted with millions. He had hopes of the collectorship of New York. On the 14th of March he wrote to his friend Jesse Hoyt, to let him know how he was getting on, and to give Hoyt the benefit of his observations, Hoyt himself being a seeker. _ I hold to your doctrine fully, (wrote Swartwout, ) that no d d rascal who made use of ' his office oi: its profits for the purpose of keeping Mr. Adams in and General Jackson out of power is entitled to the least lenity or mercy, save that of hanging. So we think both alike on that head. Whether or not I shall get anything, in the general scramble for plunder, remains to be proven ; but I rather guess I shall. What it will be is not yet so certain ; perhaps keeper of the Bergen light-house. I rather think Massa Pomp stands a smart chance of going somewhere, perhaps to the place you have named, or to the devil. Your man, if you want a place, is Colonel Hamilton, he being now the second officer in the gov- ernment of the Union, and in all probability our next President. Make your suit to him, then, and you will get what you want. I know Mr. Ingham slightly, and would recom- mend you to push like a devil if you expect anything from that quarter. I can do you no good in any quarter of the world, having mighty little influence beyond Hoboken. The great goers are the new, men, the old troopers being all spavined and ring-boned from' pre- vious hard travel. I've got the hots, the fetlock, hip-joint, gravel, halt, and founders, and I assure you if I can only keep my own legs I shall do well ; but I'm darned if I can carry any weight with me. When I left home I thought my nag sound and strong, but the beast is rather broken down here. I'll tell you more about it when I see you in New York. In seriousness, my dear sir, your support must come from Mr. Van Buren and Mr. Colonel Hamilton. I could not help you any more than your clerk. The President, distracted with the number of applications for the New York collectorship, and extremely fond of the man who had " pushed like a devil " a quarter of a century before at Richmond, gave Swartwout the place. Upon his return to New York his proverbial good-nature was put to a severe test, for the applicants for posts in the custom-house met him at every turn, crowded his office, invaded his house, and stuflfed his letter-box. There was a general dismission of Adams men from the New York custom- house, and the new appointments were made solely on the ground that the applicants had aided the election of General Jackson. Henry Lee was appointed to a remote foreign consulship, a place which he deemed beneath his talents, and an inadequate reward for his services. He would have probably obtained a better place but for the fear that the Senate would reject the nomination. The Senate did reject his nomination even to the consulship, and by such a decided majority that nothing could be done for him. Even Colonel Benton voted against him. Lee, I may add, died soon after in Paris, where he wrote part of a history of the Emperor Napoleon. Terror, meanwhile, reigned in Washington. No man knew what the rule was upon which removals were made. No man knew^ what offences were reckoned causes of removal, nor whether he had or had not committed the unpardonable sin. The great body of officials awaited their fate in silent horror, glad when the office hours expired at having escaped another day. The gloom of suspicion (says Mr. Stansbury, himself an office-holder) pervaded the face of society. No man deemed it safe and prudent to trust his neighbor, and the interior of the department presented a fearful scene of guarded silence, secret intrigue, espionage, and tale- bearing. A casual remark dropped in the street would, within an hour, be repeated at head- quarters ; and many a man received unceremonious dismission v/ho could not, for his life, conceive or conjecture wherein he had offended. At that period, it must be remembered, to be removed from office in the city of Washington was like being driven from the solitary spring in a wide expanse of desert. The public treasury was almost the sole source of emolument. Salaries were small, the expenses of living high, and a few of the officials had made provision for engaging in private business, or even for removing their fami- lies to another city. No one had anticipated a necessity of removal. Clerks, appointed by the early Presidents, had grown gray in the service of the govern- ment, and were so habituated to the routine of their places that, if removed, they were beggared and helpless. 10 CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. An old friend of General Jackson was in Washington this summer. He wrote on the 4th of July to a friend : I have seen the President, and have dined with him, but have had no free communication or conversation with him. The reign of this administration — I wish another word could be used — is in very strong contrast with the mild and lenient sway of Madison, Monroe, and Adams. To me it feels harsh ; it seems to have had an unhappy efifect on the free thoughts and unrestrained speech which have heretofore prevailed. I question whether the ferrettiug out treasury rats and the correction of abuses are sufficient to compensate for the reign of terror which appears to have commenced. It would be well enough if it were coufined to evil-doers, but it spreads abroad like a contagion : spies, informers, denunciations — the fecula of despotism. VThere there are listeners there will be tale-bearers. A stranger is warned by his friend on his first arrival to be carefal how he expresses himself in relation to any one or anything which touches the administration. I had hoped that this would be a national administration, but it is not even an administration of a party. Our republic henceforth will be governed by factions, and the struggle will be who shall get the offices and their emoluments— a struggle embittered by the most base and sordid passions of the human heart. So numerous were the removals in the city of Washington that the business of the place seemed paralyzed. In July, a Washington paper said : Thirty-three houses which were to have been built this year have, we learn, been stopped in consequence of the unsettled and uncertain state of things now existing here ; and the merchant cannot sell his goods or collect his debts from the same cause. We have never known the city to be in a state like this before, though we have known it for many years. The individual distress, too, produced in many cases by the removal of the destitute officers is harrowing and painful to all who possess the ordinary sympathies of our nature, without regard to party feeling. No man, not absolutely brutal, can be pleased to see his personal friend or neighbor suddenly stripped of the means of support, and cast upon the cold charity of the world without a shelter or a home. Frigid and insensible must be the heart of that man, who could witness some of the scenes that have lately been exhibited here, without a tear of compassion or a throb of sympathy. But what is still more to be regretted is that this system, having been once introduced, must necessarily be kept up at the commence- ment of every presidential term ; and he who goes into office, knowing its limited and uncer- tain tenure, feels no disposition to make permanent improvements or to form for himself a permanent residence. He therefore takes care to lay up what he can during his brief official existence, to carry off to some more congenial spot, where he means to spend his life or re-enter into business. All, therefore, that he might have expended in city improvements is withdrawn, and the revenue of the corporation, as well as the trade of the city, is so far lessened and decreased. It is obviously a most injurious policy as it respects the interests of our city. Many of the oldest and most respectable citizens of Washington, those who have adhered to its fortunes through all their vicissitudes, who have ' ' grown with its growth and strengthened with its strength," have been cast off to make room for strangers, who feel no interest in the prosperity of our infant metropolis, and who care not whether it advances or retrogrades. As an illustration of the state of things in Washington at this time, I will here transcribe the story of Colonel T. L. McKinney, for many years the hon- est and capable Superintendent of Indian Affairs, appointed to that office by Mr. Monroe. Some time after General Jackson had been inaugurated, the Secretary of War, Major Eaton, inquired of me if I had been to see the President 1 I said I had not. " Had you not better go over ?" " Why, sir ?" I asked. ' ' I have had no official business to call me there, nor have I now ; why should I go ?'•' " You know, in these times," replied the Secretary, " it is well to cultivate those personal relations which will go far toward securing the good will of one in power " — and he wound up by more than intimating that the President had heard some things in disparagement of me; when I determined forthwith to go and see him, and ascertain what they were. On arriving at the door of the President's House, I was answered by the doorkeeper that the President was in, and having gone to report me, returned, say- ing the President would see me. On arriving at the door, it having been thrown open by the doorkeeper, I saw the President very busily engaged writing, and with great earnest- ness ; so much so, indeed, that I stood for some time before he took his eyes off the paper, fearing to interrupt him, and not wishing to seem intrusive. Presently he raised his eyes from the paper, and at the same time his spectacles from his nose, and, looking at me, said : " Come in, sir, come in." " You are engaged, sir ?" " No more so than I always am, and always expect to be," drawing a long breath, and giving signs of great uneasiness. I had just said, " I am here, sir, at the instance of the Secretary of War," when the door was thrown open, and three members of Congress entered. They were received with great courtesy. I rose, saying: "You are engaged, sir; I will call when you are more at leis- ure;" and bowed myself out. On returning to my office, I addressed a note to the Presi- dent of the following import : " Colonel McKinney' s respects to the President of the United CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES, 11 States, and requests to be informed when it will suit his convenience to see him?" to which Major Donelson replied : " The President will see Colonel McKinney to-day, at 12 o'clock " I was punctual, and found the President alone. I commenced by repeating what I had said at my first visit, that I was there at the instance of the Secretary of War, who had I,- U-; J- j-i'vi 1 V',:-, T ' -""■» "X"" ""1 J things that are highly discreditable to you, and which have come to me from such sources as to satisfy me of their truth." " Very well, sir, will you do me the justice to let me know what these things are that you have heard from such respectable sources?" "You know. Colonel MoKinney, I am a candid man"— " I beg pardon, sir," I remarked, interrupting him, " but 1 am not here to question that, but to hear charges, which it appears have been made to you, aifecting my character, either as an officer of the government or a man." " Well, sir," he resumed, "I will frankly tell you what these charges are, and, sir, they are of a character which I can never respect." "No doubt of that, sir ; but what are they?" " Why, sir, I am told, and on the best authority, that you were one of the promoters of that vile paper, We the People, as a contributor toward establishing it, and as a writer afterwards, in which my wife Eachel was so shamefully abused. lam told, further, on authority no less respeo- i jiw, , ^°^ '°°^ "" B.ctiv& part in distributing, under the frank of your office, the 'coffin handbills ;^^ and that, in your recent travels, you largely and widely circulated the militia pamphlet." Here he paused, crossed his legs, shook his foot, and clasped his hands around ment such as you fill, and very derogatory to you, as it would be to any one who should be guilty of such practices." "All this," I replied, " may be well enough ; but I request to know if this is all you have heard, and whether there are any more charges." "Why, yes, sir, there is one more : I am told your office is not in the condition in which it should be." "Well, sir, what more?" " Nothing, sir ; but these are all serious charges, sir." "Then, sir, these comprise all?" "They do, sir." "Well, general," I answered, " I am not going to reply to all this, or to any part of it, with any view to retaining my office ; nor do I intend to reply to it at all, except under the solemnity of an oath;" when I threw up my hand toward heaven, saying " The answers I am about to give to these allegations I solemnly swear shall be the triUh, the Wlwle truth, and nothing hut the truth. My oath, sir, is taken, and is, no doubt, recorded." He interrupted me, by saying, " You are making quite a seri- ous affair of it." "It is, sir, what I mean to do," I answered. "Now, sir, in regard to the paper called ' We the People,' I never did, directly or indi- rectly, either by my money or by my pen, contribute toward its establishment or its contin- uance. I never circulated one copy of it, more or less ; nor did I subscribe for a copy of it, more or less ; nor have I ever, to the best of my knowledge and belief, handled a copy of it i nor have I ever seen but two copies, and these were on the table of a friend, among other newspapers. So much for that charge. "In regard to the ' coffin handbills,' I never circulated any, either under the frank of my office or otherwise, and never saw but two, and am not certain that I ever saw but one, and that some fool sent me, under cover, from Richmond, in Virginia, and which I found on my desk, among other papers, on going to my office; and which, on seeing what it was, I tore up and threw aside among the waste paper, to be swept out by my messenger. The other, which I took to be one of these bills, but which might have been an account of the hanging of some convict, I saw some time ago pendent from a man's finger and thumb, he having a roll under his arm as he crossed Broadway, in New York. So much for the coffin handbills. " As to the ' militia pamphlet,' I have seen reference made to it in the newspapers, it is true, but I have never handled it, have never read it, or circulated a copy or copies of it, directly or indirectly. "And now, sir, as to my office: That is my monument; its records are its inscriptions. Let it be examined ; and I invite a commission for that purpose. Nor will I return to it to put a paper in its place, should it be out of place, or in any other way prepare it for the ordeal ; and if there is a single flaw in it, or any just ground for complaint, either on the part of the white or the red man, implicating my .capacity, my diligence, or want of due regard to the interests of all having business with it, including the government, then, sir, you shall have my free consent to put any mark upon me you may think proper, or subject me to as much opprobrium as shall gratify those who have thus abused your confidence by their secret attempts to injure me." " Colonel McKinney," said the general, who had kept his eyes upon me during the whole of my reply, ' ' I believe every word you have said, and am satisfied that those who commu- nicated to me those allegations were mistaken." "I thank you, sir," I rep led, "for your confidence ; but I am not satisfied. I request to have my accusers brought up, and that I may be allowed to confront them in your presence." "No, no, sir," he answered; "I am satisfied. Why then push the matter any further?" when, rising from his chair, he took my arm, and said: "Come, sir; come down, and allow me to introduce you to my family." I 12 CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES, accompanied him, and was introduced to Mrs. Donaldson, Major Donaldson, and some oth- ers who were present, partook of the offering of a glass of wine, and retired. The next morning, I believe it was, or, if not the next, some morning not far off, a Mr. to see you." Looking round the office, the entire walls of which I had covered with por- traits of Indians, he asked, pointing to the one that hung over my desk: "Who is that?" "Eed Jacket," I answered. "And that?" " Shin-guab-O'Wassin, " I replied ; and so he continued. He then asked : ' ' V?'ho wrote the treaties with the Indians, and gave instructions to commissions, and, in general, carried on the correspondence of the office?" "These are within the circle of my duties, the whole being under a general supervision of the Secretary of War," I answered. "Well, then," after a pause, he said, "the office will not suit me." "What office?" I asked. "This," he replied. "General Jackson told me, this morning, it was at my service; but before seeing the Secretary of War, I thought I would come and have a little chat with you first." I rose from my chair, saying: "Take it, my dear sir, take it. The sword of Damocles has been hanging over my head long enough." "No," said he, " it is not the sort of place for me ; I prefer an Auditor's office, where forms are estab- lished." This worthy citizen had, in the fulness of his heart, doubtless, and out of pure affection for General Jackson, made that distinguished personage a present of the pair of pistols which General Washington had carried during the war of the Revolution. Colonel McKinney retained his office some time longer, because the Secretary of War assured the President that its duties were complex and numerous, and could not be discharged by a person inexperienced in Indian affairs. He tells us, however, that he was kept in constant suspense, and had occasionally an ominous warning : My chief clerk, Mr. Hambletoh, came into my room one morning, soon after I had taken my seat at my table, and putting hig hands upon it, leaned over. I looked up, and saw his eyes were full of tears! To my question, "Is anything the matter, Mr. Hambleton?" "Yes, sir; I am paiued.to inform you that you are to be displaced to-day! We all feel it. Our connection has been one of unbroken harmony, and we are grieved at the thought of a separation. The President has appointed General Thompson, a member of Congress, of Georgia. He boards at my mother's, and I have it from himself. He says I shall remain, but the rest of the clerks he shall dismiss, to make room for some of the President's friends." "Well, Mr. H.," I replied, "it is what I have been constantly looking for. Your annunci- ation does not at all surprise me; indeed, it puts an end to my suspense, and, apart from the pain of leaving you all, and the thought that others are to be cut adrift as well as myself, I feel relieved." He walked a few times across my room, and then retired to his, which joined mine. Two hours after I heard walking and earnest talking in the passage; they continued for half an hour. When they ceased, Mr. Hambleton came into my room, his face all dressed in smiles, saying, "It is not to be!" " What is not to be ? " " You are not to go out. When General Thompson came to the Secretary this morning, with the President's reference to him, to assign him to your place, he was told before he could act he (the Secretary) must see the President. The result of the Secretary's interview with the President was, yciu were to be retained, and General Thompson is referred back to the President for explanation. Thomp- son is in a rage about it. Another illustrative anecdote, which, though it may not be wholly true, is so like others that are known to be so, that I venture to think it is at least founded in fact. A member of Congress appointed to a foreign mission consulted the President as to the choice of a secretary of legation. The President declined all interference, and remarked to the minister that the United States government would hold him responsible for the manner in which he discharged his duties, and that he would, consequently, be at liberty to choose his own secretary. The minister returned his acknowledgment, but before taking leave sought his advice in regard to a young gentlefhan then in the State Department, and who was highly recommended by the Secretary. General Jackson promptly said : "I advise you, sir, not to take the man; he is not a good judge of preaching." The minister observed that the objection needed explanation. " I am able to give it," said the general, and he thus continued: On last Sabbath morning I attended divine service in the Methodist Episcopal church in this city. There I listened to a soul-inspiring sermon by Professor Durbin, of Carlisle, one of the ablest pulpit orators in America. Seated in a pew near me I observed this identical young man, apparently an attentive listener. On the day following, he came into this chamber on business, when I had the curiosity to ask his opinion of the sermon and the preacher ; and what think you, sir ? The young upstart, with consummate assurance, pro- CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 13 nonnced that sei-mon all froth, and Professor Durbin a humbug. I took the liberty of say- ing to him : " My young man, you are a humbug yourself, and don't know it." "And now," continued the old man, "rest assured, my dear sir, that a man who is not a better jadge of preaching than that is unfit to bo your companion ; and besides," he added, " if he were the prodigy the Secretary of State represents him to be, he would be less anxious to confer his services upon you ; he would rather be anxious to retain them himself." As a general rule the dismission of officers was sudden and unexplained. Occasionally, however, some reason was assigned. Major Eaton, for example, dismissed the chief clerk of the War Department in the terms following: Major ': The chief clerk of the department should, to his principal, stand in the relation of a confidential friend. Under this belief I have appointed Doctor Randolph,' of Virginia. I take leave to say, that since I have been in this department nothing in relation to you has transpired to which I would take the slightest objection, nor have I any to suggest. These facts will' suffice to show that the old system of appointments and removals was changed upon the accession of General Jackson to the one in vogue ever since, which Governor Marcy completely and aptly described when he said that to the victors belong the spoils. Some of the conseq[uences of this change are the following : ,1. The government, formerly served by the elite of the nation, is now served to a very considerable extent by its refuse. That at least is the tendency of the new system, because men of intelligence, ability, and virtue universally desire to fix their affairs on a basis of peimanence. It is the nature of such men to make each year do something for all the years to come. It is their nature to abhor the arts by which office is now obtained and retained. In the year of our Lord 1859, the fact of a man's holding office under the government is presump- tive evidence that he is one of three characters, namely, an adventurer, an incom- petent person, or a scoundrel. From this remark must be excepted those who hold offices that have never been subjected to the spoils system, or offices which have been " taken out of poHtics." 2. The new system places at the disposal of any government; however cor- rupt, a horde of creatures in every town and county, bound, body and soul, to its defence and continuance. 3. It places at the disposal of any candidate for the presidency, who has a slight prospect of success, another horde of creatures in every town and county bound to support his pretensions. I once knew an apple woman in Wall street who had a personal interest in the election of a President. If her candidate gained the day, her " old man" would get the place of porter in a public ware- house. The circle of corruption embraces hundreds of thousands. 4. The spoils system takes from the government employ^ those motives to fidelity which in private life are found universally necessary to secure it. As no degree of merit whatever can secure him in his place, he must be a man of heroic virtue who does not act upon the principle of getting the most out of it while he holds it. Whatever fidelity may be found in officeholders must be set down to the credit of unassisted human virtue. In a word, the spoils system renders pure, decent, orderly, and democratic government impossible. Nor has any govern- ment of modern times given such a wonderful proof of inherent strength as is afforded by the fact that this government, after 30 years of rotation, still exists. At whose door is to be laid the blame of thus debauching the government of the United States ? It may perhaps be justly divided into three parts : First, Andrew Jackson, impelled by his ruling passions, resentment, and gratitude, did the deed. No other man of his day had audacity enough. Secondly, the example and the politicians of New York furnished him with an excuse for doing it. Thirdly, the original imperfection of the govermental machinery seemed to necessitate it. As soon as King Caucus was overthrown the spoils system became almost inevitable, and perhaps General Jackson only precipi- tated a change which sooner or later must have come. While the congressional caucus system lasted, confining the sphere of intrigue 14 CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. to the city of Waahington, politicians did not much want the aid of the remote subordinate employes of the government. But when the area of President- making was extended so as to embrace the whole nation, every tidewaiter, con- stable, porter, and postmaster could lend a hand. Well, then, do not burst with virtuous rage until you have duly reflected upon the fact,, too well known, that the average disinterested voter can only with difficulty be induced even to take the trouble to go to the polls and deposit his vote. Without the stimulus of interested expectation how is the work of a presidential campaign be got done ] Who will paint the flags, and pay for the Koman candles, and print the docu- ments, and supply the stump ? The patriotic citizen, do you answer ? Why does he not do it, then 1 . t . The spoils system, we may hope, however, has nearly run its course. It is already well understood that every service in which efficiency is indispensable must be taken out of politics ; and this process, happily begun in some depart- ments of municipal government, will assuredly continue. The first century of the existence of a nation, which is to last 30 centuries or more, should be merely regarded in the light of the " Great Republic's" experimental trip. A leak has developed itself. It will be stopped. The course of the administration, with regard to removals, excited a clamor so loud and general as to inspire the opposition with new hopes. The old fed- eralists who had aided to elect General Jackson were especially shocked. Occa- sionally, too, the officers removed did not submit to decapitation in silence. The most remarkable protest published at the time was from the wife of one of the removed, Mrs. Barney, a daughter of the celebrated Judge Chase. Her hus- band's case was one of peculiar hardship, and she narrated it with the eloc[uence of sorrow and indignation : My husband, sir, never was your enemy. In the overflowing patriotism of his heart, he gave you the fuUmeasure of his love for your military services. He preferred Mr. Adams for the presidency, because he thought him qualified, and you unqualified, for the station. He would have been a traitor to his country, he would have had even my scorn, and have deserved yours, had he supported you under such circumstances. He used no means to oppose you. He did a patriot's duty in a patriot's way. For this he is proscribed — punished ! Oh ! how punished ! My heart bleeds as I write ! Cruel sir ! Did he commit any offence worthy of punishment against God or against his country, or even against you ? Blush while you read this question ; speak not, but let the crimson negative mantle on your cheek ! No, sir ; on the contrary, it was one of the best acts of his life. When he bared his bosom to the hostile bayonets of his enemies he was not more in the line of his duty than when he voted against you ; and had he fallen a martyr on the field of fight he would not more have deserved a monument than he now deserves for having been worse than martyred in support of the dearest privilege and chartered right of American freemen. Careless as you are about the effects of your conduct, it would be idle to inform you of the depth and quality of that misery which you have worked in the bosom of my family, else would I tell a tale that would provoke sympathy in anything that had a heart, or gentle drops of pitv from every eye not accustomed to look upon scenes of human cruelty with composure. Besides, you were apprised of our poverty ; you knew the dependence of eight little children for food and raiment upon my husband's salary. You knew that, advanced in years as he was, without the means to prosecute any regular business, and without friends able to assist him, the world would be to him a barren heath, an inhospitable wild. You were able, therefore, to anticipate the heart-rending scene which you may now realize as the S8le work of your hand. The sickness and debility of my husband now calls upon me to vindicate his and his chil- dren's wrongs. The natural timidity of my sex vanishes before the necessity of my situa- tion, and a spirit, sir, as proud as yours, although in a female bosom, demands justice. At your hands I ask it. Return to him what you have rudely torn from his possession ; give back to his children their former means of securing their food and raiment. Show that you can relent, and that your rule has bad at least one exception. The severity practiced by you in this instance is heightened because accompanied by a breach of your faith, solemnly pledged to my husband. He called upon you, told you frankly that he had not voted for you. What was your reply ? It was, in substance, this : "That every citizen of the United States had a right to express his political sentiments by his vote ; that no charges had been made against Major Barney. If any should be made, he should have justice done; he should not be condemned unheard." Then, holding him by the hand, with apparent warmth, you concluded, "Be assured, sir, I shall be particularly cautious how I listen to assertions of applicants for ofSce !" CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 15 With these assurances from yon, sir, the President of the United States, my husband returned to the bosom of his family. With these rehearsed, he wiped away the tears of apprehension. The President was not the monster he had been represented. They would not be reduced to beggary — haggard want would not be permitted to enter the mansion where he had always been a stranger. The husband and the father had done nothing in violation of his duty as an o£Scer. If any malicious slanderer should arise to pour his poisonous breath into the ears of the President, the accused would not be condemned unheard, and his innocence would be triumphant. They would still be happy. _ It was presumable also, that, possessing the confidence of three successive administra- tions, (whose testimony in his favor I presented to you,) he was not unworthy the office he held. Besides, the signature of a hundred of our first mercantile houses established the fact of his having given perfect satisfaction in the manner he transacted the business of his office. In this state of calm security, without a moment's warning — like a clap of thunder in a clear sky — your dismissal came ; and, in a moment, the house of joy was converted into one of mourning. Sir, was not this the refinement of cruelty 1 But this was not all. The wife whom you thus agonized drew her being from the illustrious Chase, whose voice of thunder early broke the spell of British allegiance. When in the American Senate, he swore, by Heaven, that he owed no allegiance to the British Crown ; one, too, whose signature was broadly before your eyes, affixed to the charter of our independence. The husband and the father whom you have thus wronged was the first-born son of a hero, whose naval and mili- tary renown brightens the pages of your country's history from 1776 to 1815, with whose achievements posterity will not condescend to compare yours, for he fought amidst greater dangers, and he fought for independence. By the side of that father, in the second British war, fought the son, and the glorious 12th of September bears testimony to his unshaken intrepidity. A wife, a husband, thus derived — a family of children drawing their existence from this double-revolutionary fountain — you have recklessly, causelessly, perfidiously, and therefore inhumanly, cast helpless and destitute upon the icy bosom of the world ; and the children and the grandchildren of Judge Chase and Commodore Barney are poverty-stricken upon the soil which owes its freedom and fertility (in part) to their heroic patriotism. The reader ought to be informed, I think, that his friend and benefactor, Major Lewis, opposed this fatal removal policy from the beginning to the end. " In relation to the principle of rotation," he once wrote to General Jackson, I embrace this occasion to enter my solemn protest against it — ^not on account of my office, but because I hold it to be fraught with the greatest mischief to the country. If ever it should be carried out in extenso, the days of this republic will, in my opinion, have been numbered, for whenever the impression shall become general that the government is only valuable on account of its offices, the great and paramount interest of the country will be lost sight of, and the government itself ultimately destroyed. This, at least, is the honest conviction of my mind with regard to these novel doctrines of rotation in office. APPENDIX B. JOINT SELECT COMMITTEE ON EETEENCHMENT. Concurrent resolution of the two houses, passed by the 39ih Congress, in July, 1866. Whereas the financial condition of the United States demands the exercise of a rigid economy in all departments of the government, in order to sustain the credit of the nation and to relieve the people at the earliest possible day from the burden of excessive taxation ; and whereas there is reason to believe that in many departments of the service abuses have for a long time existed, and still exist, in the perpetuation of useless offices and sinecures, in extravagant salaries and allowances, and in other unnecessary and wasteful expenditures : Therefore, Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives, That a joint select committee be appointed, to consist of three members of the Senate and five members of the House, to be styled " the Joint Select Committee on Retrench- faient;" that said committee be instructed to inquire into the expenditures in all •the branches of the service of the United States, and to report whether any, and what, offices ought to be abolished ; whether any, and what, salaries or allow- ances ought to be reduced ; what are the methods of procuring accountability 16 CIVIL SEEVICE OF THK UNITED STATES. in public officers or agents in the care and disbursement of public moneys ; whether moneys have been paid out illegally ; whether any officers or agents or other persons have been or are employed in the service without authority of law, or unnecessarily; and generally how, and to what extent, the expenses of the service of the country may and ought to be curtailed. And also to consider the expediency of so amending the laws under which appointments to the public service are now made as to provide for the selection of subordinate officers after due examination by proper boards ; their continuance in office during specified terms, unless dismissed upon charges preferred and sustained before tribunals designated for that purpose ; and for withdrawing the public service from being used as an instrument of political or party patronage; and inquire into the ac- counts and statements in reference to the government debt, and the management thereof, and the mode of depositing and keeping of the public money, and all accounts relating thereto. That said committee be authorized to sit during the recess of Congress, to send for persons and papers, and to report by bill or other- wise ; and that said committee may appoint a clerk for the term of six months and no more. Concurrent resolution of the 4:0th Congress, March, 1867. Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives, That the joint select committee on retrenchment, raised by a concurrent resolution of the two houses at the first session of the 39th Congress, be, and the same is hereby, revived and continued for and during the 40th Congress, with all and the same powers and duties appertaining thereto in said 39th Congress, and with power to appoint a clerk, and with power in its members to administer oaths ; and that any vacancies in said committee be filled by the piesiding officer of each house, respectively. By a resolution adopted July 19, 1867, one senator and two representatives were added to the committee, which consists of Senators Edmunds, Williams, Patterson of New Hampshire, Buckalew ; and Representatives Van Wyck, Randall, Welker, Halsey, Jenckes, Benjamin, Benton. At a meeting of the joint select committee on retrenchment, held in the city of Washington, July 20, 1867, it was, on motion. Ordered, That so much of the inquiries referred to this committee as relates to the mode of appointments to the public service and the abolition of useless effices be committed to a sub-committee consisting of Senator Williams Repre- sentative Jenckes, and Senator Patterson. To . Sir : You will please answer, in writing, the following questions, at your earliest convenience, and return your answers (with such comments on the con- dition of the civil service, and the best method of making it more effectual, as you may see fit to add) to the undersigned, one of the members of said com- mittee on the part of the House of Representatives. Respectfully, yours, T. A. JENCKES, For Suh- Committee on the Civil Service. QUESTIONS, 1. Are you in the civil service of the United States; and if so, in what official capacity ? 2. When did you enter upon the duties of your office ? 3. State whether you have served in any other office or offices, and what offices, and during what period or periods of time ? I 4. What was your employment before your appointment to your present office, and before entering the service of the United States ? 5. Have you received a collegiate education? and if so, state where and when ; and if not, state where and how you received your education. CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 17 6. Previous to entering the civil service, were you examined with regard to your qualifications for the place to which you were appointed 1 if so, state when, where, and by whom ; relate the full particulars of such examination. 7. What evidence of your qualifications was submitted to the appointing power other than such examination 1 8. By whom was your appointment made, and by whom were you recommended for the of&ce you now hold I 9. State the annual income of your present office, and whether it is a larger or less sum than your income previous to your appointment. 10. Had you ever pursued any course of study with a view of fitting yourself for the duties of the olfice you now hold, or of any office you have held under the governmeni of the United States? if so, state where, when, and with whom. 11. Is there any printed book or manual which sets forth the duties of your office ? if so, name it, and refer to the portions of it relating to such duties. 12. To whom do you make report concerning the performance of the duties of your office, and at what times, and what is the nature of the reports t Describe particularly the character of such reports, and if the last which you have made is in print, annex a copy ; and if not, state where it can be found. 13. How many hours in each day, on an average, are you actually employed in the service of the government, and what are your office hours ? 14. What number of persons are under your official control; into how many classes are they divided, and what is the number of each class ; and how many are employed permanently, and how many temporarily 1 15. State the character of the employment of each class, and how many hoiirs each day they are employed. 16. State the number of applications for employment in subordinate offices you have received since you have been in office, and what number of these have been successful, and how many have been rejected. 17. Have those who have received appointments under you given evidence of their fitness for such employment by any test examination ? if so, state the number of those who have been examined, the offices to which they have been appointed, and state by whom such examination was conducted, what subjects it embraced, and what standard, if any, was adopted as the test of fitness for the employment to which the appointment was made. 18. State whether any persons have been appointed to the subordinate offices under you without examination ; and if so, how many, and to what offices, and whether they are still in the service, and upon what recommendation or sup- posed qualification such appointments were made. 19. State the previous occupation of your subordinates, and whether any of them pursued any course of study before appointment with the special view of qualifying them for the service, or whether they were taken indiscriminately from the various employments of civil life. 20. How many among your subordinates have been appointed for merit and qualification alone, without political or personal influence, and without regard to political or personal considerations ? 21. What is the usual mode of application , how supported, and how urged ? 22. Are the recommendations of the personal and political friends of the applicant preserved and placed on file ? 23. State how many of your subordinates have served in the Union armies ; how many have been connected with the press in any capacity; and whethei' there are not different grades of efficiency among them in the same class. 84. State how many have been appointed within two years ; how many more than two years and within four years ; how many more than four years and within six years; how many more than six years and within ten years; how many more than ten years and within fifteen years ; and how many above fifteen years. H. Kep. Com. 47 — 2 18 CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 25. State how many are under twenty-five years of age ; how many over twenty-five and under thirty ; how many over thirty and under forty ; how many over forty and under fifty ; how many over fifty and under sixty ; how many over sixty. ii6. State what number have been removed since you have been in office, and what portion of these removals have been for political considerations. 27. State whether there is any system of promotion among your subordinates ; and if so, what it is based upon ; what are its rules ; how. are they applied, and who has the final decision upon any question of promotion. 28. State whether there is among your subordinates, or in your department, any rule constantly acted upon by which merit shall be advanced, and which will insure a career in your particular branch of service to any deserving person who enters the lowest grade. 29. State whether you have not known meritorious persons to be discharged, and their places filled by others not before in the service, who have been backed by political influence. 30. Have you not known such new recruits to be placed over the heads of meritorious persons already in the service ? 31. Between what ages do you find your subordinates most diligent and efficient t 32. What classes of appointees do you find the least diligent and efficient] - 33. Suppese all new appointments were to be made in the lowest grade only, and out of candidates who shall give evidence of their fitness for appointment by passing a rigid test examination conducted by competent persons, and that no promotions should be made to a higher grade unless the candidates for pro- motion should pass a similar test examination for such higher grade, would not the efficiency of the service be thereby increased ? 34. Could not an equal amount of work be accomplished under such a system ^ by a less number of persons than are now employed ? 35. If the employment was assured and certain, and promotions granted only to seniority or merit, and no discharge permitted except for cause, could not a higher grade of talent and a better quality of persons be induced to enter the government service ? 36. Are there any females among your subordinates ? If so, state what pro- portion their compensation bears to that of males for the same service, whether they compare favorably or not with males for diligence, attention and efficiency, and whether the general efficiency of the class would not be improved by a system of appointment for competency alone, and promotion from merit or seniority, or retention in office during good behavior ? 37. State any matters which in your judgment would tend to make the civil service more efficient and economical ? Appendix 0. EXTRACTS FROM REPLIES OF PUBLIC OFFICERS TO INTERROGATORIES BY THE COMMITTEE. William Hunter, Second Assistant Secretary of State: No. 3. As a clerk in State Department, May, 1829, at $800 per annum; and svadually, by promotion, to my present position. No. 33. Have no doubt that the measures referred to in the above question would be wise tor the puDUc good. No. 34. If oflScers of this department were appointed under the system referred to I am of the opraion one-third less could perform the duties now required. No. 37. The civil service would be more efficient if employes were not so often changed CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 19 I have no doubt that the measure referred to would be wise for tbe public good. Exami- nation, however, to be worth anything as a test of fitness, must be conducted by persons not responsible to the appointing power, and the examiner, to be impartial, must be. ignorant of the Stale from ivhich a candidate may hail, of the persons who may recommend him, and perhaps even of his name. If officers of the State Department were to be appointed under the proposed system, at least one-third less would be requiired for, the present work, although the business of the department in its diplomatic and consular branches has perhaps doubled within seven years. He lays great stress upon experience, and expatiates upon the absurdity of appointing men to diplomatic and consulate missions without knowledge of the language of the country to which they are sent. He thinks it might be as well to appoint inmates of deaf and dumb asylums. J. F. Hartley, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury : No. 32. The uncertainty of position under the present system is inconsistent with hearty and Butire devotion to public service. No. 36. There are; with compensation less than one-third of average compensation of male clerks ; principally employed in counting currency, notes and bonds, and are better adapted for that service than males, and in other employments compare favorably ; efficiency vvoiild be increased by creation of grades, and merit rewarded by promotion. All clerks in the Secretary's office receive their appointments upon a written report of the board_ of examiners established in accfll-dance with the act of March 3, 1853. The object being" simply to inform the minds of the board as to the general intelligence of the candidate and his capabilities for the performance of the duties to be intrusted to him, and the special positions to be filled being very diverse in their character, it is obvious that no unifoirm and arbitrary standard can be prescribed. From August 1, 1865, to February 4, 1868, 9,092 applications for appointment in the Trea- sury Department have been filed, of which 1,512 have been successful. ^ Applications are considered and appointments made for the entire department in the Secre- tary's office. * * » The Secretary can of course have personal knowledge of the character and the qualifications of but few of the applicants. » * * The younger clerks are apt to regard their positions only as temporary, and to act accordingly. « » * The Assistant Secretary contends that the proposed test examination is now actually in force in the department, but fails to adduce adequate testimony to that effect. No. 37. In reply to this inquiry I have to remark that stability in the tenure of ofiice and adequate compensation are indispensable to any healthful reform. The services of competent persons cannot be procured or retained as a general thing on any lower scale of compensation than is paid for similar services elsewhere. It can hardly be expected that the services of expert accountants or members of the legal or other professions will abandon the higher rates received in their respective pursuits to serve the government for $1,800 per annum, the highest grade of clerkships provided by law. Yet their qualifications are indis- pensable to the successful performance of official duty in some branches of the Treasury. Of late, special acts of Congress have granted additional compensation, which to some extent, and as a temporary relief, have mitigated the evil. What is needed, however, is a permanent system. If greater stability were imparted to the tenure of office and no removals made except for cause, as in the army and navy, the services of experts, with the needed special qualifications, could doubtless be procured at rates somewhat lower than those pre- vailing in other pursuits subject to vicissitudes both of employ ment and compensation ; the fixedness of revenue being an ample equivalent. In my judgment no preliminai'y examination will afford the requisite assurance of qualifi- cations for the special duties to which clerks are to be assigned. It is doubtless true that general intelligence and scholarship may be satisfactorily ascertained in that way. The more important duties in this office are, however, in the main, so purely arbitrary and tech- nical, depending so much on specific statutes, judicial decisions, and departmental regula- tions, that no previous training can materially aid in their performance. Nothing in my judgment but an actual trial will exhibit or develop the fitness of candidates for offices in this branch of the Treasury Department. Upon satisfactory evidence of character, capa- city and general acquirements will be best ascertained by such trial under temporary appointment. This procedure is the more important if the tenure of office is to be perma- nent, and the incumbent displaced only on the establishment of charges of neglect of duty, or other misbehavior in office. Under such a system, not onlycoulda " higher grade of talent and a better quality of persons be induced to enter the government service," as suggested in the 35th interrogatory now before me, but the suggestion made by tbe 34th question would also apply, viz : that "an equal amount of work could probably be accomplished by a less number of persons than are now employed." As further expressive of my own views upon this subject, I respectfully refer to a commu- nication of the 31st ultimo, addressed by the Secretary to the chairman of the Finance Com- mittee of the Senate, in regard to a proposed reorganization of the department. 20 CIVIL SEEVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. N. Sargent, Commissioner of Customs : ' Treasury Department, Office of Commissioner of Customs, January 4, ISGS. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your circular, with interrogatories propounded by the Sub-committee on Eetronehment, to which I reply as follows : 1. I am, as Commissioner of Customs. 2. On the 20th day of May, 1861. 3. I have served in other offices, viz : Sergeant-at-arms of the House of Representa- tives during the 30th Congress: Recorder of the Land Office part 1 849-50; Register of the Treasury from October, 1851, to April, 1853. 4. I am a lawyer by profession, but was for a number of years an editor and owner of a daily paper in Philadelphia ; afterwards correspondent of the United States Grazette, under the non de plume of Oliver Oldschool. For a few years previous to entering my pres- ent office I prosecuted claims before Congress and the departments, and carried on a small farm, which I still carry on. 5. I have not. I received my education in Vermont, partly under a private tutor and partly at an academy in Brattleboro', and partly also by my own studies, "without a master." 6. I was not. 7. I was well known to General Taylor. Mr. Fillmore, and Mr. Lincoln, from whom I received my appointments, who were satisfied with my qualifications for the positions they respectively tendered me. General Taylor, through Mr. Clayton, Secretary ofState, first tendered me the office of secretary of the Mexican commissioners, which I declined on the ground that I did not understand the Spanish language. General Taylor was pleased to say that I was the first man he ever knew who declined an office because he did not consider himself fit for it, and then offered me the office of Recorder of the Land Office, which I should have declined if I could without giving offence. 8. By Mr. Lincoln, recommended by many senators and members of the House of Representatives, though Mr. Lincoln did not ask for or look at any of these. I knew him and he knew me well. 9. The salary attached to my office is |3,000 per annum, but during the past year I have received 20 per cent, additional, under an act of Congress. I think it is larger than my income was previous to my entering the office, but is less in comparison with the cost of living now and then. 10. I had not; and had to learn the duties by study and application. 11. The duties are only to be learned by a study of the revenue laws, the treasury regulations, treasury circulars, and the recorded correspondence of the office from 1790 down to the present time, contained in some forty volumes of records. 12. I report annually to the Secretary of the Treasury, and enclose my last two annual reports. I have to occasionally make other reports upon cases referred to me by the Secre- tary, as they arise in the course of business — some quite elaborate, some less so. 13. I am usually in my office by half-past eight a. m., and remain till after four p. m. ; sometimes return to the office and labor the whole evening, Since I have held the office, I have never, for a single day, failed to sign all official papers, except when absent from the city. 14. I have under my control 35 persons, divided into 7 classes, viz: 1 chief clerk; 3 clerks of class 4 ; 8 of class 3 ; 10 of class 2 ; 9 of class 1 ; 1 assistant messenger ; and 3 laborers ; all permanently employed. 15. The employment of the different classes is as follows: 1 chief clerk; 1 clerk of class 4, bookkeeper ; 1 accountant ; 1 special agent ; 1 of class 3, estimates ; 1 law clerk ; 6 accountants ; 6 of class 2, accountants, 1 miscellaneous, 2 copyists, 1 record ; 1 of class 1, copyist; 1 assistant bookkeeper; 6 accountants ; 1 acting messenger; 1 assistant messenger ; 1 laborer, acting as clerk ; and 2 as laborers. All employed seven hours each day. 16. I am unable to answer this. 17. All who have been appointed under me have undergone test examinations. Those examinations were conducted by myself or some one appointed by me for that-'purpose, under my supervision. They were examined particularly in arithmetic and bookkeeping questions, being- put to them of a character likely to arise in the performance of their duties ; also in other branches, as history, grammar, geography, &c. 18. One or two clerks have been transferred to my office from others, of whose exami- nations I knew nothing. I think one, at least, is now in my office. As to the remainder of the interrogatory, I cannot answer. 19. The previous occupations of my clerks are exceedingly various. Some have been lawyers, some school teachers, some bookkeepers, some mechanics, and one has been iu the office siiDCe he was a boy, now 64 years ago, nearly, and who is a good, efficient clerk yet, at the age of 78. 20. I do not know that any one has been appointed on political grounds since I have been at the head of the office. Four or five were appointed at my solicitation, because I knew their qualifications, and needed just such men. Three of these were lawyers. They have CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 21 proved to be all I expected— most valuable assistants. I never inqnired about the politics of a'ly one, except during the war, and then only to satisfy myself that he was loyal ; and I allow no political, nor, indeed, any other discussions, among the clerks. 21 . Appointments are made by the Secretary in all cases. 22. Tills should be answered by the Secretary. 23. Nine have been in the army; 8 have been connected with the press. There are different grades of efficiency among my subordinates in the same class. 24. Twenty have been appointed within 2 years ; 7 have been appointed more than 2 years, and within 4 years ; 2 have been appointed more than 4 years, and within 6 years ; 3 have been appointed more than 6 years, and withia 10 years ; 1 has been appointed more than 10 years, and within 15 years ; and 2 have been appointed more than 15 years. 25. Seven are under 25 years- of age ; 7 are over 25, and under 30 ; 6 are over 30, and under 40 ; 5 are over 40, and under 50 ; 6 are over 50, and under 60 ; and 4 are over 60. 26. Nine of my employes have been discharged ; none for political causes. 27. There is no system of promotion, except that when a vacancy occurs I endeavor to have it filled by a lower-class clerk. 28. It is impossible to advance meritoriins clerks in my office, for the reason that the number of each class is limited, and I ha\e but few, and am allowed but few, of the higher grades, although mine is a revising bureau, (rfee my remarks on this subject at page 7 of my annual report.) 29. Nothing of the kind has happened in my bureau since I have had charge of it. I should protest most earnestly against it. 30. Answered in 29. 31. I find nearly all my clerks diligent and prompt in their attendance. The older ones, however, are more sedate, and apply themselves to business more steadily than younger men. When I say the older, I mean those from 30 to 60 years of age, and two over that age ; they are as regular, steady, and diligent as the sun. 32. Answered above. 33. I answer most decidedly in the affirmative. 34. I do not doubt it. 35. I have not a doubt of it. 36. I have now no female employes. I have had some experience of them, and had some very good female clerks ; but, as a general rule, they are less reliable and efficient than males, and. more difficult to govern. I should be unwilling to trust such duties to them as my clerks have to perform ; that is, the revising and settling long and intricate accounts, involving innumerable questions of law and practice, and not unfrequently the unraveling of confused and erroneous statements, and pursuing errors through a long series of returns. I have never yet seen the woman equal to such a task. Some of them make very good copyists. 37. Answered in interrogatory 47. 38. I find great and indeed insuperable difficulty in enforcing the revenue laws on the frontier and seaboard through the regular officers of customs ; though I take pleasure in say- ing that I think, as a general thing, these officers were never more vigilant and faithful in the performance of their duties than they have been for the three years past, and are at the present time, especially on the northeastern, northern, and northwestern frontier. But there are among them incompetent, inefficient, unfaithful, and unreliable men. In some of the seaboard districts, the nuiiuber of these is considerably greater in proportion to the number employed. 39. "What changes are necessary, in your judgment, in the present system to make the service more efficient and economical?" — In my judgment the present system should be discarded altogether. At present custom-houses are conducted in the interest of party politics, and have been so conducted for over 35 years. Since offices were proclaimed to be " the spoils of victors," they have been seized and used as such by both parties, appointments of customs officers being made, not with a single eye to the interests of the government, but with an eye, first, to the interests of the dominant party; and secondly or lastly, to the public interests. If both could be served by an appointment, very well ; if not, the first must be served at all events, and of course the latter suffers. If all appointments were made upon competitive examinations, the appointees assured of permanent employmfeut, (if not forfeited by demerit,) and of advancement in position and compensation when merited by length of service or by capacity, fidelity, and assiduity in the performance of duties, I do not doubt that a higher grade of men — higher as to education, character, integrity, and social stand- ing — could be obtained for the same compensation. 40. What would be the gain in the revenue from customs by the change I have sug- gested I have no means of knowing; but that there would be a gain by reason of the more strict and prompt enforcement of the revenue laws, and the increased vigilance in preventing frauds by means of false invoices, smuggling, &c., I do not doubt. The expenses of col- lecting the revenue would be some what lessened, inasmuch as a less number of officers would be needed. 41. Answered as far as it can be above. 42. There is no rule or regulation under the present system by which delinquencies among subordinate officers are certain to be reported. I think such failures to report are not unfrequent ; reason, because it is not the interest, nor is it felt to be the duty ot any one to 22 CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. report such delinquencies, even if known ; but they may not he known to any officer other than the guilty one. 43. It undoubtedly would, for the reason that the duties would then be performed by men of integrity,and actuated by a high sense of moral responsibility to God aud the com- munity, who could brinff into the service increased vigilance, honesty, and fidelity. 44. With customs officers of the character described in this interrogatory, I do not doubt that a great saving to Ibc- government might be secured in the single item of the pre- vention of frauds on the revenue; but I have no data from which to estimate the amount, even approximately. I am satisfied that our revenue is immeu.sely defrauded, especially in some of the large cities — New York, for instance — aud that much uf this cnuld be prevented by such a system of appointments as is hereinbefore indicated. Perhaps if I'were to say that a million of dollars a year might be thus saved I should not speak extravagantly. 45. Very far from it. 46. As a suit of clothes made for the boy do not fit the man, for the same reason a revenue system framed with admirable skill aad adaptation to the condition of the country in its infancy, is not fitted to its present vastly increased territory and commerce. 47. , I answer this interrogatory in the negative ; but I think that the fidelity of cus- toms officers might be better secured, and their vigilance and assiduity increased, by con- centrating the whole business relating to commerce and navigation in one bureau or depart- ment, the head of which should exercise a more direct and rigid supervision of these matters than is now possible, and especially in regard to the efficiency, integrity, and fidelity of the officers and their subordinates, and the economy, or want of it, in the various branches of the sen'ice. The commerce and navigation of this country are of sufficient magnitude and importance in my judgment to constitute a department, and require all the administrative abilities of its head. So lo,ng as they are appended to another department, the head of which is compelled to devote his time and energies to multifarious matters of great magnitude and urgency, aside from these, it is not in the nature of things that they can receive the atten- tion and consideration which their importance demands, however anxious he may be to per- form his whole duty, and look after* all the interests committed to his care. J. M. Brodhead, Second Comptroller of the Treasury : No. 3. Clerk and chief clerk from 1830 to 1837, and from 1840 to 1353 ; from February, 1853, to October, 1857, Second Comptroller of Treasury. The least diligent aud efficient appointees are those who have strong political backers or influence in Congress especially, and who are thereby emboldened to neglect their duties. The efficiency of the service would be increased by the adoption of the system suggested in the 33d question, aud an equal amount of work could be accomplished under such a system by a less number of persons than are now employed. A higher grade of talent, and a better quality of persons could be induced to enter the government service if promotion were granted onlv to seniority or merit, and no discharge permitted except for cause. No. 33. Yes. No. 34. Yes. No. 35. Yes. The same system would also promote the efficiencj"- of the female clerks. They have 25 per cent, less than a first-class clerk. In diligence, attention, and propriety of conduct they are superior to clerks of the other sex, and in efficiency they compare favorably with them, considering the difference in pay. I have too much respect for women, however, to be in favor of employing them iu public offices. I have not time to go iu the general subject of the civil service, but believe that my own office would be rendered more efficient by the transfer to it of competent clerks froni the offices of the respective Auditors, whose work is subject to the revision of the Second Comp- truller, so that no original appointment should be made to this office. As it now is an inex- perienced clerk, just appointed from the mass of the people, may, be set to revise the work of experts, and the freshly indentured apprentice is required to detect the errors and perfect the work of the master workman. The salaries should of course be larger, so that the trans- fer would be a promotion ; but fewer clerks would be required, aud the expense would be no greater. Thomas L. Smith, First Auditor of the Treasury : No. 3. Before present appointment was register of the United States Treasury for 16 years. No. 17. Yes ; by board of examiners, few have been rejected. No. 33. The rules that govern the office is to test qualifications by examination before appointment to first class, and promotions to each class are made upon examination, in direct reference to qualifications for promotions. John "Wilson, Third Auditor of the Treasury : No. 3. From 1831, with intervals, to the present time. No. 17. Every clerk is subjected to a rigid examination : the questions are those that occur daily in the duties of the office, conducted by the chief clerk, subject to the examination of the Fifth Auditor aud myself, constituting a board of examiners. No. 32. Those who are backed by great pohtical and congressional influence feel inde- pendent of the head of the office, and above the reach of salutary rules aud regulations. CIVIIi SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 23 33. Precisely the course suggested in this question is pursued in this office, except that candidates for higher grades are selected because of their superior talents and general excellence in the discharge of their duties. This is a much safer basis of promotion than any test examination; and, in my opinion, all appointments should be made in the first class, and all promotions be made on merit ailone, as the hope of reward is the best stimulus to exertion in a well-balanced mind. Such are our rules here, simply to secure the greatest efficiency in the official corps. 34 and 35. The answer to this question (34th) substantially is given in the answer to the 33d question, and to the 35th I reply there is no doubt that such a system would secure higher grades of talent and a better class of persons in the government service. It would establish and promote a proper esprit de corps, in which every member would be interested, and which each and all would be proud and anxious to sustain. 36. Theie are 15 female clerks in this office, who receive about 75 per cent, of the amount paid to male clerks for similar service, with whom they compare favorably for diligence, attention, and efficiency. As they are chiefly copyists, the only examination that should be required is of their penmanship and spelling. It is difficult to "determine the best method of increasing ths efficiency of these employes. In my opinion, they should receive precisely the same compensation as is paid to male clerks for similar duties; should be promoted to positions and duties suited to their sex and abilities, and receive the compensation ordinarily affixed to the duties they may be called upon to perform. Perhaps mere copyists should be paid by the hundred words a fair compensation, and then each would receive full equiva- lent for her service, the rate to be fixed so as to enable a good copyist to earn $1,20U per annum. 37. As far as lies within the jurisdiction of this office, I have endeavored to state in my annual report some matters which, in my judgment, would tend to make the civil service more efficient and economical. (See Doc. 3, herewith, pp. 15, 16, 17, aud J8.) The sug- gestion of commutation of pensions, with consent of the pensioners, on the principle somewhat of life annuities, would take more money out of the treasury at once, but would finally materi- ally reduce the expenses of all the agencies, and ultimately close up that branch of business. Legislation that would prevent the payment of fraudulent claims, perpetuate testimony in such cases, and limit the time in which all claims shall be presented, would relieve the gov- ernment from erroneous ejcpenditures on that basis. All claims of the same general character should be passed on by the same tribunal to insure uniformity of decision, and legislation to that effect should be had. The Treasury Department should by law be made the exclusive financial agent of the government. To this end all supplies for the several departments should be purchased under existing laws, or such as Congress may pass hereafter for that object, by suitable officers to be designated for that purpose. Those officers should then certify the accounts for such articles furnished, with the contract, to receiving officers, desig- nated by law, ■^ho should certify that the articles so purchased are of the quality, quantity, and price specified in the contract. The accounts thus certified to be sent to the proper department for administrative examination, and if approved, to be forwarded to the account- ing officers, who, by law, have charge of the matter. If the accounts are found correct, and so stated by the proper auditor, and admitted and certified by the Comptroller, the ajnount so found due to be paid by the Treasurer of the United States, by draft, sent direct to the person who furnished the supplies. In this way the government would have vouchers for every dollar paid out, so far as the purchase of suijplies is concerned, and there will be no risk of defaulting disbursing officers. Those officers will then only have property accounts to be adjusted, and there will be little or no risk of loss in those cases. This mode cannot be adopted in paying officers, soldiers, and sailors, but a system might be adopted of dividing the country into districts, with a paymaster for each, &c., to whom the necessary funds could be transmitted by the middle of each quarter to settle up the liabilities of that quarter ; said paymaster to be required to return his accounts and vouchers within ten days after the end of each quarter under severe penalties ; no money to be sent to him for a succeeding quarter till such accounts had been rendered for the preceding quarter ; and in no case should money be sent to any disbursing officer to a geater amount.than is covered by his bond, the bond to be increased as circumstances may require, at the discretion of the Secretary of the Treasury, and under such rules and regulations as he may prescribe. The same remarks to apply to pension agents ; and the signing of such bond by principal andsureties to act as a lien on all their property at the time the bond was given. Clear and judicious laws that would carry out these ideas would, in my opinion, materially accelerate the settlement of accounts, reduce expenditures, and avoid risk of loss of government money. Stephen J. W. Tabor, Fourth Auditor of the Treasury : No. 3. For five years as county judge and two years as treasurer and recorder of Buchanan county, Iowa. No. 17. Yes, thoroughly, by a board of examiners, consisting of the Hon. C. M. Walker, the Fifth Auditor, Darius Lyman of the Secretary's bureau, and myself, embracing reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar, geography, history, bookkeeping, spelling, and composition. No. 32. Those "who imagine they have outside or political influence to retain them in office. No. 33. All new appointments are made in the lowest grade only. They are promoted 24 CIVIL SEEVICE OF THE UNITES STATES because they have given evidence of their fitness. Bat must answer the inquiry (33) in the affirmative. No. 34. Soma additional regulations in accordance with the idea in No. 33, but more ample, would have this effect- No. 35. Most assuredly, and this is beyond question the true principle. Faithful and competent clerks should at least have the same certainty of employment that professional men, tradesmen and mechanics do outside. No. 36. There are, at |900 a year, and perform their duties satisfactorily. The other inquiries answered affirmatively. I think an arbitrary examination of a technically scholastic character applied to other clerks and other employes of the government who have learned their duties at their posts, and who are competent for their performance, would be unjust and detrimental to the public service. The experience of a clerk is of great value. That, united to sound sense and good natural parts, makes a clerk excellent. Any^rule, no matter how stringent, maj be adopted for new applicants, but clerks who are actually performing their duties in the best manner should not be displaced because they are not versed in the learning of the schools. Summary from reports from this office. The annexed table, collected from the Fourth Auditor's reports, shows a falling off in business in seven divisions of his office of nearly one-third of the total amount of accounts settled in 1866 and 1867 ($76,576,675 65) as compared with preceding year, while there has only been an increase of business in one division, leaving a balance of falling off of business of $10,973,4.56 52. While it appears that one additional clerk is required in the one division (naval agents' disbursements) in which there was an increase of business to the extent of $22,800,7112 10, it does not appear that there was any reduction of force in the other seven divisions, in which the decrease amounted in the aggregate to $33,774,158 62. In the face of this falling off it is, on the contrary, surprising that 11 new clerks should have been appointed in 1866 and 1867. The forces under his control at the present seem to be larger than they were at any time previous to his accession lo office, (1863,) 5U persons having been appointed since that period, and only 18 dismissed. Falling off in the business of the Fuurtk Auditor's office. Letters received in 1865 and 1866 70, 1)7 Letters received in 1866 and 1867 36,321 Decrease 33,796 Letters recorded in 1865 and 1866 97,088 Letters recorded in 1866 and 1867 68, 152 Decrease 28,936 Allotments registered in 1865 and 1866 3,043 Allotments registered in 1866 and 1867 ],820 Decrease ]_ 223 fti'^ QSl Q8R (T^ 5 Cash requisitions, 1865 and 1866 $45,983,986 03 '^ ' ' I Cash requisitions, 1866 and 1867 34,518,733 85 Decrea'se $11,405,252 18 a QjQ roo no < Cashrefundingreq'tions,lH65and J866 8,948,593 03 ' ' ^ Cash refunding req'tions, 1866 and 1867 2,208,006 13 Decrease 6,740.586 90 9 K.m oKQ or, 5 P"ze money, ] 865 and 1866 2, 509, 269 30 ' ° ' ^°"' "^^ \ Prize money, 1866 and 1867 1, 042, 099 56 Decrease 1,557,169 74 4 100 276 24 ) ^^''y pensions, 1865 and 1866 4, 100,276 24 ' ' I Navy pensions, 1866 and 1867 1 , 228, 242 25 Decrease 2,872,033 99 46 724 957 34 5 Paymaster divisions, J865 and 1866.. 46,724,9.57 34 ' ' I Paymaster divisions, 1866 and 1867.. 36,331, 198 33 Decrease 10,393,759 01 707 7=.2 40 J General claims, 1865 and 1866 797,752 49 ' I General claims, 1866 and 1867 598,347 45 Decrease 199,405 04 ,154,834 43 $33,a;i8,206 £6 CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 25 572 clerks, navy afrents, 1865 and 186B, account 441 vouchers. 1 13, 554 54, 657, 975 99 672 clerks, navy agents, 1865 and 1867, account 52 vouchers, 184, 900 77, 458, 678 09 Deduct increase 22,800,702 10 1,195,999 84 \ A. otoents, J865 1,195,999 84 ( Allotments, 1866 650,048 08 Decrease 545,951 76 $n0,350,834 27 Decrease as against 1 865 and 1866 $ 1 0, 973, 456 53 SUMMARY. Transactions in 1865 and 1866 in all divisions $110,350,834 27 Decrease in 1866 and 1867 in seven divisions 33^774] 158 62 Transactions in 1 866 and 1 867 in seven divisions 76, 576, 675 65 Business transacted in 1866 and J 867 in the eight divisions, (increase against 1865 and 1866 $22, 800, 702 10) 77,458,678 09 Total business in 1866 and 1867 154,035,353 74 Decrease as against 1865 and 1866 10,973^456 52 Total business in 1865 and 1866 165,008,810 26 Total forces January 1, 1868, 92. Estimated salaries $150,000, for the transaction of business amounting in 1866 and 1867 to $154,035,353 74, but steadily decreasing. C^ M. Walker, Fifth Auditor of the Treasury : No. 3. Law clerk, &c., in the office of the Secretary of the Treasury, for two years. No. 17. Yes ; examination conducted by myself and some person in the department desig- nated by the Secretary, embracing different subjects, and tested pretty fairly the candidate's qualifications, his knowledge of accounts, orthography, composition, arithmetic, grammar, &c. No. 32. Those who are too youthful, or those who have little capacity for business or knowl- edge of affairs, depend solely on political, personal, or other such considerations, for their retention in office. No. 33. Yes. No. 34. Unquestionably; if incompetent clerks could be weeded out and skilled and com- petent men retained at increased salaries. No. 35. Most unquestionably. No. 36. Seven ; $900 per annum ; lowest class of male clerks receive $1,200 ; compare favorably with males for diligence and efficiency, &c. The "civil service" cannot be made a career so long as the principle of rotation in office obtains, nor while the maxim of to "the victors belong the spoils" is followed. It will, in my judgment, be a fortunate day for our government when both these principles are dis- carded, when merit, fidelity, and capacity shall govern in all appointments, and when the civil service shall be made to approximate what it is under other civilized governments, viz : a career. * * * New appointees are frequently placed over the heads of old ones by reason of superior talents, competency, or qualifications. Mere length of service is not conclusive as to a man's qualifications ; for he may have been a mediocre man to begin with, and a new man may be far more deserving of promotion. There can be no question but that the effi- ciency of the public service would be increased by some reform substantially like that sug- gested in question No. 33. If incompetent clerks could be weeded out and the appointment of any such in future pre- vented, the public business could be performed by a much less number of persons than it is at present. But to secure such superior qualifications higher salaries would have to be paid in these times. One of the greatest difficulties experienced is the frequent resigning of skilled and competent men, because they can do better elsewhere. I think it would be true economy to increase the compensation and decrease the number of government employes. The lowest class of male clerks receive $1,200 per annum. The females receive each $900 per annum. They are employed solely as copyists, and answer very well for that. If they were not employed it would take about the same number of males to do the work done by them. The same principle of appointment, advancement, promotions, &c., should, in the main, apply to the female as to the male clerks. Elevate the standard of employes, make appointments more difficult to obtain, exclude the paramount influence of political considerations, make merit and capacity the requisite in appointments and promotions, decrease the number of employes, increase to a fair rate the compensation of those retained, make the tenure of all offices as permanent as practicable, permit no discharges except for cause, and approximate the civil service, so far as possible, to a career or life pursuit. 26 CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. H. J. Anderson, Sixth Auditor of the Treasury, for Post Office Department: No. 3. lu early life clerk of judicial courts for ten years, subsequently United States House of Representatives, from 1837 to 1841 ; governor of the State from 1843 to 1847 ; and United States Commissioner of Customs from 1853 to 1858. No. 17. Yes ; by a board of examiners, consisting of the Auditor, Hon. C. M. Walker, and Darius Lyman, of the Treasury Department ; by written questions. No. 33. Yes. No. 34. Undoubtedly. No. 35. Probably to some extent have that effect. , j u • With the present rate of compensation to the lower class of clerks, I apprehend that it would be difficult to obtain a very high grade of talent for those places, unless the classifi- cation was so changed as to provide a larger number for classes three and four, being the two highest classes. Referring particularly to this office, the promise of promotion is so slow, that the lower classes of clerks get discouraged, and such of them as can find other employment resign their places. In this way we lose many of our most valuable clerks. Hon. E. A. Rollins, Commissioner of Internal Revenue : Almost all appointed with regard to political or personal considerations. 33. The efficiency of the service in this manner would be very much increased, though I doubt if all new appointments should be made to the lowest grade only until the service should be somewhat redeemed from its present condition. 34. It could. 35. Undoubtedly, 36. There are. The females are employed only as copyists, and females only are thus employed. In this' service they compare, favorably, -I think, with males for diligence, intelligence, and efficiency. Their efficiency, however, would be improved in the manner suggested. 38. There is very great difficulty. The service is full of officers appointed with too little regard to personal integrity or actual ability. I respectfully refer you, in this connection, to so much of ray last report to the Secretary as relates to the civil service and whith is herewith attached. 39. Appointments and promotions with less regard to political service and only upon com- petitive examination. 40. Immense gain to the revenue under existing laws. 41. Under the present system delinquencies in subordinate officers are not certain to be reported, because those whose dtity it is to detect and report such delinquencies — the delin- quencies, for instance, of assistant assessors — are oftentimes as inefficient as the delinquents themselves. 42. To a very great extent. 43. I annex herewith a statement showing the amount collected on distilled spirits in each collection district in the United States for the fiscal years ending June 30, 1865, 1866, and 1867. 44. The subject is very largely engrossing the attention of the Ways and Means Com- mittee of the House of Representatives, but the receipts w hich the government should derive from this tax can only be derived through officers of integrity and ability. Legislation can do something, but more depends upon the character of the men who administer the law. 45. I cannot answer this definitely nor even approximately, but much more, I have no doubt, than the present receipts from distilled spirits. The efficiency of the service, in this manner, would be very much increased, though I doubt if all new appointments should be made to the lowest grade only until the service should be somewhat redeemed from its present condition. * • * An equal amount of work could be accomplished under such a system by a less number of persons than are now employed. * * * jf the employment was assured and certain, and promotions granted only to seniority or merit, and no dischaj-ge permitted except for cause, a higher grade of talent and a better quality of persons would, no doubt, be induced to enter the government service. The following is the report relating to the reform of the civil service, con- tained in the Commissioner's annual report, lately presented to Congress : There is no question of a higher personal interest to evicy faithful revenue officer, nor one of hardly greater importance to the public, than that which relates to the recovery of the revenue service from the reproach under which it has fallen. The failure to collect the tax upon distilled spirits, and the imperfect collections from several other objects of taxation, are attributable more to the frequent changes of officers, and to the inefficiency and corrup- tion of many of them, than to any defect of the law. I write this in the advocacy and the defence of every worthy, honest officer, but I write it with shame. The legal evidence of its truth may never be found, but the moral evidence is patent to every thoughtful observer. The law can never be thoroughly enforced except in those districts where the officers, both principal and subordinate, in the revenue and judiciary departments alike, are earnestly determined that it shall be, nor except when the combined and active hostility of all thuae CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UXITED STATES 27 against whom it is enforced shall be insufficient for the removal of any officer opposed to their plunderings. The dishonesty of an assistant assessor, or an inspector, whose offences cannot be discovered, prejudices the efficiency and good standing of all his associate oiScers of every variety, and the community, ignorant of the exact nature and locality of the evil, ascribe to it undoubtedly a wi^er and more general existence than it really possesses. I honor more and more the officer who yields neither to temptation nor threats, and to him it is due, as it is due to the country, that the revenue service be rescued from the control of purely political favor, which has for many years too largely dictated the appointments in most departments of the government, and that it be more thoroughly interwoven with the highest interests of the treasury. Men should bo appointed to place because they are needed, and because they are qualified, not because they are out of employment, and are the supporters of a political party or person. They are not thus employed in banks, counting- rooms, and factories. _ Every community has a right to expect and to require that the per- sons intrusted in it with important interests pertaining to the general government shall have earned its confidence in their integrity and ability. The evil is inherent in the manner of appointments, and lies deeper than the present supremacy of any political party. Assessors and collectors are appointed by the President with the confirmation of the Senate. Their subordinates, except deputy collectors, are appointed by the Secretary of the Treasury, and under the long-continued practice of the department, upon the recommendations of the assessors and collectors of the districts where service is to be rendered. Political pressure, and combinations born of corrupt and corrupt- ing purposes, too often remove and appoint assessors and collectors, and they in turn, while making recommendations for their inferior officers, are surrounded and overborne or deluded by politicians, or whiskey operators disguised as such. Their tenure of office, when secured, is uncertain and feeble, seeming to be strengthened rather by concessions to wrong than by exacting the rights of the government. This is not so in any other civilized and important nation on the earth. They have all passed through our present experience, and it will be fortunate for us if we shall profit by their example. It is not within the purpose and scope of an annual report to consider at length the civil service of other countries, and indeed it was so fully detailed in the report of the Joint Com- mittee on Retrenchment during the last Congress, and the necessities of this country in this behalf so fully portrayed, that little more need be done by me, perhaps, than to invite the attention of the Secretary of the Treasury to the report itself, Avith its accompanying papers, and to the remarks of Mr. Jenckes, of Rhode Island, upon its introduction to the House of Representatives. The subject, however, is of such vital importance to the ititereats with which I am charged, that I cannot forbear a brief reference to its controlling and principal features in several countries with whose institutions we are most familiar. British statesmen had learned wisdom from the necessities of the distant colonial depend- encies of the kingdom, and the character of its civil service had long been improving, but it was not until the famous order in council of May 21, 1855, that the patronage of the Crown and its officers at home was partially limited to those who should successfully pass the exam- ination of the civil service commission then established. The system is not so comprehensive as that of several countries on the continent, but its advantages are growing more and more apparent through all the departmeuts of the govern- ment. There are in tact two examinations, one to determine whether a person has the minimum or standard qualification necessary to candidacy, and the other of a competitive character, in which all the candidates designated for a particular position participate. He who secures the greatest number of marks indicating degrees of proficiency, both in theo- retical and practical acquirements, provided he has done well in all, receives the appoint- ment. The commission, however, have a well established rule that " unless we are satisfied with the evidence produced of the moral character of candidates, we are bound to withhold cur certificate. The number of persons rejected will suffice to prove that these precautious are by no means superfluous, even though the candidates are in most cases recommended by persons of some position in society." The marks are published with the list of appointments, and the applicants and the public are made acquainted with the actual and relative standing of all who become connected with the service. A candidate must be free from debt before appointment, and must make solemn oath that neither he nor any person for him within his knowledge has, directly or indirectly, given or promised to give any gratuity or reward for obtaining, or endeavoring to obtain, Lim a position. Any officer arrested for debt is suspended, and, if not free from debt at the end of twenty-eight days, is superseded. The elective franchise is denied to all officers of the service. Pro(notious are made only after prescribed periods of employment, and only upon the application of the candidate himself. Should another make application for him, and he not be able to show that it was without his knowledge, he is punished for the offence by a reprimand ; for the second of a like nature, by transfer ; and for the third, by reduction. Promotions are earned, not given through favor, and are indicative of absolute merit. Officers are liable to be transfeiTed to any place in the kingdom, and although periodical transfers are discontinued, the board reserves the right to transfer at pleasure without ascribing cause therefor. There is permanency in the service. , Removals of those imme- diately connected with the inland revenue are never made for personal or political reasons. I have examined a register of those now employed, and while I have not made an accu 28 CIVIL SERVICE OP THE UNITED STATES. rate calculation of their average period of service, because of ivant of time necessary fo So so, I am sure that it cannot be less than fourteen years. Many have served from 2U to ^JO years, and a comfortable support is secured to all who shall be placed upon the superannu- ated list. Mr. Timm, after a long and honorable service as solicitor to the commission, has recently retired upon a pension of £1,800 per annum, and Mr. Trevor, from that of con- troller of legacy duties, upon an allowance of about £1,500, after a consecutive service of 41 years and five months. As many changes have been occasioned in the British service during the past year by death as by all other reasons combined. The French revenue system is the result of nearly a hundred years' experience. Every officer in it below the minister of finance commenced his seiTiee in a clerkship or some more subordinate position, and the advancement which his fidelity and ability secured has never been hindered by political frowns or even by political revolutions. His appointment was without partiality, and public examination has awarded him his promotions. For more than fifty years a semi-annual record has been kept of every man's official con- duct as reported by different superior officers. This is u, testimony and encouragement to faithful effort, and a security against malicious and unfounded charges. Under such a System it becomes almost impossible for an unworthy man to work his way to a position where his incompetency or his corruption can largely prejudice the reputation of the service or materially affect the revenue of the empire. Indeed, the corruption of an officer in France or England, or anywhere else where a proper system determiues appointments, very rarely exists. The civil service of Germany is superior to that of England or France. Throughout the entire confederation special education is added to the requirements elsewhere made of moral fitness, and a certain measure of attainments tested by competitive examinations. As with us there are normal schools for the preparation of teachers, and academies for those who are to officer our army and navy, so there are in Germany, at public charge, schools and uni- versities for the special and appropriate education of those who are to become connected with the public administration of the laws. The higher the standard of requirements has been raised, the larger has been the number of aspirants for employment, because the elevation of the character of the service itself has persuaded men of the highest position and attainments to offer themselves as rivals for its honors and its emoluments The prominent and enviable position which Prussia has won among nations is due not more to the character of her people aud the natural resources of the kingdom than to the careful preliminary training of those in the several departments of the government to whom her resources are intrusted, and whom she keeps in her service as long as they are worthy of her trust. I am aware that the peculiarity of our institutions, and the fact that all political parties have learned to expect much actual service from their office-holders, may prejudice, and for a time prevent, in this country, the adoption of a system as universal and valuable as that of Germany, but the Constitution itself has elevated the nutional judiciary above the fluctu- ations of popular favor by appointment during good behavior, and there is equal need that revenue officers shall exercise their judgment and execute the law without fear of personal disadvantage. The rights of property abjudicated by all the courts of the country, State and national, in a single year are of small amount when compared with those which are passed upon in the various revenue offices during the same period. H. R. Hulburd, Comptroller of the Currency : No. 3. Clerk in office of Comptroller of Currency from January 24, 1864, to August 1, 18B5. Deputy Comptroller from August 1, 1865, until appointment as Comptroller. No. 17. Yes ; all appointed under me, with reference to naturj of work to be performed, and their intelligence, education, &c. No. 33. The most inefficient are those whose applications are most strongly urged. No. 33. Yes ; provided the candidate should have reached a certain age, and received a good preliminary education. No. 34. Yes. No. 3.5. Yes ; with the modification in regard to seniority, which alone would not be certain to advance the most meritorious. No. 36. Thirty female clerks in my office as counters and copyists. They compare favorably in diligence, efficiency and attention to duty, with males. Classification of them by merit is just as desirable as of males. The women are employed as counters of bank notes and as copyists. None of this kind of work is performed by men, and men could not do it better than it is now done by women. The male clerks are all employed as bookkeepers or as correspondents, duties that could not be as well performed by women. I think it would be well to have different grades for women. All are not equally meri- torious, and some discrimination might, with great propriety, and I think with good effect, be made as to the grade allotted, or the compensation allowed. The stimulus furnished by the chance of promotion would operate with perhaps as much force upon the female mind as upon the masculine intellect. No. 37. Better salaries should be attainable, by men of ability, in the civil service. During the last two years seven men, who by their ability and experience had become valuable to this office, have resigned, being offered higher salaries in active business. Banking insti- CIVIL SEKVICE OF THE UNITED STATES, 29 tutions pay from $2,500 to $5,000 per annum to men for work which I am expected to -have done, so as to defy criticism, at salaries ot $1,600 to $1,800. This is a difficulty hard to be overcome. F. E. Spiuner, Treasurer of the United States : No. 3. Auditor and deputy naval officer, port of New York, from 1845 to 1849. Member of Coupjress from 1855 to 1861. 23. Forty-seven of my subordinates have served in the Union armies ; one in the United States navy; quite a large number, including females, in army hospitals. Nine have bei-n associated with the press. There are different grades of efficiency among them in the sauie class. The pay of the several classes is now $1,200, $1,400, $l,f>00, and $1,800. luleiine- diate classes of $1,300, $1,500, and $1,700 would more equally distribute the pay accordiug to service. 24. Of the employes in this office there were appointed — During the years 1866 and 1867 100 Daring the years 1864 and 1865 119 During the years 1862 and 1B63 48 Over six and less than ten years ago 10 Over ten and within fifteen years since 3 In the office over fifteen years 2 Total in office December 31, 1867 282 29. I am not aware that any of my subordinates pursued any course of study before appointment with the special view of qualifying them for the service ; that they were taken indiscriminately from the various employments of civil life is evidenced by the following list of their previous occupations, viz: 7 accountants, 13 bankers, 18 bookkeepers, 27 clerks, 1 detective, 2 druggists, 1 editor, 5 farmers, 1 hackdriver, 1 housekeeper, 1 hotel steward, 16 laborers, 1 lawyer, 1 machinist, 1 manufacturer, 8 mechanics, 14 merchants, 2 messen- gers, 1 minister, 1 page, 1 porter, 1 postman, 2 salesmen, 1 sculptor, 12 students, 1 surveyor, 24 teachers, 2 telegraphists, 1 county treasurer, 1 waiter, 1 washerwoman, 1 watchman, and of no particular occupation, 112 ; total number, 282. 32. The class of clerks that have the strongest political and other written recommendations are generally the ''least diligent and efficient." Such are apt to place all hope of promotion on such recommendations, and seem not to think it necessary to be over attentive to the pub- lic business. 33. As a whole it is probable that "the efficieney of the service might be increased" by the course indicated in this question. But, in this office, the duties of the clerks' are so diverse that it often happens that men fitted for a particular place can be had from the outside who better answer the requirements of the place than any one holding a lower grade in the office. '.a: Am not prepared to say that "an equal amount of work could be done" by "a less number of persons under such a system alone, but such a reorganization could be made as would certainly bring about such a result. 35. If "employment was assured and certain,'' and if promotions were made only on merit, the efficiency of the service wonld, no doubt, be greatly promoted thereby. But if such pro- motions were granted "to seniority only," the efficiency of the service would, in my opiniun, be greatly damaged thereby. The power to withhold promotion or to dismiss for cause should not be impaired. 36. The compensation of the female clerks in this office bears about the proportion to that of male clerks for the same service as three to five. There is little difference between the two in regard to diligence, efficiency, and attention to the business of the office. The efficiency of the female clerks would be greatly promoted if they were classified according to merit only. Some female cierks are now equal to some males ; yet, ^under present laws, some male clerks receive double the pay of any female clerk Some female clerks do more than double the work of some others, yet all of them are paid the same salary. 37. With competent men at the heads of the various departments and bureaus of the gov- ernment, the efficiency of all of them is assured. With incompetents in these positions, inefficiency must follow. Where a head is wrong, the whole body will be wrong ; and no amount of legislative physique can give vigor and efficiency to a body that has a weak or an inefficient head. N. L. Jeffries, Register of the United States Treasury : No. 3. In military service from September, 1861, to October, 1866. From August, 1863, to August, 1864, was provost marshal general of States of Maryland and Delaware. From August, 1864, to September, 18ii5, on duty at the War Department as Assistant Provost Marshal General of the United States. No. 17. There have been 81 appointments, 13 males and 63 females. All the male clerks havu been examined as to their qualifications. No. 18. The 68 female clerks were not examined. No. 32. Those who rely on political influence. No. 33. Yes. 30 CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. No. 34. Yes. No. 35. Yes. No. 36. Yes. The compensation is ninch less. Those receiving $903 salary perf.irm ser- vice equal to that of males receiving .$1,600, in some cases. A system of promotion, depend- ing on merit, adopted and carried out, would be of great advantage ; but under present sys- tem of making appointments it would be impossible. Female clerks are as diligent and efficient as males. 5. M. Clark, Chief of Printing Division National Currency Bureau : No. 3. Chief clerk of the office of construction in the Treasury Department nearly four years ; subsequently engineer in charge of that office for about two years ; and for the past five years have been the disbursing agent of the treasury extension. 6. I was referred for examination in August, 1856, in this department, to a board of examiners appointed by the Secretary of the Treasury, consisting of Mr. Eodman, then chief clerk, and Major Barker, and Mr. McKean. two prominent fourth-class clerks. The "full particulars of such examination" were as follows: I was instructed by the then Secretary to appear before this board at a given time and place to be examined. I put in my appearance at the time and place stated in my instructions. Major Barker commenced the " examination" by saying: "You are from New York, I believe, Mr. Clark?" I replied that I was. He then commenced a detailed narrative of his first visit to New York, and gave me an interesting and graphic account of the disturbance created in his mind by the "noise and confusion" of the great city. The delivery of this narrative occupied, as nearly as I remember, about half an hour. I listened to it attentively, endeavoring to discover some point in his discourse which had refer- ence to my (then present) "examination." I failed to discover any relevancy, and therefore made no reply. At the close of his narrative, without any further question, he said to his associate examiners, "Well, gentlemen, I presume there is no doubt but that Mr. Clark is qualified." Whereupon they all signed the certificate, and my "examination" closed. No. ]8. Yes ; those pressed upon me by Congressmen ; but few are now in the service, as I get rid of the undesirable whenever a reduction of force offers opportunity. No. 19. The employments are specialties, requiring skilled experts who have been simi- larly employed in private life before ; other branches of the work ai'e new, and the hands require to be educated in it after being hired. No. 32. Those recommended by members of Congress. No. 33. Yes ; the examination should be by the party who is responsible for proper execu- tion of the work. No. 34. Yes. No. 35. Yes ; if hired and promoted for merit, not seniority. No.' 36. There are ; compensation half that of males, but they do not perform same class of service. But where service is same pay is equal. Appointments for competency alone, and promotions for merit, not seniority, improve general efficiency of the service. No. 37. I infer that the committee intend that I shall here confine my reply to the efficiency and economy of conducting the division of which I have charge, though the question is framed sufficiently broad to cover the entire civil service of the government. I therefore, as a reply, reproduce the recommendation in reference to this division made In my report to the Secre- tayr, and through him to Congress, in November, 1864, as a reply to the question : ' ' RECOMMENDATIONS. "The Secretary directs me to state what legislation, in my judgment, is necessary, if any, for the future operations of this division, and to make such recommendations for his consid- eration as my experience in the work may dictate. "In my judgment, this division, which now only exists ex necessitate rei, should be organized bylaw as a distinct and separate bureau, to beentitled ' The Engraving and Printing Bureau of the Treasury Department.' The necessity for paper issues, in some form, is likely to be coexistent with the public debt, and the production of such issues in connection with the production of the currency for the national banks, and the large amount of printing and engraving required for the various drafts, checks, and certificates of the Treasurer, assistant treasurers, and disbursing agents, will give ample employment for such a bureau, if per- manently organized and established by law. The internal revenue stamps, postage stamps, envelopes, postal money orders, and all similar work for other departments, could be more economically and safely produced by such a bureau than by the present method of contract- ing with individuals or private corporations. Much other incidental work would also natu- rally be done under such a bureau. "The work should all be executed in a fire-proof building, to be erected and exclusively occupied for this purpose. A substantial but not costly structure should be built on the grounds adjacent to the Treasury building, and communication between it and the rooms occupied by the Treasurer of the United States should be made by a subterranean passage between the two buildings through which the printed values could be transmitted, thus avoiding such risk of transmission as attends the present method of carrying the finished money through the main halls and passages of the treasury, to which both the public and the treasury force have free access. The experience of the past two years in this division in connection with the detailed descriptions which have been obtained of the construction of CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 31 the tiuildings in which the Banks of England and of France prepare and issue their notes, ■will enable the interior accommodations to be economically and conveniently planned for the safe prosecution of the work, if such a structure should be authorized by Conpress. "The head of the bureau should be appointed by the Secretary of the Treasury, subject to confirmation by the Senate. Its affairs cannot, in my judgment, be successfully adminis- tered by a division of its responsibility under different heads. One chief, and one alone, should guide its details, under the general direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, to insure its economy, safety, and efficiency. Perfect integrity, with a familiar knowledge of all the details of the work to be done, should be combined in this head, and about him every possible guard should be thrown, to prevent all opportunity for fraud or malfeasance. "A rigorous system of accountability — frequent, and where it is possible, daily adjust- ment of accounts — regular and systematic daily reports, to be cnrefully scrutinized and tested by competent officers not connected with the bureau, will be found essential safeguards ; and these, if properly systemized and made of record, will, at all times, satisfy the depart- ment and the public of the daily condition of the trust. But no system, however ingeniously and skilfully devised, will compensate for lack of integrity; a,nA freedom from all desire of gain should largely characterize the incumbent of such an office. Men of such character, amply qualified, are readily found, if sought for in the pioper walks of life. They are to be sought for the office, as they are not seekers after office. The merchant and manufacturer find no difficulty in getting such men for private establishments, and government need not, if it seeks in the same quarter and offers like inducements for permanency upon proper discharge of the trust and performance of the duties. The salary should be sufficiently large to insure a maintenance with reasonable accumulation, and thp tenure of the enipfoymeut should not be subject to political changes. The employment should continue so long as the duties are well and faithfully perforrned. "The employes upon the work should be hired and discharged, on their merits, by the head of the bureau alone, who shou.d be held strictly accountable for the integrity and good conduct of all his subordinates, for the Correctness of the accounts, and for the safe handling of all the products. To this end he should be empowered to make such rules and regula- tions for the guidance of these subordinates as he is willing, personally and officially, to abide the result of. Any method of business which places out of his control the complete power over his aids, or which lessens the belief and knowledge of that power among them all, will, I feel the sti'ongest conviction, result in disaster. Experience proves that the adoption of such guides for the employment for these responsible mechanical operations, as usually guide appointments for clerical purposes, do not not result satisfactorily. The head of the bureau should select his aids solely for their fitness for the work and its responsibilities, irrespective of the locality of the applicant or of his professed claims for government patronage, or of any political or partisan influence which, may be brought to guide such selection." My experience in this division since this report was rendered confirms the entire propriety of these recommendations. The system of hiring or appointing parties simply because they have rendered partisan service is fraught with danger, tends to demoralize and degrade the service, and is an effective bar to the efficient, economical, and honest despatch of public business. Until this system is entirely done away with, the business will be, as now, badly, if not dishonestly; conducted, at an unnecessary cost to the treasury. A. B. Mullett, supervising architect, Treasury Department, Washington : No. 33. I think appointments should be made, as a rule, in the lowest grade, and promo- tions made according to merit. I consider a practical test such as could be obtained by an appointment on trial, better than any test examinations. Many of the most worthless clerks in the department pass the best examinations, and probably could one still more rigid, while some of the most valuable could not. The duties of most of the clerks employed in the department require, beyond a good education, proficiency only in the special branch to which their duties are confined. Nos. 34 and 35. Undoubtedly. At present the best talent cannot be retained in the higher grades of the public service for two reasons, viz : First, it is underpaid, and, second, no amount of capacity, honesty and fidelity, can secure the position. No. 36. No. No. 37. If civil officers were appointed for good conduct, at salaries sufficient to maintain them in a suitable manner, an3 provision made for retiring them on say half pay when super- annuated, the civil service could and would retain the services of competent and efficient men in all of its branches, instead of being, as at present, considered by a large majority of its appointees as a mere temporary employment in which there is no inducement to perform any other duty than is absolntely required. Benjamin Peirce, Superintendent Coast Survey : No. 33. This is the practice now in the Coast Survey. No. 34. Yes. No. 35. Yes, undoubtedly. No. 36. Yes; four. About the same as aids ; they are quite intelligent. No. 37. Appointments for merit alone. 32 CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. The following suggestions are presented by instruction and under authority of Mr. Attorney G-eneral Stanbery : (A.) In each bureau of the government an officer, with a tenure during good behavior, (who might be called a superintendent, director, or other name, ) whose duty it should be to supervise the working of the system of business therein, under the command of the chief of the bureau. The present chief clerks occupy a position somewhat similar ; but a precarious tenure is naturally opposed to regular, rigid, and complete system. Either the clerks would find their true level under such a supervision, or else the head of the office must bear a visible personal responsibility. (B.) All clerks divided into two classes, viz: permanent and probationary. All permanent clerks to be of one grade, of a salary much higher than the present average. No appoint- ment to he made in any case but from probationary clerks, after a certain period of probation. (C ) These to be appointed as all clerks are now appointed, and to receive a specific and equal compensation, say half as much as clerks. But their employment to cease at the pleasure of the appointor, and in all cases after one year's continuance. To be eligible for ■a second, probably a third, probation. (D.) With some hesitation I add that the appointment of a person on probation, with his name and that of the persons on whose recommendation he was selected, might be published. The latter would work much good, but doubtless some evil. If a board could be tiseful in any event it might determine appointments to the probationary class. I think it highly^probable that more perfect system and a better personnel in the offices would make it practicable to conduct the public business heller with much fewer clerks ; I almost venture to believe, with one-half the present number. Avery large proportion of the the labor is now, substantially, only to check a carelessness or dullness not provided for in private business establishments. J. M. Binekley, Acting Attorney General : No. 37. There is room for reform in method of business and standard of qualification, &c. A. A. Harwood, Superintendent Lighthouse Board : No. 33. Beyond a doubt. No. 34. Yes. No. 35. Certainly. No. 37. Appointments for merit, and retention during good behavior ; promotion by seniority. Declares himself emphatically in favor of the proposed reform, by which the general effi- ciency of all classes in the civil service would be greatly improved. He thinks that much of the inefficiency of an office is due to frequent changes in inferior positions, and declares it to be a lure to men who have failed in other avocations and a temptation to all who, not knowing how long they are to enjoy the fruit of their labors, pro- portion the amount and accuracy of work to the prospect of the harvest. Assistant Secretary W. S. Otto, of the Interior Department : A very large amount of money is, in my opinion, lost to the government by the frequent changes that are made in the appointments of persons to other offices who have no acquaint- ance whatever with the duties thereof. On becoming sufficiently familiar with them, they are too often discharged without an imputation upon their personal or official integrity. The salary paid to clerks whose duties are merely those of copyists is very liberal, largely exceeding that paid for similar services in any other walk of life, or, as far as I am aware, by foreign governments. In the higher branches of clerical duty, demanding something beyond mechanical labor and routine, the clerks are not sufficiently paid. The Assistant Secretary and the heads of bureaus in this department are not proportionately as well paid as the clerks. There is a singular irregularity in their compensation. The Commissioner of Patents receives |4,500 per annum, which is 50 per cent, more than is paid to either the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, the Commissioner of Pensions, or the Com missioner of the General Laud Office. The duties of these last-named officers exact as much time and thought, and require as high an order of qualifications as do those of the Com- missioner of Patents. The disparity in the compensation of the heads of bureaus in this department and of officers holding corresponding positions in the War and Navy Departments, demands, in my opinion, the early attention of Congress. Every head of a bureau in the War Department receives, in pay and emoluments, more than a hundred per cent, greater salary than is paid to the head of a bureau in this department, except the Commissioner of Patents. It is idle to sup- pose that the duties of a Paymaster General or Quartermaster General are more arduous than those of the Commissioner of Pensions, or the Commissioner of the General Laud Office. These officers in the War Department receive the "pay and emoluments" of brigadier generals. 1 presume that the attention of Congress has not been called to the subject, or such a distinction would not be made between officers whose position in the public service gives them an equal claim upon the country. VV^as not examined and never pursued any special studies with a view of fitting myself for CIVIL SEKVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 33 the ofSee -which I hold, nor did I produce any evidence of qualification. I have been circuit judge, and held other State offices in Indiana, but had no other evidence of qualifica- tion, excepting that I was known personally and by reputation to Ex-Secretary Usher, at whose suggestion I was appointed by President Lincoln. There is no special printedbook or manual setting forth the duties of my office. Make no report to any one concerning the performance of the duties of my office ; confer habitually with the Secretary in regard to the business of the department, except that which relates to the appointment to office. Under Secretary Usher possessed the appointing power ; the examination of each applicant should be thorough and efficient. Do not know the previous occupation of subordinates, and whether any of them pursued any course of study with a view of qualifying themselves for the service. Recommendations of the applicant are filed. Unable to state how many of the persons employed in the department have served in the Union army and how many members of the press, and also unable to state the various periods of appointment and the various ages of the employes, and do not know how many have been removed since I have been in office. Not positively know what the rules of office are, but have every reason to believe that promotion is governed exclusively by seniority, all other " things" being equal. Wield no longer the appointing power under Secretary Browning, and that this, as well as the final question of promotion, rests with the Secretary, and with him alone. Very large amount of money is lost to the government by the frequent changes that are made in the appointment of persons to other officers who have no acquaintance whatever with the duties thereof. On becoming sufficiently familiar with them they are too often dis- missed without an imputation upon their personal or official integrity. Joseph H. Barrett, Commissioner of Pensions, with about 1,500 persons under his control, declares — That an examination is made by his subordinate officers of new appointees, but fails to give detailed particulars of such examination. He admits that not one of the per- sons under his control pursued any special studies to fit himself for his duties. He is, on the whole, in favor of the proposed reform, and thinks that under the suggested system an equal amount of work could be accomplished by a less number of persons and a higher grade of talent and better quality of pereons be induced to enter the government service. Horatio Bridge, chief of Bureau of Provisions and Clothing, Navy Depart- ment, suggests : To reduce the number of clerks 33J per centum, dispensing with those of least capacity, industry and efficiency, and to add 25 per centum to the pay of those who remain or who should be afterwards appointed, would, as a general rule, in my opinion give more efficiency and economy to the civil service. But this result can only be secured by strict and impartial examinations, and by the assurance that faithful and efficient clerks will not be dismissed to make places for less valuable public servants. A. B. Eaton, Commisisary General of Subsistence : No. 28. The rule of promoting the most meritorious and those of highest qualifications is sufficiently, prominent, as a governing rule of action in this bureau, to insure promotion and a successful career to those clerks oi the lowest grade who render themselves especially meritorious. This rule of promotion would have a much more successful effect if the num- ber of clerks of the different classes were different in numbers, and consequently in salaries, from what they are now in this bureau. Now the clerks of this bureau (40 in number) are as follows^ Of class one, (salary $1,200 per annum,) 24 clerks; of class two, (salary $1,400 per annum, ) 12 clerks ; of class three, (salary .$1,600 per annum,) one clerk; of class four, (salary f 1,800 per annum,) one clerk. i take this opportunity very strongly to recommend that a law may be enacted classifying and paying them as follows, viz : Class five, (salary $2,200,) one clerk ; class four, (salary $1,800,1 six clerks; class three, (salary $1,600,) 12 clerks; class two, (salary $1,400,) 15 clerks; class one, (salary |1, 200,) six clerks; messenger, (salary $1,200,) one messenger; assistant messengoF, (salary $900, ) two assistant messengers; laborers, (salary $720,) two laborers. The present salaries paid the clerks of this bureau are too low to make their positions suf- ficiently desirable to hold them in the government service any longer than the time neces- sary to find other and better paying positions. Such salaries as are above proposed would insure to the government the services of those superior men who now, when better paying positions are oflfered them, vacate this office to be succeeded by others of less experience. No. 29. Not in this bureau. No. 30. I have not. No. 31. I have not found tha diligence and efficiency hear any special relation to age, except that very youthful or very aged persons are apt, from the almost certain accompani- H. Eep. Com. 47 3 34 CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. ments of those periods of life, to fail in accomplishing as much work as those of the inter- mediate period of life. In this bureau there is nothing to complain of either as to youth or age. No. 32. Some of those who have been in the military service, and who on that account are encouraged to claim, and who do claim at the hands of the government and its responsi- ble agents, special consideration, indulgence, and leniency, and who seem to have an idea that public sentiment will secure them their places even if they do not perform their duties very faithfully. No. 33. The course stated in this question is that now substantially observed in this bureau and which works out good results. Such a general rule will, I think, usually be found to subserve the public interests. I suggest that all candidates should be examined to show that they po.ssess the requisite qualifications. This bureau has often been saved from poor or worthless clerks by the Secretary of War having always required that, previous to appointment, they should be certified by a board to be qualified. None are promoted in this bureau who have not, in a lower grade, proved themselves competent for a higher. This proof, by an examination or from the personal knowledge of the senior officer in charge of the bureau or department, should be had. No. 34. The more accomplished the clerks the more work will be done by them. Where the system of examination does not prevail, it would, I have no doubt, be an improvement to introduce it. It would lessen the number of cleika necessary to do a given amount of work, since its result would be an improvement of the personnel of the bureau or depart- ment in which they served. All such examinations should, however, be made by or under the supervision or orders of the head of the department in which the service is to be ren- dered, and not by a general board of examination for all government employes, as none but such head and his responsible assistants can know so well as they do the qualifications requisite for the special places to be filled. No. 35. Undoubtedly, provided the salaries paid for " the government service" be placed upon a fair and just footing, so that such " better quality of persons " possessing "a higher giade of talent" would seek for, and, obtaining, would wish permanently to retain such government service. In this connection I respectfully, so far as this bureau is concerned, refer to my answer to question 28 No. 36. There are no females employed in this bureau. No. 37. Not being in the "civil service,", it may be that I am not the proper person to remark upon a matter that has no permissible place under the law or by custom in the mili- tary service. But, as I am directed authoritatively to state any matters which in my judg- ment would tend to make the civil service more efficient and economical, I give my opinion that nothing that I can state would conduce more to efficiency and economy in all depart- ments of the service than to allow each person in the public service an exact, fixed, unde- viating amount of pay for his services, to be established by law and beyond the possibility of misapprehension, and to make it a misdemeanor, with suitable punishment, for any per- son in any department of the public service, under any pretext whatever, to receive a single cent for his services except the precise amount allowed by law. It should be made a crime against the United States for any person holding any office whatever to receive a cent more than his law-allowed compensation. All fees, charges, percentages, commissions, perqui- sites, profits, gains, rentals, premiums, bonuses, discounts, abatements, reductions, draw- backs, rebates, set-offs, rents, preference-bribes, and the thousand other tricky words by which many office-holders cheat the government or the citizen who has dealings with it, or both, should be, by some means, swept away. Every citizen who is ever compelled or allowed to pay one cent that does not go directly to the United States treasury and is not known to be a legal charge, should be invited and required to make official report thereof. I but touch this broad field; it is a fruitful one for investigation with a view to " efficiency and economy." St. John B. L. Skinner, First Assistant Postmaster General : If the civil service should be placed on a permanent footing, with appointments only on axaminations and entering at the lowest grade, with a discipline approximating to that of the naval and military service, on a plan somewhat similar to the one proposed by the Hon. Mr Jenckes at the last session of Congress, I doubt not the service would be greatly improved. A. R. Spofford, Librarian of Congress : • 33. Yes ; but to do it here, the law must be changed. 34. I think, under such a system, followed three or four years, one, and perhaps, two assistants could be dispensed with. 35. Yes, everywhere. 36. No females as yet employed. Under competitive tests, I think half the number here employed might usefully be women, and that the resulting economy to the government would be great. For example, I know of educated and practically industrious women, who could do all that assistant librarians receiving $1,200 to |1, 800 now do, and who would think themselves well paid at $1,000 per year. CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 35 Hon. Henry Barnard, Commissioner of Education : 37. My attention was first called to the mode and conditions of appointment to the civil ser- vice of the United States, in 1829-'3I, by personal observation of the utter unfitness in pre- vious preparation or in general knowledge and practical ability of several appointments, avowedly made on account of political activity ; and of the detriment to the public interests, and to the respect of the people for personal integrity and official service, in the removal of incumbents acknowledged to be honest, efficient, and faithful to the Constitution, but not retained, because they had been silent, or had not been active for the successful party. Since then (1829-'31) I have been t)rought much into near observation of the constantly widening application of this vicious principle, that "to the victors belong the spoils," and of the dis- pensation of all official appointments between the executive and the legislative departments, mainly on the principle of personal and political influence. I have also improved the occa sion of three visits to Europe, and of several consultations with officials in Belgium, France, and Prussia, as well as in England, (since the application of open competitive examinations to the East India service and to the civil service generally,) to inquire into the opera- tion of other systems of appointment. As official visitor to the national schools of Annapolis and West Point, I have had opportunity to inquire into the operation of our mode of selecting candidates for the military and naval service. From these opportunities of observation, and much reflection, I am compelled to say, that we have a more expensive and a less efficient public service than either' of the countries named, and that, unless a new system can be speedily inaugurated, the people will lose all confidence in the integrity and patriotism of public men, and our civil administration will sink deeper and deeper in the " Serbonian bog" of political and selfish combinations and interests. The main features of such a system are, first, a rigid test exahiination, in which evidence of good moral character, thorough elemen- tary instruction, and, as far as practicable, a developed aptitude for certain kinds of public service, should be xequired ; and secoud, all persons who seek public office as the resort of proved incompetency for any private enterprise, or solely on the ground of personal and party affiliations, should be excluded from the start; and third, a scale of compensation and^ a system of promotion, which, while it leaves the heads of departments, divisions, and, bureaus, in all new appointments, the selection of subordinates by proven aptitude for spe- cial work to be done, will give to men of experience, fidelity, and efficiency, constantly increasing pay and a feeling of security that they will not be removed except for proven incapacity. A system of examination, appointment, and compensation, such as is sketched in your report and provided for in your act — such as has been tried and proved successful elsewhere — would make pur naval and military schools less expensive and more useful, and at the same time reduce the number and increase the efficiency of the clerical force in every department of the government; it would diminish the opportunities of political corruption, reduce the dependence of public officers on political movements, increase the respect and attachment of the people to the government, and do mor.e for common schools in every nook and corner of any State, than could be done by any amount of appropriation from the State or national, treasury. Let parents, teachers, and pupils know that the conduct and proficiency of pupils in school will pass into the scale of merit of a board of examination, open to all the youth of a locality or a State ; that the recorded results of such an examination will, to some extent, evidence the fidelity of parents in securing the regular attendance of their childrenat school, as well as the abihty of the teacher in the instruction of his pupils ; that the favorable result of such examination will open to the successful candidates not only a public career, but be the best evidence that individual or incorporated employers could have of rudimentary training and practical ability of applicants for situations ; and an interest will be awakened in public and private schools which does not at this time exist, and which no other govern- ment action can awaken. Letter of A. T. Stewart, esq., of New York : January 11, 1868. In answer to your inquiry I have no hesitation in expressing the opinion that our govern- ment would be enabled to dispense with a vast number of its clerks and other employes, were those only selected who, upon examination by a competent board, were found qualified for the various duties required of them. . , . , It would follow althost as a consequence that if fitness was to be the single test in public as it is in private employment, the experience of the incumbent would give him such an additional value to the public service that his retention- would clearly be a matter of prudence and economy. Eespecting the method to be adopted in dismissal, I should think it advisable to have the power placed where it could be exercised promptly, but without reference to political or party purposes. If such a system can be created, the strife and bitterness of party feeling would be, in a great measure, obliterated, if not destroyed. Finally, it would be material in adopting such a system to make pubhc employment not only honorable but compensatory, by fixing the salaries with reference to the character and qualifications required for it. 36 CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. To illustrate— I would not continue the anomalous practice now pursued with reference t J the custom-house officials in the appraisers' and examiners' department, positions requiring men of great intelligence and probity, but with salaries attached entirely insufScient for respectable support. Men competent to fill such positions of trust should be liberally remunerated if the gov- ernment would be well served and have her interests protected. Trusting that your committee will submit some plan by which our government can be served without making its agents mere instruments of political patronage, Letter of- W. A. Wellman, Boston, Massachusetts : In compliance with the circular of the Joint Select Committee on Retrenchment, I beg leave to submit the following remarks and suggestions, which would in my judgment tend to make the civil service more efficient and economical. I am unable to answer such interroga- tories separately, as some years have elapsed since I resigned my position in the custom- house at this port. The result of my experience and observations for more than a quarter of a century as clerk and deputy collector, I place at the disposal of the committee. The date of my first commission was under the administration of President J. Q. Adams, when appointments were made without regard to political or party influences, and the num- ber of officers was limited to the absolute needs of the service, and the most rigid expendi- ture of the public moneys. On the accession of President Jackson, I was in the midst of rota- tion in office, and witnessed the injuries often resulting from the appointment of inefficient and inexperienced persons, especially in subordinate positions, and much as the government suffered in consequence of their want of knowledge of the revenue laws and their application to the duties of their places and to the commerce of the country, I am sure the mercantile community were the greater losers by their frequent mistakes and delays in the despatch of business. On one occasion where a new collector, at a distant port, had removed all the old incumbents, and before the new appointees had learned their duties, I was deputed to act as temporary deputy, to prepare the required documents for vessels waiting clearance for foreign countries, and to expedite the general business of that office ; and during the years 1829 and 1830, that operation was repeated at other places. Hence will be seen what delays and serious inconveniences arise under such a system of appointments. Fortunately for the mercantile public, the office clerks at this port, with few exceptions, remained undis- tnrbed during the eight years of Collector Henshaw's administration, and the department at .Washington had no occasion to question the faithful discharge of their duties. -As the deputy of the venerable Governor Lincoln, collector in 1841, I was authorized to .iissure his clerks that they would retain their places so long as they attended faithfully to their duties, and did not meddle in politics ; and during his administration a better or more .efficient set of officers never served the government and the public. But the political pressure was too great to carry this excellent rule into the other departments, and with all the vigi- , lance and sound discretion exercised, mistakes occurred and the people were the sufferers. With each succeeding administration rotation in office has been continued without regard, too often, to the qualifications or fitness of the appointees; the number of offices are greatly multipli^; the rules and regulations are more onerous and complicated, until at length merchants can no longer afford the time necessary to attend to their custom-bouse affairs, but are compelled to employ brokers for that purpose. That the cost of collecting the revenue has been augmented, beyond all ratio of the amount collected, is too palpable for confirmation. In my judgment it is in vain to attempt to reform these abuses short of an entire change .in the laws regulating the civil service ; and I am convinced that the people now demand such legislation as is proposed by your committee. With the enactment of a law providing ■ for appointments from persons best qualified upon competitive examination ; fixing the tenure -of office during good behavior ; grading the various branches of the service, and allowing promotions according to merit ; and establishing a board of commissioners for framing uni- form rules and regulations, the offices would be sought by worthy and competent persons, whom the people would respect, and with whom honest men would gladly co-operate in the detection of frauds and in the prompt execution of the laws of Congress. Under such a system the number employed might be much reduced, and the expenses of the service cur- tailed at least one-third of the present cost, and the public better served, and with more zeal and. fidelity. The details for carrying into effect these reforms will be digested when the board of commissioners shall be established, and I shall be glad to offer some further sugges- tions at the proper time. George 'F. Deming, superintendent United States assay office, New York city : 1. Yes ; superintendent of the United States assay office at New York. 2. May 1, 1861. 3. Had previously held office as follows: from 1840 to 1846, director's clerk; United States mint; from J850 to 1850, treasurer's clerk. United States mint; from 1854 to 1861, superintendent's clerk. United States assay office. 4. Employed six years in a merchant's counting-house in Philadelphia previous to enter- ing the civil service of the government. 5. Educated in Maine. Received the usual school and academic training ; was fitted for college, and spent one year as ' ' university student" in a selected course at Bowdoin College. CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES 37 6. I was examined with reference to my qualifications by Dr. E. M. Patterson, director of the mint, and the examination having been satisfactory, I was appointed director's clerk in January, 1840. This examination had reference exclusively to my qualifications for the duties of the office. 7. The testimony of mutual friends consulted by the director, and at whose suggestion and without solicitation on my part, the office was offered to me. 8. Appointed superiotendeut of the United States assay office by the Secretary of the Treasury, Hon. S. P. Chase, with the approval of President Lincoln, as required by law. Recommended by my predecessor, S. F. Butterworth, esq., whose chief clerk I had been for more than six years ; by the director and other officers of the United States mint ; by the president and officers of the Bowdoin College, and by leading citizens of Brunswick, Maine, my native place ; by officers of 11 banks and banking houses, the mayor and influential cit- izens of Rochester, N. Y.; by seventeen members of the New York State senate; by five banlt officers and others at Albany, N. Y.; by the presidents of ]G banks and trust companies, and by nine of the leading private bankers in New York city ; by Senator Fessenden, of Maine, and Governor Buckingham, of Connecticut. Other individual recommendations were pre- sented, the list of which is not at hand. 9. Present salary of superintendent of United States assay office |4,500. It is larger than my previous salary. 10. I had, as stated in answers numbered 4 and 5, and in an experience of sixteen years in the actual performance of duties connected with the mint service, and studies inci- dent thereto. 11. Only the pamphlet " Laws relating to the mint of the United States and its branches," and a pamphlet containing "Instructions relative to the transaction of business at the mint of the United States and its branches," copies of which are herewith submitted. 12. To the director of the mint at Philadelphia, quarterly and annually, and at other times when required. The quarterly reports embrace the details of the business of the assay office dm-ing the quarter, giving the amount of bullion deposited, and indicating its various kinds and the sources whence it is derived ; also, the amount of bullion refined, and of fine bars manufactured. The annual reports embrace the same points more accurately stated for the year, and give also a statement of the condition of the office, and the manner in which the year's business has been performed. In October of each year, the superintendent prepares and submits to (iie director a state- ment of the expenses of the assay office, with estimates of the amounts required to be appropriated by Congress for the support of the institution for the fiscal year next following. Reports upon special subjects are also occasionally made by the superintendent to the Secretary of the Treasury. The substance of the annual report of the superintendent is given in the annual report of the director of the mint to the Secretary of the Treasury. A copy of this report for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1867, is herewith submitted. 13. The. office hours of the assay office are from 10 a. m. till 3 p. m., the customary business hours in New York city. I seldom leave my office before 5 o'clock p. m., and am frequently detained later in the evening. 14. Fifty-five persons are at present employed in the office under my superintendence, classified as follows: 1. Officers and clerks, 10 persons; 2. Assistants, 6 persons; 3. Door- keepers, watchmen, &c., 13 persons ; 4. Workmen, 26 persons ; all employed permanently. 15. 'The superintendent has a general supervision of the business of the office; con- ducts the correspondence ; makes reports of operations, and prepares estimates of annual appropriations needed ; makes requisitions upon the Secretary of the Treasury for moneys needed to meet expenses ; examines all bills against the office, and issues warrants upon the treasurer for their payment; supervises and checks the treasurer's, calculations of the value of bullion deposits, and issues warrants for their payment, and generally looks after the eco- nomical administration of the office, and the fidelity of the persons employed therein. The treasurer (who is also the assistant treasurer of the United States at New York) has the custody of all moneys and all bullion not in charge of the melter and refiner. He makes all calculations of value of bullion deposits upon reports of the assayer; makes payments upon warrants of the superintendent, and renders monthly and quarterly accounts to the department at Washington. The assayer makes assays of all deposits of gold and silver bullion, and renders detailed reports thereof to the treasurer. He also makes assays of all bullion intended for fine bars, and determines, in conjunction with the melter and refiner, all doubtful questions relating to deposits of bullion. The melter and refiner receive from the treasurer, and is charged in account with, all bullion deposited ; conducts the necessary operations of melting, parting, and refining the same; guards against loss by wastage or otherwise; renders quarterly accounts to the treas- urer of bullion received and returned, and once a year, as required by law, makes a thorough settlement of his account with the treasurer. The clerks and assistants of these officers are engaged in the business of their respective departments, and the workmen who are mainly attached to the melter and refiner's depart- ment perform the various duties required by that officer. 38 CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATE S. The hours of public business are from 10 o'clock a. m. till 3 p. m. The workmen are ot iluty from 7 o'clock a. ra. till 4 o'clock p. m., unless the state of business permits an earlier dismissal. 16. No record is kept of applications for employment. They are very frequent for the place of workmen, but are seldom successful for the reason that skilled workmen are required, and it is deemed the wisest policy to retain faithful employes and make as fev? changes as possible 17. As far as practicable and necessary, careful inquiry is made as to character and qualifications. As the duties of employes at a mint or assay office are special in their char- acter, they have, for the most part, to be learned within the establishment. The only test of qualification which is practicable, therefore, is the consideration of general intelligence and capacity to learn. A brief trial in actual service has been resorted to in doubtful cases, and candidates thus proved unfit have been rejected. 18. No appointments have been made in this institution during my superintendence without careful examination or inquiry as to character and qualifications as above indicated. 19. Of the sixteen officers, clerks, and Assistants in this office, three ha^ received a previous training in the United States mint. These were men of scientific reputation. Six were taken from mercantile pursuits, and four were young men of good education and capacity, but without previous experience in regular business. Of the 39 workmen and otheis, 10 had been previously employed in the United States mint, and the rest were mostly mechanics of various kinds of the better sort. 20. Most of the persons now employed in this office have been appointed for merit alone. A few may have owed their appointments originally to political influences, but they are now retained solely on account of their qualifications. Political considerations have very little to do with my appointments. Good character, capacity, and, in the light ot recent events, loyalty, are a sine qua nun, 21. Most of the applications for places are made in person; but frequently by letter, supported by the recommendations of influential men. 22. All applications and recommendations made in writing are placed on file in the office of the superintendent. 23. The United States assay office at New York contributed 12 volunteers to the army and navy during the war of the rebellion. No person now employed in this office has, to my knowledge, ever been connected with the press. There are differences in skill and effi- ciency among employes of the same class. 24. Number of employes appointed — Within 2 years 1 More than 2 and within 4 years 9 More than 4 and within 6 years More than 6 and within 10 years '. 18 More than 10 and within 15 years 27 Office established in 1854. 25. Employes — Under 25 years of age 3 Over 25 and under 30 years of age 2 Over 30 and under 40 years of age 10 Over 40 and uuder 50 years of age 19 Over 50 and under 60 years of age - 14 Over 60 years of age 7 26. Since my appointment in May, 1861, only 10 persons have been removed, and of these removals not one was for political considerations. During the war two of our work- men were removed for carrying their partisanship to the point of practical disloyalty ; but being excellent men in other respects, and never intentionally disloyal, they have been restored to their places. 27. No other basis of promotion than merit is recognized. We have no regular system of promotion, and no prescribed rules. The heads of the several departments recommend per- sons under them, from time to time, as worthy of promotion or increase of pay, and the superintendent, if he approve the recommendation, refers the matter to the Secretary of the Treasury, as required by law. 28. No specific rule of this kind exists; but practically appointments and promotions in this office are determined by the mlo of merit. 29. I have known such cases; but none such have occurred under my superintendence. A bitter experience of political proscription during my first connection with the mint pro- duced in my mind such an impression of its injustice as to make it forever impossible for me to become an agent for its execution. 30. I have known such cases ; but they have been very rare in the mint service within my observation. 31. Difficult to answer. Other things being equal, I would give the preference to young men, say between the ages of 20 and 40. 32. Decidedly those that are made from political and personal considerations only. 33. I have no doubt that such a system of appointment and promotion would greatly increase the efficiency of the public service. CIVIL SEEVICE OP THE UNITED STATES. 39 ' 34. I think tljat if appointments to civil offices, and promotions in office, should he deter- mined hy the character, capacity, and meritorious conduct of the candidates, as is done in private business enterpi-ises, the great army of office-holders might be reduced to half its present number, and that, too, with great improvement to the service. 35. Undoubtedly. One of the evils of the system of filling offices for political reasons only, is, that so many drones must be supported that the governmetit cannot afford to j)ay for the highest grade of talent. 36. No females are employed in this office; but my observation at the mint in Philadelphia during my connection with that institution impressed me very favorably in regard to this class of employes. With such a system of appointment and promotion as is indicated in this question, I am confident that the government might profit greatly by the employment, in various ways, of respectable women. 37. Recapitulating, somewhat, the foregoing statements, I think the civil service would be more efficient and economical if the following principles should, as far as practicable, shape the policy of the government: I. Candidates for appointment or promotion to be rigidly examined as to character and qualifications by competent examiners. 2. Permanence in office and promotion to vacancies in higher grades to be the assured reward of faithful service. 3. New appointments only in the lower grades; and no removals except for incompetency, inef- ficiency, unfaithfulness, or other causes which would constitute a bar to appointment. 4. No proscription for opinion's sake; but while entire freedom of political opinion and action is assured, conspicuous and noisy partisanship to be ground of removal. 5. Compensation to be sufficiently liberal to induce persons of the highest character and capacity to continue for life in the civil service. 6. A retired list, with reduced compensation, for such employes, broken down in the service, as should be found worthy by a competent board of examiners. A. Loudon Snowden, chief coiner United States mint, Philadelphia : To those who accomplish this great work will belong the honor of having inaugurated a new era in the history of our country. She will arise from the dust and cast off her old garments stained with the corruption of the times, and in a new and spotlessrobe march on to the accomplishment of her great destiny. The offices and officers of the land will not alone be benefited and elevated by this separation from the influences of partisanship, but our politics and politicians will feel the ennobling effect of this second great "Proclamation of Emancipation." It is in view of all these important and vital considerations that I witness with profound satisfaction the efforts now being set forth by men of character and patriotism at Washington and elsewhere to reorganize the civil service of the United States upon a sound and enduring basis ; and do I not speak but the words of soberness and truth in declaring that the man who most prominently identifies himself with this great reform, who labors most earnestly, and strikes the most fearlessly and effectively against the present defective and corrupt system, will insure for himself a place on the pages of our history and in the hearts of all true lovers of our country that can alone be occupied by him who does a great and enduring work in behalf of the highest and noble interests of our people and age. The working of the contemplated system would afford in itself a premium for honesty and faithfulness in the discharge of duty. Under its working a class of men would be induced to enter the public service who have hitherto declined to apply for office under the government. » » » * The offices of the country are comparatively few, and yet their corrupt and unnatural use is rapidly lowering tlie standard of public morals and making us a nation of office-seekers. Make the tenure of office during good behavior, and even men of defective moral char- acter will, from very selfishness itself, if from no higher motive, be directed into honest paths. , From the internal revenue department of the government alone there is this day a mighty river of cormption issuing forth, which, unless checked by some wise legislation, will not only deplete the treasury, but utterly demoralize our people. As our institutions rest on the virtue as well as upon the intelligence of the people, these undermining and corrupt influences are most surely and fatally sapping the foundation of the republic. Since the formation of our government, (always excepting the blighting cause of sla- very,) no evil has so warred against its fair fame, or endangered its permanency, as the consequences that flow mediately or immediately from the corrupt use of the offices of the land for partisan or selfish purposes. David Howe, collector internal revenue, Lincolnsville, Maine : Is in favor of holding out inducements to the females to qualify themselves for clerkships in the civil service, and thinks that many branches of the civil service might be benefitted by so employing them. George P. Sewall, assessor internal revenue, Oldtown, Maine, declares : That the revenue service has no manual that is regarded as authority at the present day, the one published by Mr. Boutwell, under the act of 1862, having been rendered to a great extent useless by subsequent legislation, and it being now seldom consulted. He does not 40 CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES, consider examination applicable to tie revenue service, but declares that an equal amount of work could be performed under any system by a less number of persons than are now employed. He thinks that if employment was assured and certain, and promotions granted only to seniority or merit, and no discharge permitted except for cause, a higher grade of talent and a better quality of persons could be induced to enter the government service. In his judgment the pay of assessors and number of assistants should be reduced, and the labor of each increased ; that so much of the revenue act as authorizes payment of a per- centage on the collections of a district in excess of $100,000 should be repealed; that a minimum salary should be allowed assessors, to be increased on the basis of the number of special taxes they assess in excess of 2,500 ; that all assessment districts now existing should be abrogated on the first of May next, and collection districts again subdivided into assessment districts, containing at least 20,000 inhabitants, and an assistant assessor, now in service, resident therein, (if then living,) assigned to each, with power in the assessor to employ temporarily more than one assistant in a division, when authorized so to do by the Commissioner ; that such proportion of the tax collected on spirits as the Commissioner deems expedient should annually be paid to the assessor and assistant, when the same is assessed, and that payment of a special tax as distiller, retail or wholesale dea,ler of spirits should legalize the business— the provisions of any State law to the contrary notwithstanding ; that assessors should act as special agents of the treasury, when required, without other compensation than their regular salary and expenses, and that the officers in all collection dis- tricts should be, from time to time, examined and reported upon by such agents ; that asses- sors and assistants should not be removed without cause, prescribed by law, and should be first heard by the judge of the district court of their State, at chambers, on specific charges filed, who should find and determine all matters of fact involved therein ; that all officers of the revenue should annually return their pecuniary standing, and if their liabilities, except as trustees or administrators, exceed 10 per cent, of their property or means of payment, it should be regarded as cause of removal. S. H. Devereux, collector of customs, Castine, Maine : As matters now stand, a Tna,n fights his way into office ; he spends long months of time, and generally all the money he has, and sometimes all that he can borrow. If he is suc- cessful he goes into his office, and if a man of strict integrity he will, of course, do as well as he can for the government, and do right. If he is not a man of integrity, he will think within himself that the office has cost him quite a large sum, and that he will probably be obliged to vacate the same in about four years, and now I intend to make the most of it. If he has other business he will hold on to it and carry it along with his official duties, and very likely he will pay more attention to his own business than he will to his office, and so the government receives but poor service oftentimes. If he is unsuccessful, he becomes soured against the government and against the party with which he has been associated, and per- haps he will never co-operate with the party again. The whole thing works against the wel- fai e of the country- Every four years there is a bitter war about the offices. I think the present system is the source of more trouble in our nation than any one thing besides. Let the officers of the United States be appointed during good behavior, and promoted according to their worth ; let them have a salary sufficient for their support, and let it be fairly understood that if they do not conduct themselves uprightly and perform their whole duty they must leave and make room for better men ; then, and not till then, there will be a much better state of things. Government officers would give their whole time and attention to the duties of their office, and they would, as a whole, be much more efficient. Let such a system be entered upon, and three-fourths of the bitter feelings and strife which we now have to endure every four years would disappear. Rebellion would not be so likely to show its head : and if it should, it could be put downin half the time. The army of office-holders which we must have in this country would be a steady stream, and would work well together for the true interests of the government. I have been in this office about seven years. I have a large and extensive district, 75 miles of coast, with great facilities for smuggling and defrauding the revenue. I have devoted my whole time to the duties of my office, and think I now understand my duty well. I say that a new man cannot learn the business of this district in four years as he ought to know it. This being the case, of course the government will gain by appointing its officers during good behavior. Of course, I being abeady an officer, favor the new plan; but men who are in office ought to know best how things are working, and their judgment should be none the less valuable for holding office under the United States government. E. S. J. Nealley, collector of customs, Bath, Maine : Thinks that the system indicated would insure a more efficient and economical perform" ance of the civil service. He adds as follows : The simplification of ihe revenue laws, and the condensation of the different acts pertain- ing to navigation and collection of the revenue into one harmonious code together, (if prac- ticable ) A more stable and unchanging system of accounts and reports to the Treasury Department would also tend to insure accuracy and clearness in the understanding and exe- cution of the laws, and require less labor in the custom-houses. CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 41 Isaac W. Smith, assessor of internal revenue, Manchester, New Hampshire, a graduate of Dartmouth college, a lawyer and former member of the State legislature, declares: Female clerks are more attentive, diligent, and efficient than males, and make better clerks, and that he intends very soon to have none but female clerks in his office. W. 0. Kittredge, assessor internal revenue, (late attorney general of Vermont,) Fairhaven : 34. I say that, after the assessment of the annual taxes, which is usually completed in the months of March and April, I think a less number of assistants should be employed. If the present law should be modified, as proposed by the Committee of Ways and Means of the House of Representatives, I am quite sure that four assistants can faith- fully work up this district — that is, one in each county. I should need two in each county for two months in the year. I think, further, that the same rule will apply to the three dis- tricts in this State. W. L. Burt, postmaster, Boston : I think the plan proposed in interrogatory 33 would be a good one, with limitations, for the Post Office Department, and an equal amount of work could be accomplished by a less number of selected employes. I do not think that any higher grade of talent or any better quality of persons would be induced to enter the government service than under present arrangements. We get a good deal better material than we pay for. My men are all over- worked and underpaid. Other departments, like the custom-house, with a third less hours, with nothing like of mind and body this office requires, receive double the pay. My office runs day and night, week in and week out, without interruption, including Sundays and holidays, and no person in it is one-half paid. My own salary does not cover the risk of loss alone. My bonds are nearly $200,000, second only to the sub-treasurer's in this city. AH my clerks handle money. My cashier receives and pays out between $2,000,000 and 13,000,000 yearly. My money-order clerks paid out upwards of $100,000 in the month of December alone, and in sums of $5, |10, and $20, and with odd dollars and cents, and so rapidly as to make it almost impossible to be accurate. The services required of the post- master of the city of Boston, as performed by me, are not only a gratuity, but I actually pay for the privilege of rendering them. The salary received by the postmaster of Bangor, with two or three clerks, and with no such expense as an official in the city of Boston is subject to, is precisely the same as my own ; and the city of Cambridge, with one-tenth the inhab- itants of Boston, and no commercial business, and immediately adjoining the city of Boston, has four postmasters, two of them with salaries two-thirds as large as my own, and the united salaries of the four double the salary of the postmaster of Boston. The same ine- quality of compensation extends, I believe, throughout the department. As to females, I have employed three, and their compensation is much lower than for males for the same service, and they are superior to the men in diligence, attention, and efficiency. If I had proper rooms in which to do my work, I would employ from one-third to one-half female clerks in this office, to the advantage of the department and the satisfac- tion of the public. Our civil service needs a thorough reformation. It should not be possible for a man to hold any office that is a mere sinecure, like the surveyor of the port or naval officer in New York, Philadelphia, or Boston, and derive from it an income of $50,000 or $100,000 or more annually, and under offices of various kinds with similar results. Why should the United States marshal of any district like Nev\; York or Boston reckon his net receipts by hundreds thousands of dollars annually, or even for his four years of service 1 And invariably men are selected for these offices without reference to capacity or fitness. Formerly the postmaster . of Boston must have derived from the office an income of from $12,000 to $15,000 annually, but now there is no compensation directly or indirectly except the salary. The box rents alone in my office, which formerly belonged to the postmaster, amounts to between $25,000 and $30,000 annually. The compensation, in addition to a fixed salary, should always be graduated by a percentage upon the amount of pecuniary liability incurred and the amount of business performed in each individual office. This would at once remove the inequalities in my department, that is, the post office department ; and if the money that is now paid' was properly apportioned, every postmaster could be amply paid for his labors. A. B. Underwood, surveyor, Boston: 29. I have known many meritorious persons to be discharged and their places filled by others who had not been in the civil service, though many of those appointed had deserved well of their country by meritorious services in the army or navy. I have always believed, I do not personally know, that meritorious officers were displaced for meritorious soldiers and sailors rather than have officers not so efficient because the political or personal influence brought to keep them was less strong than to keep the others. 30. The only classes of officers serving under me who are not comparatively independent of other officers, except myself or my deputies, are the weighers, gangers, and measurers 42 CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. and their foreman. There have been comparatively fevr changes in them. One young man, with very little business experience, about 22 years of age, I think, was appointed weigher at a salary of $2,000, to be the superior officer over a foreman 40 years of age, who had been a year or two in the service, whom I recommended very strongly to be appointed to the vacancy as qualified for and deserving the place. The young man was appointed against my earnest protest, the weigher being one of the officers placed under my direction by law. I think the deputies of the three principal officers at this port have always been taken outside of the service. 31. As in most branches of the public service or private business I f'l^d my subordinates in middle life to be most diligent and efficient, depending upon the kind of duty somewhat, say between 25 and 45 years of age. 32. The class generally the least diligent and efficient are those known as political appointments ; those who are of the opinion they were appointed for some services done their political party or for some person having an influence on the appointing power ; those who seem to believe that government places are not for performing any labor but eleemosynary institutions, where the faithful can be at rest. 33. I think the system proposed in question 33 for appointments and promotions, with a chance to vary in extraordinary cases under proper safeguards, would increase the efficiency of the service immeasurably. 34. An equal amount of work could undoubtedly be accomplished under such a sys- tem. I have already recommended to the collector the removal of six or eight inspectors provided I could be allowed to select the least efficient and retain the hard-working and the meritorious ; and with the rest, ou this condition, I believe the work could be done, not, how- ever, if inefficient men were to be substitutes. 35. The great evil of the present system is, that there is no assurance in the least degree that if an officer does his duty efficiently and with fidelity to the government he will be retained. It is not for his interest always, as it should be, to be faithful to his employer's interests rather than that of others. At the larger ports the office of surveyor, I suppose, was created to divide the duties of the collector, and to have a responsible officer do what a collector could not, look after the outdoor officers and see that they discharge their duties faithfully and to the advantage of the government. The surveyor is the officer who, ftom the nature of his duties, should know, and does, the qualifications and abilities as well as the efficiency of these inspectors, weighers, &c. Yet there is no law or regulation that requires the surveyor to be consulted in the retention or removal of these men, and he is often the last officer who is ever asked on the subject. The officers learn by this that his opinion is of no account, and that fidelity and efficiency are not the requisites for retention in service. If the system could be so changed that the really good and working officers could be retained it would be of an immense advantage to the service, and if promotion or deserts were added, better men, a higher grade of men, would be found in the service. 36. There is one female inspector under my direction nominated by the collector. She is employed only occasionally at the steamers. 37. Since answering question 27 I have received notice of some promotions made by the collector, which I doubt not will be detailed by him. To make the customs revenue service efficient, (I am not familiar with any other branch of the civil service ;) to enable the government to get a suitable return for the great amount of money paid by it to customs officers and employes ; to have them work for the govern- ment's interests, and not somebody's else ; to have them induced to be faithful and be rea- sonably savmg of the public money, somethiugmust be done to change the present system of appointment and retention, (if it can be said that there is any system of retention now;) to do away with, or greatly modify, the principle of political or personal patronage in the employment of men, the influence of which now pervades every part ot the service and overshadows everything else. This principle now maintains an almost irresponsible one- man power. One man now has the gift of livings, and can take them away at will. When, as at present, it is difficult for men to get steady employment in mercantile or other private pursuits, one man has it in his sole power nearly to give a comfortable livelihood or turn a man out to starve. There is no practical power which the government has to encourage its faithful servants and retain them and protect them, when it is for its own interest to have them protected and retained. The Constitution vests the appointment of subordinate offi- cers, I believe, in the Secretary of the department, and he nominally appoints now ; but the nominating power is so far from the appointing power now, and the Treasury Department has such an enormous amount of business on its hands, besides looking after the details of custom-houses, which have grown to be great institutions in themselves, that practicaUy everything relating to the appointment and employment of men is left wholly to the will of the collector; and there is no check upon him whatever ; nobody but he has a shadow of power, and if he abuses it, there is nobody who dares report it. I only speak of the system now and its tendencies— not of collectors personally, of whom there have been and are now many good and valuable men. Such is the overshadowing influence of the present principle m the service, that though there are at the larger ports two officers appointed by the Presi- dent of a rank approximating that of collector, a naval officer and surveyor, yet neither of them has but a shadow of power in the looking after and the protection of the best interests CIVIL SERVICE OP THE UNITED STATES. 43 of the government. I have the direction of the outdoor officers, but I would have no influence whatever to retain in the service the most valuable, experienced, and faithful inspector or weigher ever employed by this government; and at certain times in public affairs he would be as likely to be turned out as anybody else. I never know what officers I have to work with to-morrow. If the present system is to be retained in the main, I should certainly ask, for the public good, that surveyors might have by law some power to retain valuable officers, and to see that only those properly qualified are employed. The respon- sibility of nominating and the annoyances connected with It under the present system I should be glad to have left to others. If a radical change were to be made, as I should certainly recommend, the nomination of proper officers of customs should be left not to one man, but a board or commission, after some thorough examination to be prescribed by law, the examiners to be named by law; they ought to be, of course, experts. A board of customs officers might be detailed, as often in the army. The commission might be made to consist of commissioners appointed for the whole revenue, or simply the customs service, who should be independent of any interest in the result, except the good of the service. An improvement over the present system would be, at least, to have appointees recommended by the collector, naval officer, and surveyor, as a board. Three would be more likely to be impartial than une. Whatever the mode of nomination to the Secretary, the officers should hold office by some fixed tenure, either during good behavior, or if we cannot hope to obtain that perfection yet, then for some term of years, say four on one commission, with the certainty of promotion to vacancies, if any should occur, and the senior or other officer should be found qualified ; the new commission to be for the same fixed period, say of four years.. Then an officer would have the certain assurance of holding office four years under each commission, if he did his duty, with a prospect of promotion for the same period, if a vacancy should occur. There should be authority given the superior or employing officer to suspend for miscon- duct, or manifest incompetency, or inefScienoy, and if proven to the satisfaction of a board of officers, such officer to be dismissed. I think if the officer held a commission under the seal of the Treasury, and not a simple warrant issuing as now from the collector, it would have a good effect. I should recommend more grades among customs officers, with a proportionate scale of compensation, with a difference of name, or have the difference simply that of length of service. There should be more places, to make promotion possible. For instance, there are 94 inspectors at this port, all paid alike : $4 per diem. There is a great difference in the capacity and merits of these men, as well as in the relative importance of their duties. There might well be three grades, paid say |3 50, |4, and |4 50 or |5 per day, respectively, with excellent results to the service. ^ I might continue making suggestions. Perhaps I have made sufficient to show what I consider the evils of the present system in the service. Amasa Norcross, assessor of internal revenue, Fitchburg, Massachusetts, a lawyer, formerly a member of the State legislature, and oflSciaily connected with the revision of the statutes of the State of Massachusetts, declares : The moral character of applicants for office should be fully established, and their fitness for the office should be ascertained by a competent board of examiners. This could be done but imperfectly at the inception of the excise law, as no persons had then been educated with a view to the service, but it is now desirable that some method for determining the qualifica- tion of revenue officers should be devised and adopted. Charles G. Davis, assessor internal revenue, ex-representative, a graduate of Harvard college, and a lawypr of Plymouth, Massachusetts, show the necessity of adopting the proposed reform and also urges the independence of the revenue department under three commissioners, one of them to act as solicitor, and the doing away with the present conflicting interference of the Solicitor and oflScers of the Treasury Department. Mr. Davis also declares that the only two revenue manuals in use, namely, Emerson's, and Boutwell's, are very incomplete. My experience is chiefly confined to the Department of Internal Revenue, with such gen eral knowledge of the injury done to the civil service by frequent removals and political appointments as is common to most observing men. I have no hesitation in saying that with regard to all the offices which require special knowledge, aptness, or experience, examinations and appointments and promotions for honesty and capacity merely would render immense service to the government, both directly and indirectly. Directly by procuring honest, efficient, and capable men, and by econo- mizing the labor and time now wasted on and by inefficient and inexperienced men ; indirectly by removing, next to the political power of slavery, the most corrupting power of political action now remaining, namely, the search f jr office, the temptation to the citizen to. 44 CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. vote not as his unbiased judprment would and should under our Institutions dictate. Our government rests 'on the intelligent will of the people, hut it is not too much to say, perhaps, that a majority of the active men in an election are sometimes controlled or affected by iased motives. Remove, if you can, as far as possible, this corrupting element in our elections; teach men that ministerial office is not to be sought as a reward of party eflfort ; that the officer is the servant of the people, and that he shall remain in office as long as he is worthy of it, and you will effect a revolution in the morals of politics, and we shall all breathe a purer atmosphere in public life. But as to many of the offices under the internal revenue law it must be understood that promotions cannot, from the nature of the case, be frequent, nor can some of them be well subjected to examination by a central board before appointment. This would be the case with assessors' clerks and with assistant assessors throughout the country, who might, however, be appointed only on the condition that they shall first have passed an examination by the assessor, such as may be provided for by the central authority, and shall not be removed except for cause. But one of the leading defects in the present system of internal revenue arises from the organization of the department. Under the control of the Secretary of the Treasury, subject to decisions of the Solicitor of the Treasury, controlled, thwarted, and contradicted by the Auditors and Comptrollers of the Treasury, it is wanting in the independence which so important a branch of the government should have. Its officers never know when they are safe. A rule or decision is laid down by the Commissioner as to pay, or salary tax, or allowance of some kind, and months after he is overruled' by the Auditor or Comptroller, who know less than he does of the workings of the internal revenue system. So with a Solicitor of the Treasury. What is wanted is a law officer of internal revenue, through whose hands every decision or letter involving the law appertaining to internal revenue should go. No Commissioner can have the executive ability to control all that goes out of his office and render his rulings consistent. A solicitor whose whole mind was devoted to the subject could control and regulate the decisions, and not involve officers of internal rev- enue in the inconsistencies in which we are now involved, and which have done much to disgust the taxpayers. It is not the fault of the Commissioner, but of the system. The solicitor should have all the power of the Commissioner, so far that he should not be over ruled in his views of the law. For all the above purposes I would have the internal revenue, and perhaps custom revenue, a separate department, in the hands of three commissioners, one of whom should act as the solicitor, and the department should have full control so far as it can constitutionally be done of the appointments, (subject to examinations, &c.,) of the paying, auditing and comptroUing of its own work. Mr. Welles suggests the appointment of naval officers, &c., to the assessor and coUeetorships. The objections to this course would be : first, they are not business men acquainted with the people, property, and habits of the several districts; second, there would be too much of the "martinet" in their deal- ^ ings with the people. Under our government the people want civilians for civil business, and not men whose life and pursuits have led them away from the people. I should as soon think of making a manufacturer an officer in the navy as putting a retired naval officer into the assessor's office. The very cause of examinations, &c., suggested by you, is inconsis- tent with the idea of putting in men not trained to certain civil duties, who have been brought up in the army or on the sea. John Nesmith, collector of the internal revenue, Lowell, Massachusetts : Most certainly the efficiency of the service would be increased by the adoption of such a course. If official position was permanent, a class of young men would Jit themselves for hold- ing office, while pursuing their studies, and when appointed would do their utmost to dis- charge their duties well in ttie hope of advancement. The present time seems a peculiarly favorable time to try the experiment, with the Presi- dent and most of the heads of departments of one party and Congress of another. Any party having full control of the appointing power would with difficulty be induced to give it up for the purpose of trying an experiment. A good law regulating appointments, placing them outside of party influences, would, I fear, soon be evaded. The examiners would become the tools of the party in power. If the supreme court cannot be kept free from party influence, what hope have we that a board of examiners could ? Is it safe to conclude that because a system of this kind has to some extent been a success in Europe, where the heads of the government are hereditary, we can establish it here, and keep it in force long enough to test its utility. During a large part of the existence of our government we have given the dominant party the offices, and I fear a large part of our voters look upon the control of the offices as a right not to be given up for the purpose of forming a class of office-holders independent of the party in power ; but to make the system a success it must be outside of party influence. William H. McCartney, collector of internal revenue, Boston : Sets forth the present evils of the revenue system, and particularly those wrought by gov- ernment detectives, or secret treasury agents and department clerks, and declaring that the only remedy to neutralize, if not altogether to obliterate this evil, is to adopt the civil service bill. CIVIL SERVICE OP THE UNITED STATES. 45 I have the honor to submit that vihile a collector's subordinates are employed and gov- erned, as I have before stated, namely, as personal clerks of the collector, appointed and paid by him, there are subordinate officers of the revenue in every district for whom he is not responsible, and who are appointed by the department, such as inspectors of spirits, tobacco, oil, and cigars, storekeepers of bonded warehouses, revenue and treasury inspectors, special agents, &c., but with whom he is daily brought in contact, who are appointed and hold their positions under other and entirely different circumstances. I don't think there is an inspector of spirits, oil, or tobacco, in this district, at present, who owes his position to political influence ; but there have been such, I am convinced. And it is also true that there are to be found in every collection district certain revenue officers who act as detectives, being designated as revenue inspectors, or special agents, or something of that kind, and who must have been appointed, and who must be now retained in the service, through political influence alone ; for they are, many of them, a shame and disgrace to the department, and they are so evidently unqualified and unfitted by nature to deal with pub- lic or private finances as to be the subject of daily complaint and comment. These persons do not study or seem to realize the material interests of the revenue. Gain is their control- ling motive, and office their objective point. Their operations are in secret and in the dark, and no one is safe from their attacks ; and the very nature of their employment, the covert and secret dealing, both with honest and dishonest men, begets fraud and conniption. It may be said that some of them have been of advantage to the revenue in the uprooting of frauds. So they have been, but this has been much more than counterbalanced through their nefarious raids on honest tax-payers ; and it is a fact, according to my experience, that all the work they now perform, which it is desirable to have done, can be much better and more satisfactorily (to the tax-payers) performed by the proper and legitimate officers of each district. Under the authority granted me in your 37th interrogatory permit me to say that a great deal of the odium which is now attached to the revenue service arises from the ignorance and mistakes of the department clerks ; but, as I am convinced and do declare, not with the knowledge of the chief officer thereof, for it is a fact, according to my experience, that tax-payers, as a rule, are treated not as honest business men, but as thieves and marauders of the treasury, which is also true, to a very great extent, of their treatment of collectors and assessors. The great principle, that this nation is now laboring under the burdens of what is generally hoped will be temporary taxation, and that a great majority of tax-payera are ready and willing to meet all legitimate and reasonable taxation provided they can have the protection of the government in the transaction of their business, is lost sight of and abandoned, and it is much too apparent that the odious and offensive details of red tape and the spy and detective system have been substituted therefor. It may be urged that the departmental system is based on the experience of other countries where it has succeeded. To that I answer, that, as a principle, the American people djn't believe in taxation at all, and that they only submit to this because it is temporarily necessary ; and only then unless it is liberally and comprehensibly managed after American notions. For instance, it does not benefit the revenue to charge a respectable merchant five per centum on his monthly tax, if through inadvertence or by accident he does not pay his monthly tax on the. last day of the month when it is due, but does pay it on the first day of the month following. And yet it is very frequently done, and a collector has no power in the premises. Nor does it benefit the revenue to practically stop the business of a large and respectable firm who have applied for permission to establish a bonded warehouse, because on the copy of the bond which is forwarded to the department the characters [L S] are not marked around with ink to show that the original bore a seal, and yet it has been done, and in face of the fact that the collector who took the bond certified that it was safe and good in all respects. I beg leave to add, in this connection, that I do not wish to incur the displeasure of any one in submitting this, and I have only determined to declare as I have because I think the inter- ests of the people demand it. If it is asked how I would remedy this, I reply, that the remedy is to be found substantially in the civil service bill of last session, which cuts off the practice of appointing favorites and politicians. Thomas Russell, collector of customs, Boston : Is satisfied that the efficiency of the service would be increased by having a rigid test examination before each appointment and each promotion. Something might be accom- plished in this direction by a circular from the department calling attention to the regula- tions and requiring that the examinations be less formal and more substantial than it has joeen heretofore. , ,. „ , I have nothing to add to the above except to repeat my firm behef that the civil service would be more efficient if every appointment andpromotion were preceded by a rigid test examination, and that such appointments should depend wholly on the result thereof, pro- vided that no persons should be admitted to examination without preliminary proof of good moral character satisfactory to the appointing or nominating power. Besides this good effect the appointing officer would be relieved from the almost incessant solicitations of applicants and their friends who now harass officers having the power of appointment, and which in my own case consumes much time which ought to be devoted to the legitimate business of the office. 46 CIVIL SERVICE OP THE UNITED STATES. E. R. Tinker, collector internal revenue, North Adams, Massachusetts : Seventeen persons under his control are emphatically in favor of the proposed reform. Francis A. Osborn, naval officer, Boston : No. 34. From the nature of the work in this office, I think it questionable whether the force could be materially reduced, even under the system proposed in the preceding question. No. 35. I think it very questionable. I have no doubt, from what I have seen at this port, that there are a plenty of applicants, of as high a grade of talent as the government semce requires. Whether or not the most valuable applicants receive appointments belongs to another branch of the inquiry. No. 36. I have no females among my subordinates. No. 37. Without pretending to any original suggestions, I will say, briefly, that I believe it would greatly increase the efficiency, and therefore the economy, of the service to remove appointments entirely from the sphere of political influence, and to make original appoint- ments and subsequent promotions dependent solely on ability and character. The investiga- tion to discover the relative merits of the different candidates should be conducted by large- minded men, who would not consider simply the actual information of the candidate, or rely on a fixed routine of examination to achieve their purpose, but who would also look to the general ability, and capacity to learn, of the applicant, and would, with fitly-devised ques- tions and conversation, adapted to each case, analyze him thoroughly to learn what amount of energy, of ambition, of conscientiousness, and of industry, might enter into his composi- tion, to give a solid value to his mental acquirements, and who should make their classification dependent on the resultant of these qualities and acquirements. Fixed tenure of office is also highly important. The appointee should receive a commission for an established time, which should be irrevocable during that time, saving for proved incompetency or inefficiency. Promotion should be made by seniority, excepting that a certain proportion of promotions for distinguished merit should be allowed. These latter promotions should be carefully removed from the influence of favoritism, and determined by a similar investigation to the one proposed above, with the additional element of the candi- date's record while in office. In establishing such a system care should be taken not to destroy the authority of the chief of a department over his subordinates by lessening their responsibility to him, as dis- cipline must be the basis of any system of value. The chief should be empowered to suspend his subordinates for cause, or even dismiss them, his action in either case to be revised by the same tribunal that regulates appointments. Power might also be given him to inflict minor punishments for trifling offences, at his discretion. John Sargent, collector of internal revenue, Boston : Thinks that the appointment of none to office but those who gave evidence of fitness for the discharge of the duties to be required of them, and the undoubted evidence of unimpeach- able integrity, would add greatly to the efficiency of the service, and lift from it that load of distrust and opprobrium which a large portion of the people believe it justly amenable to. A great point in economy would be gained by dispensing with a large portion of the revenue inspectors, and providing that the duties which they were appointed to perform should be discharged by the assistant assessors, as they always should have been, it being, in his judg- ment, a legitimate part of the duty intended to have been discharged by them under the original revenue laws. Alphonso C. Crosby, assessor internal revenue, first Connecticut district : Instead of the appointment of inspectors, (responsible to nobody in particular,) who act as detectives, &c., the assessor should have the right to designate any one of his assistants whom he may select to special or general detective service. The expense of the present force of detectives may thus be nearly wiped out, with a gain (I believe) to the service and increased economy. David P. Hollister, collector internal revenue, Bridgeport, Connecticut : No. 33. I think the idea of a test examination a good one, provided the board of examiners would adopt such rules in the examination as would govern good businessmen in their own affairs. Many of our best practical business men would perhaps make but a poor show in an examination where a really much inferior man would appear very favorably. The one has a general knowledge of men and things, and would conduct the aff'airs of his office efficiently and with very little friction, while the latter, though appearing before the committee to much better advantage, in the practical discharge of his duties would make but an indifi^erent offi- cer. It would seem to me that the examiners should be fully satisfied by competent testi- mony as to the business habits and the moral character of the applicant, and especially as to his habits for sobrtety, and also his ability to discharge the duties of his office with efficiency, and at the same time not offensively— a, most important consideration in the execution of any law. Law should be enforced, but not rendered odious, by those charged with its execution. A man may be possessed of a large amount of knowledge, of a superior education, and may CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 47 answer satisfactorily all the questions of a committee, and yet be most obnoxious for rea- sons above suggested. It seems to me that a mere personal examination would, in many cases, fail to elicit all the required facts. No. 34. In an office where there are grades, I should say, yes. No. 35. Yes : without doubt. It is my Arm conviction that the civil service of the United States, in all its branches, would be far more efficient, uniform, and economical, were the offi- cers originally appointed with express reference to their qualifications for their respective positions, and not to be removed except for cause. I believe the custom which prevails so largely of removing oificers simply on partisan grounds is a most baneful one, and tends to comipt and demoralize the whole civil service. The country is great and has large resources, and may stand such a custom, but no private enterprise could. No sane man would con- duct his own aifairs, or those of a corporation in which he was interested, on any such prin- ciple. I further hold that the officer, be he who he may, and in whatever capacity he serves, is but the servant of the whole people, and that, in the discharge of his official duties, he should ignore politics, and to this end he should be independent of such considerations. As an individual and citizen, he should perform his duty in that capacity ; but as an officer, in the discharge of his official duty, no man or party should own him. No. 36. There are none. No. 37. I have no further suggestions to make. Shall be glad if I have not been too prolix already. John B. "Wright, assessor 2d district, Connecticut : No. 33. The efficiency of the civil service generally would undoubtedly be increased by the adoption of the course suggested by query No. 33, provided the examiners be thoroughly competent, and unbiassed by partisan, personal or other improper influence or consideration ; but, in my judgment, neither our past history nor present aspects afford very strong grounds of confidence in the infallibility or incorruptibility of any board of examiners which may be appointed for the contemplated object. No. 34. An equal amount of work could be accomplished under such a system by a less number of persons than are now employed, this answer being subject to the proviso con- tained in the preceding paragraph. No. 35. If the employment was assured and certain, and promotions were granted only to seniority or merit, and no discharge permitted except for cause, a higher grade of talent and a better quality of persons could be induced to enter the government service. No. 36. There are no females among my subordinates. No. 37. I think of no matters, not already known to the committee, which would tend to make the civil service more efficient or economical. In this district both the collator and assessor (the principal officers) have been retained from their first appointment, when the internal revenue system was Inaugurated, and, through their efforts, faithful subordinates have also been retained, while in one or two instaoces unfaithful and inefficient ones have been dismissed. In many districts, however, it has been otherwise. Faithful and efficient officers have been removed, and their places filled with men possessing neither ability nor integrity, and the consequent loss to the revenue has been immense. Threats of removal are often made by parties supposed to have great influence with the appointing power, for the purpose of influencing officers in their official action, and while I can say in all truth that no such threats have ever influenced my official action in the slightest degree, it is important for the interest of the government that officers be protected reasonably against such influences. If your committee can devise means for the effectual protection of the civil service against the unscrupulous exactions of partisan politics, and against the malignant, revengeful spirit of wealthy and influential defrauders of the revenue, whose schemes of fraud have been or nay be thwarted by official energy and vigilance, you will have rendered a service to gov- ernment and to the country for which you will be entitled to their warmest thanks. Henry A. Grant, collector of the internal revenue of first district, Hartford, Connecticut, after indorsing emphatically the proposed reform, makes the follow- ing suggestion : My department of the civil service being collector of taxes only, I can speak only of that branch of the service and the two articles which have given me the most anxiety and trouble, viz : distilled spirits and tobacco. My opinion is a direct tax on the capacity of the still and on the leaf tobacco would more than quadruple the amount of taxes on each of these articles. R. H. Avery, collector of internal revenue, 22d district, New York : 37. Have the laws enforced by the government against all officials in the revenue depart- ment that fail to expose frauds from fear of personal or political persecution, or from being in complicity with offenders for gain or profit ; and for any neglect or failure to perform the labor requisite and necessary to detect any frauds that may be apparent upon informa- tion, or suspicion, such officers should be removed from office, or punished in some degree adequate to the offence or neglect. At the same time there should be a reasonable and -uUy remunerative compensation secured by law to all officers for services, so that as far 48 CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. as possible all temptation for gain by bribery or corruption would be removed. I am fully satisfied that the enormous frauds which have been committed upon the revenue for some time past by the whiskey manufacturers and those connected with them in the "whiskey ring" could and would have been prevented, had the collectors, assessors, and other officers in their districts been faithful, prompt, and diligent in their efforts in detecting and exposing the fraud from the beginning. At the same time officers in each district should be united, and fully co-operate together ; also with officers of other and adjoining districts. In my own and in adjoining districts, frauds were suspected by me as being committed, and I at once began a thorough and laborious investigation, which has resulted in the seizure of 14 whiskey concerns, a part of which have been tried by the courts successfully for the government ; a part have been compromised by the Commissioner onfavorable terms to the government, where fines and penalties have been paid to the government on compromise, amounting to over $10,000, within the year. About |100,000 of forfeitures, fines, and penalties now await judg- ment of court and now pending, besides several criminal suits for penalties and imprison- ments, concerning which the revenue inspector of this district, J. J. Lamoree, esq., and the Hon. Wm. Dorsheimer, United States attorney, think I have ample proof to secure a verdict for the United States. I only make these statements as an illustration of the ideas I desire to convey, "to make the civil service more effectual." In other words, as in the divine code, "rewards for the faithful, and punishment for the unjust." If my replies have not been pertinent in any respect, it has not been from any design ; but I have been animated rather with the desire to aid you in your investigations. Anything within my knowledge I will cheerfully impart, if at any time requested. M. B. Field, collector of internal revenue, New York : 33. I should say decidedly, yes ; at least so far as clerical offices are concerned. The system suggested could be easily carried out in the great executive departments of the gov- ernment. It might also be directly applied to an officeof the magnitude of that of the col- lector of customs of this port. In these cases the employes are government officers. The persons employed in the office of a collector of internal revenue are his own clerks. He appoints them absolutely; they are paid by him. It appears to me that in order to carry out yonr idea so far as this class of office is concerned, two things would be necessary : first, to make these subordinates government officers, and next, to arrange for a system of promo- tions not only in the same office, but also from one office to another. For instance, an infe- rior clerk trained in my office might become competent to take the position of deputy in a smaller office. The plan of competitive examinations for the civil service is, however, to my mind, beset with difficulties. For superior positions I do not think that it would answer. Certaiilly, for all offices the possession of certain qualifications by the applicant should be a sine qua non with the appointing power. Assuredly there obtains in this country a deplorar ble practice upon this subject. In too many instances the candidate, upon Procrustean prin- ciples, is lengthened into a foreign minister or shortened into a local postmaster, upon the sin- gle consideration of his political claims. Fitness for the particular office is too seldom made a controlling consideration. I am at a loss to see exactly how this is to be effectually remedied, except by making the possession of a certain amount and kind of qualifications a legal pie- requi^ite in every case. Still, superior places cannot be put up to competitien through exam- inations. Preliminaiy examinations for admission into any service will, at least, exclude the grossly incompetent ; but they furnish no positive measure of relative fitness for those who pass them. It has frequently happened that members of Congress ha\ e thrown open to public competition nominations to West Point and to the Naval Academy. The boy who would carry off such a prize from many contestants would naturally be expected to distinguish himself in his after studies. It has often been the case, however, that he has taken but low rank among associates appointed in the ordinary way without competition. Again, for the suc- cessful discharge of some duties, certain persoual characteristics, apart from acquirements, are necessary ; and these can hardly be made the subject of examination. 34. Speaking generally of the civil service, there is no doubt but that, with better trained assistants than we now have, more work could be accomplished with a smaller force. 35. I shall say most decidedly, yes. 36. I have no female subordinates. 37. I regret that I have not the time to enter more fully upon this subject. In reply to tois last question I will only make a single particular reference. I have already spoken of the present system of compensating collectors of internal revenue as a vicious one. It is as follows : We receive first a salary of |], 500 per annum. Upon the first ^100,000 which we collect we receive three per cent., or |3,000 : upon the next $300,000 one per cent., or • 2T ' "^°" '^® °^^* $600,000 one-half per cent., or $3,000 ; upon all over $1,000,000 one- eighth per cent. Out of this we pay all our expenses, (deputies, clerks, rent, «&c.,) except stationery and postage. Take the item of rent. It is an extremely variable one. In this city It differs enormously. Some collectors pay but a few hundred dollars a year ; others arecom- pelled to pay several thousands, according to locality. My rent is a very moderate one, so that I am not one of the sufferers by this difference. But why should the collector, say of the iourth, be compelled to pay for rent out of his own pocket three times as much as I am com- pelled to pay out of mine I Again : Under the existing sliding scMe of commissions the collector who collects only a million is better off than he who collects a larger sum, for it has CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 49 been estaUished experimentally that it costs more to collect the excess over a million than ne one-eiffhth per cent, allowed for it. Hence many collectors have large amounts of taxes abated which might have been collected, and are lost to the government because they are nnwilling to employ and pay for the additional assistance necessary for the collection. The tendency of the whole system is to Induce collectors to employ cheap assistants, insufficient in number. That It should not be so I concede. But that it is so in many instances, I have reason to believe. My own collections have been so extraordinarily close upon the amounts assessed, that I do not see how, under any other system, I could collect more than I do. But this is not the universal case. Incidentally I may mention that I have long urged the estab- lishment of a central bureau in this city for the collection of arrears of United States taxes. Not only do I believe that such a bureau would directly save large sums of taxes which would be otherwise lost to the government, by collecting them, but that it would also do so indi- rectly, by stimulating collectors to greater efforts to avoid the discredit of passing over to this bureau large sums which they might themselves collect by more exertion. I will conclude by saying, in general terms, that I think that our civil service should be assimilated to those of Great Britain and some of the continental countries. Require the possession of certain qualifications as essential to appointment ; reward merit and length of faithful service ; make the tenure of office more dependent upon efficiency and integrity, and less so upon political caprice and favor. You will thereby secure more efficiency, and this efficiency will involve economy. C. S. Franklin, acting naval oflScer, New York : 27. I have pursued a system of promotion, increasing the salaries of those deemed worthy, by permission of the Secretary of the Treasury. 28. I regret that I am not enabled to reply affirmatively to this question. There are, however, some few who have remained in the office many years, and who have been pro- moted from a low to a highei grade of clerkship. 29. I have. 30. I have. 31. Between the ages of 30 and 40. 32. Very young men, and the very aged. Professed politicians are not remarkable for their efficiency as clerks. 33. Most unquestionably. 34. Undoubtedly, if those employed possessed a greater degree of efficiency, and exerted greater industry, encouraged by the hope of advancement. 35. Beyond peradventure. If permanent employment and promotion were awarded to merit or seniority, and no removals permitted except for cause, the axe would thereby be applied to the very root of that "Upas tree" by which the efficiency of the revenue service is now poisoned into a torpor resembling death. 36. Npne. 37. My answer to question No. 35 covers the whole subject, and the only additional requisite would be the appointment of officers of executive ability and integrity of purpose. John S. Walton, United States treasurer. New York : 33. I have always thought that no man ought to be appointed to office without being examined in reference to his personal character, and his qualification for the position he sought. Until this is done the government will never be properly served. 34. I believe that if such a system as that stated in question 33 were faithfully carried into effect, and the same principles applied to it as govern commercial houses, the work could be done by one-half of the present number of officers. 35. If the employment was assured and certain, and no discharge permitted except for cause, there would be strong inducements to seek public office, and the government would undoubtedly secure the services of first class meu. 36. I have no females among my subordinates. 37. I think that nothing would tend more to make the civil service efficient than the adop- tion of a system by which a person once in the government employment, after a thorough examination as to character and fitness, would be assured that his position and advancement would depend upon his conduct. Unless there is security, few honest men will voluntarily seek public office. Only those whose misfortunes drive them to it, and those who expect to make more out of it than the salary belonging to it, will try to obtain it. If the salaries were . liberal and the positions permanent, honest men, of moderate desires, would seek them, and devote their lives to the faithful performance of the duties belonging to them. J. P. Murphy, assessor 29tli district. New York : 29. There have been no meritorious persons discharged in this district, and their places filled by others not before in the service, on account of political influence. 30. In this district I do not place new recruits over the heads of meritorious persons already in the service. I have more respect for myself and the service than to do anything of that kind. H. Eep. Com. 47 4 50 CIVIL SERVICE OP THE UNITED STATES. 31. It is true that I do not find all of my subordinates equally diligent and efficient, yet it is impossible for me to say among which class of ages I find the greatest efficiency ; I have some iu each class, even among the oldest, who are equally efficient with the youngest and best. 32. I cannot make a class discrimination among my subordinates as to diligence and effi- ciency. 1 find them equally so as a class. The office of an assessor of internal revenue Is a peculiar one, requiring certain qualities of mind and education, which can only be acquired by close personal application and practical experience in the duties of his office. 33. If it were possible or practicable to graduate the appointments in this branch of the civil service, and make promotions only to the higher gi'ades from the lowest on passing a test examination, or on displaying peculiar fitness, by acts of efficiency, &c., I think effect- iveness of the service would be greatly increased thereby, but I see no way that this can be done in the assessor's department. The only way that the assessor's department can be made respectable and efficient is, in the first place to secure the appointment of the right man to the office of assessor, give him the entire control of the assessments in his district, and also of the appointments of subordinates, hold bim to a strict accountability for all his acts, and have him only removable for cause; require him to devote his whole time to the office, and pay him such salary that he could afford to devote his time, without resorting to outside business to obtain a living and support for himself and family ; do this, and I think you will soon perceive a marked difference in the efficiency of this branch of the service. 34. The system of promotions and graduation of the offices of subordinates, as suggested by you, being to my mind wholly impracticable in this department, I cannot say what the effect or result of your proposed system would be ; of one thing I am well convinced, that so long as the present subjects and objects of taxation are continued in the revenue law, this distiict, being about 125 miles long by from 20 to 40 wide, cannot be well taken care of and all tbe taxes assessed with a less force than is now employed. 35. I have no doubt if employment in the assessor's department was assured and certain on a display of merit, and no discharge permitted except for cause, and suitable inducement by way of compensation held out, a higher grade of talent and a better quality of persons could be induced to enter the service. 36. I have no females among my subordinate officers. I doubt whether any female could be found in this district, or any other, possessing the requisite qualifications to make a good assistant assessor; the duties of this place try most men as by fire, and if the nerves and firmness of a man can rarely be found to withstand the wily exactions of dishonest tax- payers, I doubt the experiment of filling their places with females. 37. The present internal revenue law, in my judgment, (and which has become confirmed by experience,) is defective, because of its making the assessor of a district in many things and particulars subordinate to the collector. An assessor cannot now make a seizure of premises or articles for cause, neither can he order or direct a prosecution of a delin- quent. If he desires a seizure made, or a prosecution commenced by the district attorney, he must inform the collector, and if he deems proper, he makes an order therefor. Now, who should know best, the as.sessor who has had the whole matter in charge, and is presumed to know whether a violation has occurred or not, or the collector, who in fact knows nothing about the matter only as he is informed. My experience is that collectors very much like to cast all the blame and odium attached to the enforcement of the law on the assessor, and hence when complaints are made to them by assessors, interpose so many objections and quibbles to evade their responsibility, that assessors cease in disgust from making any farther complaint, and so offenders go unpunished. To make a law respected, offenders should know that its penalties are sure of infliction. By giving to the assessor power and authority to act in all cases of infraction of law in all matters connected with the assessmefit of internal taxes, would make this branch of the service more efficient, and, therefore, more economical, because more taxes would be obtained. Again, by strictly enforcing the rule, that assessors while holding such positions should, not be engaged in any other business requiring any of their personal attention, much more efficiency would be obtained ; my experience is, that an assessor will find plenty of business to engage his mind and attention, by looking after and supervising revenue matters in his district, without any other ; this is an evil which must be remedied, in my opinion, before theservice is made as efficient as it should be. It is not an unusual thing in many districts to find the assessor attending to his law office or store, and his assistants and clerks running the revenue ; and when you find such a state of things, I will guarantee an Inefficiently worked district. Besides inefficiency, there is a lack of uniformity among revenue officers, especially assessors ; this grows out of ignorance or misconstruction of the law ; this should be remedied if possible, but never will be, unless a different system is adopted. Now, assessors have no supervisory agontover them except the Commissioner of Internal Eevenue. It is impossible for the Commissioner to personally visit but few of the districts; the great mass of them are, therefore, left without supervision or Instruction, except such as they get by writing to him for, or such as are contained in circulars of a general character ; this couise will not produce uniformity, and, unless something is done, under the growing dis- position to be liberal in the assessment of the revenue taxes, the government will be the ioser to the tune of many thousand dollars. In my judgment it would be economy to CIVIL SEE VICE OP THE UNITED STATES. 51 divide the several States into one or more districts, containing several collection districts as now divided, according to the size, and appoint a qualified person to supervise the assessment and collection of taxes in the several collection districts under his charge. If a qualified person had several districts under his charge he would be enabled to establish a uniform system of assessments, and if a State was divided into one or more, by frequent meetings of these supervisors, a uniform system would soon pervade the whole State. You may think that my suggestion of multiplying officers is a strange way to economize ; but I am well satisfied that by establishing a uniform system of assessments the revenue would be largely in- creased ; besides, it would make each district and State bear its equal proportion of taxation. Homer Franklin, assessor internal revenue, Nev?' York, thinks the proposed system would increase the efficiency of the service and an equal amount of work certainly be accomplished under such a system by a less number of persons,, and that if employment was assured and certain, a higher grade of talent could be induced to enter the government service and at less cost. He adds : I have long believed that the uncertain tenure of office is the most prolific source of cor- ruption, both to officials and the public, and that no law can be framed that will be effective with' corrupt ministers. Man is a creature of motive, and the strongest one is to get food and clothing. Assure him of these, and you withdraw any motive for him to look elsewhere. I am certain that iny district could be better worked at one-half the present expense had I around me one-half the number whom I could select, if left alone to follow my judgment. It is a singe lar fact that some of my worst — most loorthless — men are put upon me by recom- mendations from those so high in life that I sometimes blame our public leaders for the uses to which they lend their names. Armed with these certificates of every moral excellence, the veriest loafers are foisted into positions of trust, when perhaps the men who sign them would hardly trust the individuals to black their boots. D. B. Owen, collector of customs, Cape Vincent, N. Y.: The office I hold is now and always has been a political office, and is seldom retained by the same person for a longer period than four years. Every change in the administration at Washington almost invariably brings around the removal of the collectors of customs throughout the entire country. Being thus purely a political office, it is clearly evident that very often good and efficient men are removed to make way for others whose chief qualifi- cations consist in great political influence. A new collector, controlled by those who aided him in his efforts to secure the apppointment, is in turn compelled to discharge all or nearly all of the subordinates employed by his predecessor in order that he may satisfy the claims of his political friends. Dependent on them, as he was, for the office secured, he cannot act in the matter of subordinate appointments independent of them. The practical result of such a system is that real merit and conceded ability are lost sight of in the scramble for positions by successful partisans. There is no standard to which men can conform and thereby retain positions for which they have become specially fitted by reason of long and faithful service. The operation of this political rotation in office is most injurious in its effects for the reason that no examination precedes a new appointment, and a man totally unfit to assume the responsibilities of a collector often secures a place which was • acceptably filled by a valuable officer. Hence small inducements are offered to men pos- ■. sessed of proper qualifications, under the present system, to seek the collectorship, inasmuch as the salary paid such an officer is less — excepting in comparatively a few commercial cen- tres — than what he could realize out of some stable business pursuit. As it is, confusion invariably follows the appointment of a new collector of customs. The duties pertaining to the position are of such a pecuhar and intricate character that men who have shown much ability in other pursuits frequently fail in this. Only those who have given the subject careful study can correctly estimate the importance of this consid- eration. The import duties of the United States constitute no small portion of the revenues of the government, the collection of which involves a vast expenditm'e. Economy in its collection, as well as the firm and wise enforcement of the laws, is the object sought in framing laws amendatory to those under which the revenue is now collected. Few candid observers will deny but that the present enormous expense attending the collection of import duties and the prevention of illicit trad^ with foreign countries could be materially reduced by the inaug- uration of a new system in the appointment of collectors whereby the same would be placed' beyond the reach of political parlies and the term of office extended to ten or fifteen years or during a satisfactory administration of the duties of the office. In briefly presenting these important considerations, I am painfully conscious of my inability to present any plan which will obviate the defects of thepresent system of selecting collectorsof ' customs and their subordinates, as well as the length of time they should retain their offices; and yet, having considered this matter seriously, in the light of several years' experience, I will comply with your request and offer a few suggestions as the fmits of my reflections on this subject. 52 CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 1st. Every candidate for the position of collector of customs should be carefully examined before a competent board with reference to his general qualifications for the office, and embra- cing particularly his knowledge of the duties of the office, the revenue laws, and the practical woniings of the system. 2d. No dismissals of subordinates should take place except for incompetency or mal- feasance. 3d. A grade should be established, so that faithful subordinates, after four years' service, should receive a small yearly increase in their salaries, thus encouraging them to remain in the government employ and more thoroughly discharge their duties. 4th. The term of office should either be ten or fifteen years or during the faithful and com- petent discharge of ofScial duties. That a law embodying similar views to those above suggested would prove to be a great national blessing I have no doubt. Grave defects exist in the present system. The manner of appointing important officers is open to the most shameful abuses and also to the severest criticisms. Under its operations, those who succeed in obtaining positions as collectors of customs, and prove themselves valuable government agents, are allowed to serve in a posi- tion they so creditably fill only for a brief period. Men of character and eminent abilities are loath to seek the position of collector of customs under the present regime, owing to the fact that at the end of four years he is almost certain to be superseded, thrown out of employ- ment, and, in a great degree, unfitted for other pursuits. What is true as relates to the collectors of customs applies with equal and even greater force to his subordinates. Demor- alization in the collection of the revenues breeds distrust in financial circles and tends to weaken public morals. Our financial system is of vital interest to the future welfare of the American Union. Prudence, as well as the lessons of history, teach us that wise and mature deliberations can alone work out needed and far-reaching reforms. With a profound sense of the incompleteness of the ideas herein expressed, and also feel- ing that they will be of little service to your committee, they are, however, respectfally sub- mitted. John F. Cleveland, assessor internal revenue, sixth district, New York city, (appointed 1862,) after declaring himself emphatically in favor of the proposed reform, says that — Such a reform should commence by subjecting any one, not elective, now in the civil service, to a rigid examination by a competent and Impartial commission. Such as may be found competent and worthy should be retained, and such as are not should be dismissed, and no new appointment should be made without the requisite and satisfactory examination. A. C. Churchill, collector internal revenue, Gloversville, New York : Knows of no better way to reform the civil service than that proposed in the circular. John M. Mason, collector of internal revenue, Yonkers, New York : The great want of practical ability in the administration of our civil service is to be ascribed to the uncertainty of the tenure of office. The government service is looked upon as a sort of hospital or asylum for the relief of broken-down politicians, rather than as an honorable employment in which merit is to be rewarded, intelligence|»ppreciated, and fidel- ity acknowledged. Alonzo Alden, postmaster of Troy, New York : I believe the civil service can be made more efficient and economical if established on the same basis with the military service with respect to appointments, tenure of office, and dis- cipline, from the chief of department to his lowest subordinate, including all intermediate I am persuaded, also, from nearly two years' experience in a free-delivery post office, that the system of free delivery, established about four years ago, involves a great expense to the government without furnishing any corresponding equivalent. I am now paying $11 ,000 per annum, and this is as cheaply as the system can be creditably maintained in this city of 50,000 inhabitants, and during the four years of the experiment the amount of postal business has not increased more than the natural increase resulting from the growth of the business of the city. The system has, perhaps, rendered unnecessary two delivery clerks otherwise required. With an additional appropriation of |2,000 for clerk-hire, I can dispense with the 11 C5ir- riers, thereby making a net saving of $9,000 per annum and satisfying the patrons equally as well. Forces in his office, 1 1 clerks and 11 letter-carriers. He proposes to have additional clerks to the aggregate extent of $2, 000 annual salary, and to dismiss the 11 carriers, who cost in the aggregate $11,000. CIVIL SEEVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 53 Abram Hyatt, assessor internal revenue, Sing Sing, New York : Urges the enlargement of the districts, say, one collectGr and one assessor for each judi- cial district, (there being eight in the State,) to he examined by a board to consist of the Secretary of the Treasury, Commissioner of Internal Revenue, and the chairman of the Finance Committee of the House of Representatives. He would also have the office of assessor and collector in one and the same city or town, and hold them strictly responsible for the acts of their subordinates. He would issue no commission to any subordinate unless evidence of qualification accompanied their application. He would have no interference by officers from one district in another, save, perhaps, by a general agent or inspector, who, if he be a proper person, could be very useful. In other respects, he thinks the collector and assessors should be allowed to take entire charge of their own district and be held responsi- ble accordingly. He would have each to give a sufficient bond for the faithful performance ' of his duty, both officers to be under salary. Lewis Hall, assessor internal revenue, Jamestown, New York: After fully indorsing the proposed reform, suggests that a department be created for each revenue agent or an officer of like powers who will be a connecting link between the district officers and the department at Wasiiington, and who shall be made responsible for the eco- nomical and efficient operations of this department. Joseph W. Grates, assessor internal revenue, Lyons, New York : Urges that persons whose attention or any portion of it is occupied by any other business should not be eligible to an appointment in the revenue service ; and that assistant asses- sors should have divisions so enlarged as to be constantly employed. P. M. Neher, assessor of internal revenue, Troy, New York : Hails reform with delight, but has misgivings in regard to its political practicability ; yet he thinks there is much force and logic in subjecting candidates for responsible positions to tests of fitness and capacity, even though the machinery or powers were of partisan charac ter, but is afraid that, by vesting the power now devolving upon heads of departments in a committee, must be productive of complications. E. W. Puddington, collector internal revenue, Kingston, Ulster county. New York: Advocates a system of stamps to be applied at the distillery upon payment of tax, which should be daily, so as to prevent fraud and deception. ' Dwight Webb, esq., of the New York custom-house, makes the following statement : It may be safely affirmed that there is no doubt of the prevalence of a wide-spread disposition to evade the revenue laws of the country. The distemper is indeed epidemic, and without" a parallel in the history of the government. The change which has taken place in the national spirit, under our present tax and tariff laws, superinduced by other causes, is not only alarming, but must, unless checked, prove fatal to the collection of revenue. That it can long prevail without subverting the bulwarks of public credit is quite impossible. Not only individual avarice, but in many instances powerful combinations, able to direct and control the elements wliich constitute the social, political and financial forces of the country, are organized to this end, and without the restraints ordinarily dictated by prudence. It is therefore evident the legislative and administrative departments of the government are compelled to choose between the means necessary to control the disease and the cause of revenue itself, either to withdraw the demands of the government or to enforce them. To insist on a withdrawal or to neglect to use means to enforce the laws would be, in fact, to abdi- cate authority altogether. It is with the American people, as elsewhere in matters of gov- ernment, of the first importance to distinguish things of accident from those arising from permanent causes. The former may not demand immediate or vigorous measures, but the latter must be met. With us the difficulties which beset the collection of our high rates of imposts belong, most undoubtedly, to the latter category, and will, so long as such high rates prevail. It must be apparent to all considerate men that the government has but one course to pursue, and that course is, to meet the issue with firmness commensurate with the magnitude of the interests involved. To do this successfully our legislators must here regard— 1. The inherent weakness of revenue laws as compared with other written laws. 2. The opportunities and inducements everywhere offered for their non-observance, and which will no doubt be found in exact ratio to the increase or diminution of the rate of duty imposed, 3. The duty of the government to protect legitimate commerce. 4. That salaries and gratuities to customs officials and others should be adapted to the nature and extent of the requirements of the revenue. 5. That not oidy all preventive means now employed, but even other measures more energetic, are requisite to their due enforcement, rather than those less so, and that they should be in proportion to the difficulties to be encountered. 54 CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 1. Revenue laws are but positive rules enacted with a view to meet the financial wants of the governmeat. They are not intended to inflict punishment on individuals, only in so far as to deter them from the violation of such laws, and do not, like laws against crime, appeal to the consciences of men for support and vindication. However necessary for revenue they may be, experience teaches that far the larger portion of the people have not in the past, and it may be reasonably inferred will not in the future, look on them in any other light than as so many threatened fines, penalties or forfeitures which they are at liberty to hazard or avoid ; that non-observance is not crime per se, like felonies or misdemeanors under State laws, and if successful in avoiding detection, may be regarded as a stroke of good luck, of which they may boast, and often do boast of, without, as they think, compromising their business reputation or personal integrity. If not successful they must pay the penalty, but in either case they stand acquitted of conscience ; or, in other words, they do not regard the fraudulent evasion of revenue laws as a wrong, mala in se, but rather a hazard to be run. For these reasons it will be seen, and experience confirms it, revenue laws must ever depend for the most part, whatever be the system adopted, for their execution on external agencies and restraints, and not on the dictates of personal duty, patriotism or conscience. The well-known fact that revenue laws are regarded so, in so great a degree, is a weak point, and a primary one, in the whole system. The inducements to smuggle, and facilities every- where offered or existing in one form or another by which detection may be avoided, only influence and direct those who are swayed by economy or avarice, bent on securing the inordinate gains of an illicit trade. It should be observed, in this connection, that those who violate laws for the collection of the revenue are far more likely to escape detection than those who violate police or State laws, for the reason, in the former case, no personal right is invadeid, no personal violence is suffered by any one, as is the case in assault and battery, theft, perjuries, murders, arsons, &c. Individuals, therefore, cannot be expected to take a particular personal interest, even if they know of violations, in seeing the revenue laws executed, such as will work a preven- tion of smuggling. No one cares to make himself obnoxious to those who are engaged in smuggling, without fee or reward to stand forth a party complainant, and without which, on the part of some one, the laws, although bristling with fines, penalties and forfeitures, and imprisonment, are but so many pieces of harmless composition, in phraseology elaborately dressed, but as respects public utility, weak and impotent. Under State laws complainants, constables, justices of the peace, prosecuting attorneys, jurors, and judges of courts of record are all conservators of the public peace, all of which intro- ductory and ultimate means are, in fact, all wanting in the administration of revenue laws, for presentments by grand jurors for smuggling seldom or never occur. So, too, such viola- tions are never seen by the public at large, and there are reasons to believe that but compar- atively few evasions are known even by those having the best opportunities of knowing ; nor are they immediately felt except by those who are engaged in the same line of trade, and not always then, though the effects are disastrous to honest and assiduous merchants, whether known or unknown. The marked difference, therefore, between the two systems of laws is clearly seen and quite sufficient to show that the means for their execution must vary as their nature and the ends for which they were designed vary. In what may be called the motive or inherent power to secure their execution, there is no analogy between the two systems. So, too, as revenue laws are never intended for corporeal punishment, but for the collection of imposts, their terms or conditions, as well as their method of execution, are the mildest consistent with the ends which make their enactment necessary. 2. Another source of weakness is found in the fact that a large portion of our people dis- approve of the whole system ab initio, on principles involving national polity, or they are opposed to the manner of levying imposts. Add to all the foregoing the uncertainty or diffi- culty of obtaining correct foreign valuations as a basis for ad valorem duties, (although the most equitable system,) the irregularity and frailty of the present system is made more and more apparent. To obtain the requisite evidence to overcome uncertainty, irregularity, and frauds, incipient and actual, notwithstanding all the guards thrown around it, requires a combination of efforts, a degree of skill, patience, and capacity on the part of customs offi- cials as extraordinary as it is rare, and an amount of time, too, they are quite unable to bestow on this branch of the service. The number of invoices per day at the port of New York is on the average about 500, with corresponding entries, and when we take into the account that these are of every conceivable variety as to classification, quality, or value, it is not too much to say the greatest degree of fidelity, astuteness, and energy is insufficient to meet all the wants of the government and protect it against manifold frauds. So compli- cated is the present system that at every step in its execution it is beset with almost every species of opportunity and inducement for false invoices, false valuations, false classifica- tions, false entries, irregular or false manifests ; and however vigilant other agencies of the government may be, it is but the language of experience and reason to say numerous and continued frauds may be expected in some form or other. And it is self-evident the higher the rates of duty the stronger the motive or inducement to evade the laws ; on the contrary, little or no efforts will be made to smuggle merchandise on which there is little or no duty imposed. For all these reasons, and others which might be given, it will not be considered civil* SEEVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 55 an Bxaggeration to affirm that the difficulties of an organic character inherent in the system itself, and which are common to all ad valorem systems everywhere, are well nigh insur- mountable under high ad valorem rates. Perfection of the means necessary to enforce laws now on the statute-hooks has become, therefore, the indispensable duty of Congress, rather than by direct or indirect legislation removing the frail barriers against frauds now existing. It is no unfounded assumption to declare that just in proportion as preventive measures are withdrawn, in an exact ratio will fraudulent appliances be multiplied and strengthened. Their abolition in whole or in part, which has been advocated during the last two years, originated and was set in motion by those who were engaged in defrauding the government, and should be measured and charac- terized by the nature of the motives which produced them, and should not be adopted and advocated by those who are bound by the most sacred obligations to give this great subject not a superficial but a most profound examination, and provide means for their effectiveness. The abolition in whole or in part of preventive means now at command of customs officials, would heretofore have been and is now popular with the perpetrators, designers, and abet- tors of fraud. They are no doubt now and will hereafter be unanimous in support of all sorts of legislation which will limit the powers vested in the officers of the revenue, and witholding inducements to activity on their part. But would the honest and assiduous mer- chant be better protected ? Would the revenue be advantaged ? Would the confidence in the ability of the government to meet its obligations be strengthened by legislation of this character 1 Would they not rather recommend more energy and certainty in the execution of our laws— the perfection or organization of revenue laws in such a way as to make them capable of diffusing themselves to a much greater extent, and by each successive step repro- ducing themselves? Though impersonal, they must be endowed with the same fruitful motives to action, be inspired with the same hopes and expectations and moving to the same ends as influence and impel the violators of the laws. This can only be accomplished by interest- ing in the cause of the revenue the love of gain, the fears, hopes, confidence, and moral sense of the people— even their appetites and passions ; all of wliich, when taken together, are the only reliable directors of human action. The provisions of the laws must therefore be so framed that they may be the means by which individuals may accumulate money while they are vindicating them, as well as those who are designedly engaged in their vio- lation. Legislation, however perfect on its face, without this inherent motive power to impel executiouj will always be found in matters of revenue weak and impotent, shorn of all vig- orous, practical utility. To overlook or deny these considerations, nay, indispensable requi- sites, would be to forego all the usual maxims of prudence and policy. It may doubtless be observed without seeming arrogance, if there be an American statesman who does not con- sider this a cardinal principle in laws of this character, he may safely be pronounced one who has yet to learn the rudiments of revenue laws. It seems quite impossible that there can be two opinions on this subject. All good and considerate men will see the necessity of these requisites, and hence will be found on the side of an efficient administration thereof ; and if in their judgment they are not vigorous enough to meet the exigencies of this period of high taxes and imposts, they will not JFail to recommend others which will. They will not fail to see that statutes without an inherent motive power and without practicable sanctions are everywhere found, in practice, abortive, the ignis fatuus of weak and impracticable minds. They will all admit that matters of rev- enue are like all other affairs of civil government, to a very great extent under the arbitrary control of circumstances, and do not rest on logical analogies, however just or however per- fect; that the great and essential questions are what measures will best secure the collection of imposts and affi)rd the greatest protection to the mercantile interests of the country — not such as are carried on in a clandestine manner, but such as comply with the commercial regulations of the United States. In this view, "money being the vital principle of the body politic," the vigor of the rev- enue laws is not only essential to the collection of the revenue but to the permanency of the government itself, and in the view of sound and well-informed minds can never be sepa- rated. Those who do not realize the importance of this as a condition precedent are cer- tainly either misinformed or do not weigh -the evidences of existing necessities at this time of unprecedented activity and license, directed in many respects by the most ungovernable passions. 3. Before adverting to the means necessary for the protection of the revenue and lawful commerce, it should be observed that, by section 91 of the act of March 2, 1799, of all sums received as fines, penalties, or forfeitures a moiety was credited to the United States, and one- quarter was given to the informers, if any, and the remaining one-fourth was equally divided between the collector, naval officer, and surveyor, or to the collector if no naval officer and surveyor ; and if there were no informer, then a moiety was given to the collector, naval officer, and surveyor, as before stated. It was thought by the renowned statesmen of that period, fresh in their reading and practical application of first principles of legislation, di rected, too, in a great measure, by the intuitive and unsurpassed powers, analytical and practical, of Alexander Hamilton, in this sphere without an equal, that the inherent motive power to impel the execution of revenue laws was a matter of transcendent importance. They saw and pro- vided for the necessity of putting the complainant and violator of laws on the same level as 56 CIVIL SEEVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. to monetary and other inducements, that the former as well as the latter should be made to contribute to individual advantage, and that the honest merchant vfho by paying imposts to the government should have a legal means within his reach to protect himself, by a vindica- tion of the laws as against smugglers or the dealers in illicit merchandise, and thereby not only enable him to make an honest profit, but protect his capital in trade, which otherwise would be in jeopardy by the arts and devices of those who set laws at defiance. It will be seen that the act of 1799 does not provide, in any case, for the deduction of duties on mer- chandise that has been seized and condemned, nor from the proceeds thereof. The distributecl shares, under the 91st section, were not lessened by the deduction, nor the force of the act impaired by it. A moiety was, from a wise design, given to those who should voluntarily put the government in possession of information requisite to bring delinquents to justice. This status of legislation has, in fact, been recognized or allowed to remain on the statute- books until the act of March 2, 1867, when, under pretence of economy, and, as has been alleged by some, to take from customs oflScials an inducement to mercantile oppression, duties are required to be deducted when there is a forfeiture of imported merchandisa of the value of $500, or where such merchandise is released on the payment of the appraised value or of a fine or composition in money. By sections 37 and 38 of a bill reported or prepared by a commission appointed by the Secretary of the Treasury, it was first proposed to deduct duties in all cases whatsoever, but subsequently modified so as to require the deduction of duties in all cases where the appraised value was $1,000 ; and by a subsequent bill, reported by a committee of the House of Eep-' resentatives, it is proposed to reduce the compensation of collectors to an amount not exceed- ing that now paid to the assistant treasurers. How far or to what extent the latter bill is intended to affect the distribution of fines, penalties, and forfeitures is not known at this time, nor is it necessary here to consider. The ruling object in these several proposed changes is the saving of money to the national treasury, and is, in itself considered, respectable ; it wears the marks of honest legislation, whether wise or unwise, on a full and impartial examination of the whole subject. But will such alterations in the law, if made, be found in practice economical ? Will more money be received from imposts thereunder than would be under the provisions of the act of 1799? Those who favor and those who oppose such modifications of the act of 1799 are, no doubt, striving to reach the same end. However much prejudice there may have arisen and now exists in some localities, by reason of the different means to be used, candor, if allowed to speak, will, no doubt, convince all that the difference between them is a difference only of means, and not of ends. It is, therefore, not only proper but pre-eminently necessary to examine impartially, in the light of first principles, all the various primary considerations, such as are involved — the slate of society ; the financial and commercial spirit of the day ; the varied and multiplied inducements everywhere prevalent. By the provisions of sections 37 and 38 of the bill prepared by the commission appointed by the Secretary of the Treasury, it appears to be conceded to be inexpedient to deduct duties where the appraised value of the merchandise is less than |1,000, and this on the ground that no^ incentive will be given any order of men to give information, even if the merchandise be known to have been smuggled, nor inducement to customs officials, of any rank or order, to exercise extra official vigilance to prevent violations or evasions of the laws. The conces- sion amounting to this, that there would not be any incentive, but that au inducement equal to one-fourth part is an affirmative requisite to the proper enforcement of laws throughout the length and breadth of the land, not in the large cities only, but everywhere, for these provisions are of universal and not of local application. Hence the motive power heretofore thought to be requisite for nine and seventy years, is still so recognized in part by the sec- tions 37 and 38 of the proposed bill. It is difficult to see what good reasons can be assigned tor limiting the incentive *o amounts over |1,000. It will readily occur to every one, if really serviceable in cases where the amounts are less, it is equally so where the amounts are more than $1,000. It must be apparent that the danger to the revenue in the maximum by reason of a deduc- tion of duties, (thereby impairing the incentive,) is far greater where the appraised value is over $1,000 than when the amount is less than that sum. If it be inexpedient in the one case, why not vastly more so in the other? Is the sum of $1,000 the limit of the avarice or fraudulent propensities of men ? Have importers, their aiders and abettors, been found to be trustworthy when their importations exceed that suin ? Rather, does not experience, the least fallible of human guides, teach that in all our great commercial cities the greatest losses the revenue has sustained have been occasioned by reason of the infractions of the law in the introduction of large importations ? Not small one, but large ones. Can a principle be applied with safety to foreign merchandise over that amount which prudence forbids to be applied to merchandise of a less amount? If there be a good and sufficient reason it is to be found elsewhere than in the instructive volume of revenue experience. Small importers are not the only victims of avarice or lovers of inordinate gain. So, too, an impartial inves- tigation will not fail to show that the government needs most the inherent motive power of statutes touching importations of merchandise having the highest rates of duty, whether the amount of such importations fall short or exceed the sum of $1,000, and for the obvious reason that where rates are highest, there exists the greatest inducement to evade the require- CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 57 ments of the laws. With whatever motives or purposes these modifieationa of the act of 1799 are advocated, a full and clear analysis will exhibit the fact that it is not so much the value of any given package of merchandise as the rate of duty imposed which constitutes the incentive to smuggle it, and if any limitation to the principle be warrantable, it should be made on a very different principle than that of an arbitrary classification of amounts of value. If made at all, it should be by declaring that duties shall be deducted where the rate imposed does not exceed, say 15 per cent., leaving no deduction where it exceeds that percentage, and this for the reason there will be little or no inducement to violate the laws where the rate of imposts falls below that rate, but where it exceeds it duties are to be deducted, for the reason there will exist greater and stronger motives to evade the laws, and hence the encouragement to all who will aid the government in preventing evasions (if there be any limitation) should rest on this apparently self-evident proposition. The results arising from the deduction of duties, when the appraised value is over |500, is seen in the following cases of condemnation by the courts, under the act of March 3, 1867: United States vs. 11 casks gin, net proceeds, |2,743 30 ; duties, |3,008 74 ; duties exceeding net proceeds, $265 24. There was an informer. It is hardly necessary to say he was disad- pointed, and charged bad faith on the part of officials. United States vs. merchandise, 112,546 20; duties, $8,010 90; balance, $3,382 70; collector's share, $281 82. In a case of the condemnation of cigars, net proceeds, $525; duties, $353; balance, $142 11: inform- er's share, $35 52; collector's share, $11 84. Condemnation of laces, net proceeds, $950;' duties, $712 36; balance, 268 37; informer's share, $67 09; collector's share. $22 36. Another case of condemnation of merchandise, net proceeds, $1,024; duties, $711 06; bal- ance, $227 80; informer's share, $56 95; collector's share, $18 98. In another case of the condemnation of 16 casks of gin, $950; net proceeds returned, $142 35 ; informer's share, $35 58. Net proceeds in another case of merchandise, $7,440 ; duties, $3,933 90 ; balance, $3,506 10; informer's share, $876 25; collector's share, $292 08. Other cases might be given, showing the trivial amount distributable to customs official after duties are deducted, but the above are quite sufficient. In all cases they are looked by persons who have given information as disproportioned to the hatred, trouble and time con- sequent on the giving of it. But this is not all. In many cases where information is given in good faith, after the lapse of many months, and sometimes years, and after repeated inquiries' nave been made, informers are told that the Secretary of the Treasury has exercised the power of remission, and that they get nothing. The reply is, "It is the last time I will give information to the government." It may, therefore, be reasonably concluded, for the foregoing reasons, after looking at this subject in the light of personal interest, and in which the practical results under the statutes present it, little or no inherent motive power exists calculated to impel execution of the laws, but rather practical weakness and frailty. From whence the conclusion is inevitable that' when the greatest restraints and most active agencies are practically requisite, just then all, or nearly all, are withdrawn, notwithstanding it is generally thought to be otherwise from what appears on the face of the act itself. For nearly a century of high tariffs and low tariffs Congress uniformly invoked external agencies and restraints to check, as far as possible, illicit commerce by calling into requisi- tion, amongst other means, the principle of selfishness — to check inducement by induce- ment — avarice by avarice — energy in disregard of law by energy in its execution. Such were the ceaseless and powerful agencies invoked, but which now an unwise spirit of econ-' omy or concealed fraudulent purposes would abrogate. This may not be from any evil design on the part of any one ; it may have its parentage in fidelity to government, even ;' but its effects will be evil, as is too clearly seen by those having the best opportunity of judging. It is not done, it is true, by direct terms, but effectually done, nevertheless.' Government ought at least to keep good faith with its subjects, particularly those whom it induces to serve it. Governments to be respected must first show themselves respectable.' For it makes no difference, when the rates of duty are high, whether the government says it will give no gratuities or whether it says duties shall be deducted ; the result is found, in practice, to paralyze all the sources of information by which evasion of revenue laws are mostly obtained. Attention has been called to the prevalent disposition everywhere to evade the collection of revenue ; that the whole current of society has set in that direction. Let it, therefore, be .asked, do the authors of these propositions hope to purify the foul current by a withdrawal of restraints ? to check it by passive concurrence ? to overcome the monstrous evil by min- istering to its gratification? On the contrary is it not " everywhere known that the habits' and passions of men grow by what they feed on ; that the love of gold grows faster than the heap of acquisition?" In this view the question at issue reaches further than the suc- cessful administration of revenue laws— indeed, to the stability of all republican institutions. Again, the principal reason, and that which is most reliel on, for insisting on the deduc- ; tion of duties is that the government is entitled to duties in all cases. No one disputes' this ; all concede it to be true. But the merit or demerit of the question at issue is some- thing other and different. So far as anyone isolated case is concerned, were it- all, all would concede that duties should be deducted. But it is not to one case only ; it is to be applied to a class of cases ; it is to be incorporated into a system of legislation made up of, 58 CIVIL SERVICE OP THE UNITED STATES. and surrounded by, frauds, necessities, and facts tlie most formidable. It is, therefore, a question of practicability, to be followed by uniform practical results and their consequences ; one of practical results, and not one of mere right. It is really not whether the government is entitled to duties, but how is it to get duties ; not a question of right, but of abihty to gain what is endangered or positively withheld, and the power of a preventive system at all times ministering to the advantage of the government ; though silent none the less neces- sary and effective. It is not theory with which we have to do ; we are brought down, as a people, to the cold atmosphere of arbitrary facts ; to the selection or the securing of agencies to act in behalf of the government when it cannot act for itself. Hence, too, we are com- pelled to estimate, not what men ought to do but what they may be reasonably expected to do. Will any person who may have given information stand forth a party complainant a second time, after being the sole cause of the government getting high duties and one-half of the balance? he failing to get anything, or the merest trifle, if any, and but for whose agency the government would not have got anything. Will he a third time, a fourth time, even if he be in the possession of the most unquestionable evidence and the most valuable, after subjecting himself to the malice of the violators of the law, see the government get all, when without his aid it would have lost all? It may be said such is the duty of every citi- zen. Is it rational to suppose because it is the duty of every one that they will perform it ? He who expects it may be set down as already the victim of an excessive credulity. To expect it is, in fact, to affirm that selfishness is no longer a characteristic of the human species, and that intelligent lawgivers are no longer to regard selfishness an element of society. A rule, therefore, which wiU not admit of continuous and multiplied applications should not • be insisted on. One which will not in practice bear frequent repetitions is a fallacious one, and will be found, without doubt, as injurious to the revenue as it is futile. In a wide extended country teeming with commercial enterprise, increasing in volume and power, and stretching out wider and wider, the civil power should be so organized that each successive application should increase its power and effectiveness and not weaken it. It should be able to diffuse itself by a permanent and judicious arrangement of subordinate principles and institutions. Without incurring the charge of empiricism, it can be stated that if legislation for so widely extended a territory, whether relating to revenue or other affairs of the government, be not organized in such a manner it will be divested of all of its inherent and corporate vitality, and will at no distant day be seen to be a most miserable failure. Again, there is another branch of this subject of such transcendent importance both to individuals and the government that it demands a full examination. Reference is had to the protection which the government is bound to give to honest traders, those who pay imposts ; having paid duties to the government, and thereby increased the cost of their pur- chases, they are entitled to protection from low prices instituted and caused by those who have set revenue laws at defiance. If the government fail in this, it sacrifices the honest supporter of the government in order to shield the smuggler. How to do it is a question of ways and means, but the obligation to do it will admit of no two opinions. If this protection be not afforded, the government may be safely pronounced remiss ; and if so remiss will the capital invested in legitimate commerce be better protected or none pro- tected ? Although the agencies heretofore relied on during periods of high and low imposts, and herein contended for as indispensably necessary, may not be sufficient to meet the exigencies occasioned by present rates, but such exigencies do furnish the best of evidence adverse to an abolition of such agencies. Then- inefficiency cannot furnish grounds for less stringent laws, but evidence for provisions which will give the necessary protection. It is now openly affirmed by men of large commercial experience, and against whose com- mercial reputation aught cannot be said to their disadvantage, that during the two years last past they have been compelled to make purchases of houses they have strong reasons to think do not pay duties on their importations, the rates of duty being high, or go out of the business altogether ; that they have been forced to this by dealers in illicit commerce who not paying duties, undersold them if they purchased at regular importing prices. This will be more clearly seen and felt by supposing two men (and it is not a hypothetical case) go into business, of the same kind, at the same time, and invest the same amount of capital ; one pays duties on honest and correct invoices, the other makes entries of merchan- dise on false invoices, from 12 to 25 per cent, below the actual foreign value. The latter will make from 12 to 25 per cent, while the former makes nothing. If the undervaluation be no greater, the former will be compelled to close his business altogether or become bankrupt ; but suppose the difference be still greater, then the effects of a want of protection becomes more disastrous. Hence it must clearly be seen that the honest merchants are perforce com- pelled either to go out of business, become bankrupt, or cheat the government; and hence the government, by withholding such protection, actually makes smugglers of otherwise honest men, and negatively furnish the strongest incentive to smuggling. In this view undervaluation on the part of importers in the absence of protection should no longer be con- sidered a heinous wrong, but is most evidently extenuated by the remissness of the govern- ment. It is not too much to say on this point, already the confidence either in the ability or the disposition of the legislative and administrative departments of the government is most sadly CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 59 siaken. And why should it. not be ? The laws of trade are quite as intelligible and quite as imperative as those which regulate other departments of human affairs. It is not, therefore, a question simply whether the government shall have duties on imported merchandise actu- ally levied, but a much broader and far reaching one, whether the government agencies shall be found, in practice, acting for or against the interests of those who are disposed to be law- abiding men. The collection of the revenue and protection to the mercantile interests of the country are indeed convertible terms. The one necessarily implies the other. The failure of one is a failure of the other. The idea, which prevails to some extent in high places, (to a too great extent,) that undeserved toleration and leniency' may be exercised in matters of imposts or monetary demands of the government ; that open fraud remitted and incipient frauds winked at without the most serious and unjust consequences, and for the purpose of avoiding charges of harshness and oppression, is a fallacy. The natural product of a diseased political sensibility is as incompatible with commercial safety as it is adverse to every reliable element of national character. Nothwithstanding all this, and in striking contrast with this want of protection, are the flagrant and persistent efforts being made to defeat the authorities in the laudable work of protection, denying their right and heaping calumny without stint or limitation on the heads of those who are found on the side of the government, whether in private life or in official stations. Under the systematic and unremitting agencies of wealth and position directed to these ends, to a great extent, the whole course of society has under- gone a most deplorable change ; "words" even " have lost their signification;" public senti- ment is so debauched that to aid the government has become a personal reproach ; skilful fraud evidence only of creditable capacity ; systematic perjuries "masterpieces of cunning;" honesty a want of enterprise ; execution of the laws unjustifiable oppression ; praiseworthy efforts to protect the revenue and honorable assiduous merchants hireling meanness, stig- matized as the work only of base spies, corrupt and venal officials, unworthy of public or Erivate regard. So far indeed is this carried, believed, and openly countenanced by a strong ut yet still growing public sentiment, that to be known as being an officer or ageiit of the government in the revenue service constitutes a social ban, excluding all such from social position in which they would otherwise move and in many instances adorn. In short the whole structure of society has undergone a most marked and alarming change. Avarice and license has gained an ascendency, setting the laws at defiance, calumniating their constituted guardians, and before which the ablest, the wisest, and the purest of the land may well stand atnazed and confounded, and with energy turn their attention to guarding well the founda- tions of all law and order. The strength of purpose, extent of commercial transaction, and financial influence and activity bearing on this subject may be estimated by the statistics, a portion of which is hereto annexed, marked , showing that of all the vast amount of European productions which find American markets, only about nine per cent are imported directly by Americans, a fact which speaks its own importance. There is still another side to this matter, the full development of which lies in the womb of the future. Without any disposition to reflect or cast unjust reflections on any order of business men, it, however, should be stated, that certain leading branches of importing busi- ness is now almost exclusively in the hands of foreign houses, or foreigners not owing alle- fiance to this government nor purposing ever to become citizens. What few American ouses are now connected with such branches of business pay a commission to foreign houses to purchase for them abroad, or order for them. What are all the reasons or incen- tives to this it may not be easy or necessary to state. The fact is, however, some of the lead- ing features are, European producers or manufacturers send out or they adopt a foreign house already doing business in this country, which they style their agent ; then adapting their productions to what they term " the American demand or trade," ship, under color of consignments, such products to their (so-called) agent, invoicing such imported merchandise at or about the cost of manufacturing, claiming that such articles have no value in the prin- cipal cities of the country where they are produced. This may -be believed by some and appear plausible to others ; but let an American go to Europe and apply as a purchaser for such identical manufactures, and he is unable to buy a dollar's worth at the prices set forth in the invoices presented by such agencies in this country for entry. The result is, as before stated, such branches of the importing business is nearly or quite all in the hands of foreign houses. And the tendency is growing stronger every year, all in this direction, touching all other branches of the importing business. By reason of the opportunities afforded by the system of ad valorem duties, Europeans by finesse and by fraud are controlling the spirit and substance of American commerce on its own soil, and driving Americans from their own markets. How much further this will be allowed to prevail is to be determined by our national legislation. Protection, in each and every of these respects, is a requisite which should not be post- poned. The demand for it is most natural. Success or adversity is necessarily its concomi- tant. It may hence be not out of place to observe that, justice and justice only is the centre of personal national safety. She can, in the commercial world, as well as elsewhere, if invoked, estatosh order and security to all alike. Hence combined individual selfishness, social predilections and power have not hitherto, as we have seen, been silent nor inactive. And as the American people and interests are now situated, it is idle to suppose that they are sleeping now. However much selfish pre- 60 CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. tensions, petulant inveetives, and virulent hate may have done, "or fraudulent purposes may conspire to do hereafter under false names and false pretences, the prominent fact will not go unobserved, that the cause of revenue and protection to the mercantile interests of the country is the cause of national safety, without which public and private prosperity in this sphere may be hoped for, but cannot be rationally expected. But again, the provision for deducting duties in the cases before designated will defeat the object for which its projectors design it. It will always be in the power of those hav- ing a knowledge of infractions to make such knowledge known of act upon it or not. They may, however, defer until tliey know that the merchandise shall have passed from the pos- session of the guilty parties, and beyond the reach of the government, in which the only rem- edy, will be an action in personam for the value, and from the sum received no duties will be deducted. If the imported merchandise seized amounts to $500, duties will be deducted. It will therefore always be for the interest of persons giving information to wait till the merchandise has disappeared before complaint be made or official action is had. This is easily done. All that is required to effect it is to defer action. A little delay on their part defeats the , deduction of duties. But this is not all. If the parties smugg:ling are permanently located, have a place of business, and are pecuniarily responsible, while the government would not have security in the first instance, they would most likely in the end ; but if itinerant or irresponsible, the government would not have security, as would be the case if the res were seized, and would most likely fail to collect the amount of judgment recovered. A moment's reflection will show how much better and safer it will be so to frame the statute that not only the part going to informers and customs officials should not be subject to the deduction of duties, but by such non-deduction induce the most speedy action for the security of the government. This, too, shows the exceeding impolicy of the attempt recently promulgated of making punitory laws remunerative, as unwise as it would be humiliating to national character. It having been shown, by reason the most plain and conclusive, that an inherent motive power is most indispensable, and which is confirmed by the large and numerous frauds which have been experienced, it is only the part of consistency and honest dealing on the part of those who advocate the deducting of duties to name a substitute for the incentive heretofore relied on for the execution or impelling power of revenue statutes ; for to do away with the motive power heretofore known to be of the greatest utility, without furnishing or proposing some other argues, nothing less than culpable ignorance or fraudulent complicity with those who evade or resist the laws. Either conclusion would be as disagreeable as the effect of a wrong course would be disastrous, for to conclude for any reason that our national legisla- tors are indifferent to the welfare of the revenue or the wants of legitimate commerce ought to be considered entirely inadmissible. It is charged that distribution under the act of 1799 is liable to great abuses, that mer- chandise liable to condemnation has been released to claimants on the payment of amounts less than the duties alone, and this by the collusion of customs officials, United States district attorneys, and counsel for claimants. If there have been instances of this kind, a remedy should be provided, but in such a way so as not to take from the revenue system the strength requisite — the vital principles of its power. The remedy should not be allowed to take away the keystone of the arch, without which it will be found falling about our heads, more fatal to the government than to smugglers — indeed, fatal only to the goverimient. It would be quite easy to provide that in all proceedings in rem. it shall be unlawful for United States district attorneys, collectors, and other officers to stipulate or consent to release any goods, wares, or merchandise on condition that the party claimant confess judgment in a less sum than the appraised value thereof so subject to forfeiture, without the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, in writing, which approval shall be placed on file, and be a part of the records of .the courts where judgment by confession shall be entered ; and in case Judgment by confession shall be entered without such approval, the goods, wares, and merchandise so released shall be liable to seizure and forfeiture the same as if no proceedings had been had in the premises. If this should not be quite sufficient, others might be easily devised. Again, it is said that in the most populous revenue districts the compensation of collectors, naval officers, and surveyors far exceeds any just limit. In a few districts the amount received justifies this declaration ; but the number is less than a dozen. The' amount, however, received in these instances is not so in consequence of considerations such as are involved' in the fixing of salaries given to other classes of government officials. It will be admitted, if* candor shaU prevail, that such compensations arise from the necessities of the government over and above such as are connected with the discharge of duties appertaining to other official stations of a totally different nature. They are the results of the indispensable motive power' necessary to impel the execution of the statutes in overcoming frauds, incipient and actual, and without which there would not, for the numerous reasons heretofore specified, be vigor to enforce them. It is the gist of the preventive principle which experience has taught to be wise, and which is, in fact, the most effective and important for the welfare of the people. If large sums are received, it arises from the extent and volume of commerce on the one hand, and the prevalent disposition to evade the laws on the other, and it cannot be said in any just sense that the government is a loser by it, but it can be truthfully said the govern- CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 61 ment is a plainer by it, however virulent tnay.be the charges against customs officials. The government cannot be said to be a loser in that it neveirhad; and when, too, it gets one-half of what is recovered, and will otherwise be successfully smuggled in by far the greater number of instances. The instances, be it said to the credit of American revenue officers, when customs officials have acted corruptly, when all the facts are known, are not frequent. They have seldom occurred — so uufrequent, indeed, that, in a legislative point of view, they are to be regarded only as particular defects rather than as radical defects in the system itself — from hitherto unforseen defects rather than having their origin in permanent causes, and of constant and continuous operation. Nothing leads to greater mistakes or is more to be feared than errors ol this kind. Adiiitting the instances of collusion and complicity to be as marked and flagrant as stated and insisted on in some quarters, they should not be grounds for wholesale and sweep- ing suspicions, nor should such suspicions become the sole basis of legislation. If so, it would not be reasonable nor even safe to stop with customs officials. It would be quite as rational to charge those who are earnestly at work to overthrow the present preventive sys- tem with complicity with smugglers, that they are in the pay of smugglers. Such an infer- ence would not be far-fetched, but pertinent in view of all the facts. Intelligent lawgivers will, however, dismiss the whole system of expedients dictated only by suspicious as unwise and uncalled for, and which system in a broad and politic view of this whole subject demands a higher order of legislation. But there is another side to this branch of the subject — one, too, which no competent legislator will fail to regard. Eeference is had, first, to the nature Of the duties required in the collection of the revenue in the most populous districts ; second, the order or measure of abilities requisite thereto ; and third, what the reasonable returns of such abilities or attainments may be estimated at in other departments of business life. But there is still another side to this subject, one which no competent legislator will be likely to disregard, for it is no part of American statesmanship to run delirious after an idea, but rather to measure its practical fitness ; it has more regard for utility than theory. The opinions entertained in some quarters that salaries of collectors, naval officers, and surveyors should be rated by considering only the time required and the price of labor in the market, or rather the willingness ot men to serve the government without regard to attainments and personal fitness on the one hand, and the nature, extent, and consequences of duties to be performed or neglected on the other, it is thought will not bear an intelligent examination. If adopted and applied to the revenue service it will hardly fail of bein^ in more respects than one the prolific parent of national profligacy or legislative misdirection, when the nature of the duties are pleasing rather than distasteful, ministerial rather than inquisitive, popular rather than odious, trivial rather than laborious, increasing the political and social status of incumbents rather than lessening it ; in all such instances it is conceded salaries may be rated to a great extent with safety. But when the duties which are to be performed are the opposites of all these, it must follow other important considerations must enter into and should be allowed to provide for the necessities of the government. The duties of customs officials are evidently the latter of those above enumerated in almost if not quite every respect. Hence men of sufficient qualifications to perform the duties with advantage to the government will be successful in other departments of life, which hold forth greater promises of reward than f4,000 or |6,000 per year. They will not assume laborious and odious duties for a like amount of compensation, connected as they are with personal malice and hostility, and oftentimes without cause, with the general impression of bad faith, peculation, and even oppression, however honest or trustworthy they may be. As a general proposition those who are best qualified for such offices enter upon the duties 6nly from motives of self-interest or personal advantage, offered and secured by the terms of the law. They do not do so from the love of official position or patriotism, nor for a limited salary assume voluntarily labors of such a gigantic character as such duties impose in the largest revenue districts. In fact it may be safely stated nbthing but a strong appeal to individual love of gain on the part of the governnient will for any length of time secure the government the advantages arising from the services of qualified appointees, endowed by nature with force of character requisite to such duties. . Even where the laws are most clearly evaded will collectors institute suits against a man or firm if commanding influence, who alone or with the aid of his friends shall be able to displace him as readily as against some person or persons without influence. Will he do so ia a critical case, or where there is likely to be strong opposition, as readily without a personal interest as with ? "Will competent men everywhere be found of so little rega,rd to their owtt interests or reputation, or of so self-sacrificing a turn of inind, as to disregard all personal considerations — care' nothing about the effects of administrative' acts where "wealth and influence are brought against him ? Or, rather, will not there be stronger reasons to expect that, without a persOnal interest, laws in many cases will be a dead letter, and where, too,- there are strong reasons for their execution arising from the extent and flagraney of the frauds perpetrated ? ' , The results may be summed up as follows : competent men, if receiving but a limited salary without a personal interest in the seizures made and suits instituted, will either disre- gard the interests of the revenue by failing to make seizures and institute suits when the public interest dictates toi fear of losing their position, or fail to do so because there is no 62 CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. motive tp move them thereto; or they will neglect to look after the interests of the revenue, frefeiTing to give their time to business outside the custom-houses which promises better, n either case the revenue is made to suffer from the very nature of such a system. It has already pissed to a political maxim, "that a power over a man's subsistence amounts to a power over his will." So, too, men take but "a slender interest in what is short-lived and is of but little advantage ; " and it is so particularly where "there is little or no inducement for them to expose themselves on account of it to any considerable^ incon- venience or hazard," which always, sooner or later, when wealth, political and social, are opposed and have an opportunity to display themselves. If no personal interest be given officials the greater will be the inducement to commit, directly or indirectly, corrupt practices and peculations, " for experience, the least fallible of human guides," shows how easy it is for even many otherwise good men to persuade them- selves that, as they bear the burdens of office, they are entitled to a compensation com- mensurate with the labors performed and the hazards run, even beyond the stipulated amount given by law, and that if they have not the terms of the law on their side they have at least a moral right to more than it gives. In public life it should be borne in mind that personal interest has as much to do in keeping men honest as the restraints of the law. To avoid the inducements of a corrupt character their legal rights and personal independ- ency should be in proportion to their labors and risks and responsibilities from whatsoever source they may come ; their opportunities to accumulate money in accordance with the law sufficiently strong to deter them from doing anything which would involve its withdrawal. They should not be placed for the good of the government in a position to have their forti- tude weakened by interested parties "operating on their fears nor corrupting-their integrity by appeals to their necessities or their avarice." It is believed if a system of the kind proposed be adopted, it will furnish inherent causes which will not fail to defeat itself. It may safely be pronounced in advance to be the offspring of incompetency and ignorance. It is only necessary to add that, in balancing the subordinate agencies and institutions of great nations, the element of self-interest often is made to perform quite as important a part as economy or disinterestedness. The uniform experience of political communities have taught, when they are unable to help themselves, it is always wise to call for the assistance of individuals, moneyed though they be, by personal interests. . 5. The following reasons, supported by facts of no ordinary significancy, show the necessity for a modification of several provisions now on the statute-books, and the enact- ment of other provisions for the protection of the revenue, and the rights of parties, and also to prevent our revenue system from becoming the victim of tx parte investigation, irre- sponsible agencies, favoritism, and eveiy evil influence, which must in time follow : i. The act of March 3, 1863, section first, and other sections and acts bearing on the subject of undervaluation, is believed to be greatly deficient, inasmuch as under the rulmg of the courts it requires stronger proofs, and such as are far more difficult to obtain, for the gov- ernment to prove undervaluation in an action against a consignor than against an actual purchaser. It is extremely difficult for the government to show a guilty knowledge on the part of a consignee, who alleges he enters his goods as per invoice forwarded by his prin- ciple, and to make him liable who sells for a commission of five per centum, and remits the balance of the proceeds of sales. In consequence of this distinction or the greater latitude to false and fraudulent appliances under the forms of consignment, and the success which has attended practices of this char- acter, a very large proportion of European importations have been admitted to entry at a very low foreign valuation, and the amount is believed to be increasing in consequence. The total amount of such consignments of woollen goods as compared with sales, shipped to America from the following consulates, to wit, Bremen, Cologne, Aix la Chapelle, Briinn, for the months of July, August and September, 1867, were as follows : 1867. Consignment. Sales, currency tha- lers, 69 cts. Amer- ican money. July August September. 75,252,462 45, 827, 990 25,094,028 1,641,403 890,f)55 1,245,059 Currency thalers, 69 cents American money. The above figures were taken from the records of the consulates above named by one of the most intelligent and trustworthy agents of the Treasury Department, and in which the most Implicit confidence can be placed. The amount of sales as compared with the consign- ments of goods shipped to America is hardly worthy of notice, only as it reveals a practice and a motive. From evidence obtained by the same agent who has been in Europe over CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 63 / two years, he is of the opinion that the average undervaluation of woollen goods and wines and drugs combined will not fall below 35 per centum. He is also of the opinion that the ratio or difference between sales and consignments above set forth will hold good in all the principal consulates of Europe, and also the rate of undervaluation. Silk ribbons shipped from Lyons, total amount, first six months of 1866,francs ... 25, 695, 835 Consigned 19,271,876 Sold 6,423,959 25,695,835 Undervaluation estimated at 15 per centum. Silk ribbons shipped from Zurich, first six months of 1866 10, 751, 005 Consigned 9,138,354 Sold 1,612,651 10,751,005 Undervaluation 18 per centum. Silk ribbons shipped from Basle, first six months of 1866, total in francs. ..m... 7,323,582 Consigned 6,884,372 Sold 439,210 7,323,582 Undervaluation 18 per centum. It will be seen that the proportion, in this article of merchandise, between consignments and actual sales holds good. It is only necessary to add that the wine and champagne trade, as well as the above kinds of merchandise, are entirely in the hands of the manufacturers, and the system of under- valuation on consigned goods runs through the entire line of trades, and there is no doubt extends to others in the same ratio. They are either invoiced at or a small percentage above the manufacturers' prices, instead of the wholesale price, and are kept in the hands of foreigners to the exclusion of the American merchants by such system of undervaluation, besides defrauding the government of a large portion of its revenue. These figures need little comment. . They speak their own importance, point out the evil and suggest the remedy. Purchaser and consignee should be placed on the same level by our laws. Our laws should be so clear and specific on this subject that no foreign consignor could by any appliances whatsoever make entry of his goods at a less foreign value than an American purchaser ; that no indirection shall avail him, no means be at his command by which he, who has no permanent interest in the welfare of our institutions, shall be able to drive Americans from their own markets and at the expense of th,e revenue of millions annually, as is now unfortunately the case. Of the 157,000 (or thereabouts) invoices, of which entry is annually made at the port of New York, there is good reason to believe from the above figures and information from other sources that four out of every five set forth a foreign value less than the actual wholesale price required by our laws, or in other words, 400 of every 500 daily entered at New York are fraudulent. It will be said no doubt that they are for the most part passed by the appraiser nevertheless, from which it is true an inference may be justly drawn that the appraiser is derelict of duty. No design of this kind is however intended directly or indirectly, even by implication. The appraiser no doubt for the most part arrives at his conclusions by comparing the invoices of different importing houses. He knows little or nothing of foreign valuation from his own personal knowledge of European wholesale prices, and as the figures and investigation made in Europe show that there is in all, or nearly all, the principal consulates an almost uniform system of undervaluations, it is not at all to be wondered at that the foreign values arrived at at New York by the appraisers by comparison and other means should disagree, with wholesale prices obtained iu Europe by personal observations and statistics, and par- ticularly so when less than 15 per cent, of all the importations are by American purchasers and 85 per cent, under the form of consignments and by foreigners. Such being the case comparison of invoices of one importing house with another is only another way of estab- lishing undervaluation as foreign values at the expense of the revenue. 3. For the foregoing reasons, commencing with the inherent weakness of revenue laws in themselves considered, the necessity for the giving of gratuities to the third persons as au inducement to give government officials information and customs officials for extra vigi- lance, the systematic frauds perpetrated under cover of consignments, the unreasonable delays in the courts. of the trial of causes in many cases, it is not to be wondered at that the Secretary of the Treasury has found it necessary to employ a large corps of special treasury agents to report on cases at all stages of their investigation. Nor is it at all strange that 64 CIVIL SERVICE OP THE UNITED STATES. under the various statutes giving specific powers in certain cases taken in connection with the general and sweeping power " to superintend the collection of the revenue," he should assume to act through agencies appointed by himself, which sound policy dictates should be wholly left to the judicial tribunals of the country when the amount gives the courts juris- diction. The policy which obtained until quite recently of confining the duties of such agents (limited in number compared to those now employed) to ferreting out and detecting frauds, was unobjectionable and judicious, but the extension of their assumed jurisdiction of erect- ing all over the country where interest, caprice or malice may dictate self-constitated exam- inations, making ez ■parte reports based on the rumors or statements of interested parties not confronted by opposing interests, is a system fraught with such numerous and monstrous consequences that no enlightened statesman can approve. As before observed, under the circumstances this may be justifiable on the part of the Secretary, but as a system it cannot be too severely reprobated. The means at the command of customs ofBcers, their own expe- rience and competency, and the efficiency of the courts ought to remove at the earliest day possible a system antagonistical to the genius and laws of the country, and subject to every vice. Again if the system were in itself admissible the experience had under it, the character of men employed as such for the most part, the means used to secure such appointments, the rapid changes which take place, preclude the idea of competency on the part of such agen- cies and safety tp those whose interests are involved, assuming that in all cases the agents are honest and directed by a laudable purpose to serve the government without doing injury to any one. , But when it is known that most of these ajencies are sought for political or purely per- sonal ends, that many are appointed without the requisite education, without any experience in revenue matters, and without sound characters when best known, the system becomes too dark and repulsive for comment. But waiving considerations of a personal character and looking at the system so inaugur- ated as a system in vogue, the most deplorable feature is that in far the larger number of cases of any magnitude reported to 'district attorneys for prosecution in the courts at some time during some stage of the proceedings, the same is subjected to the considerations and reports of treasury agents, and although the laws do not by any means place the Secretary above the courts, or independent of the courts, except to a hmited extent, nor were they designed to do so, yet practically the course now pursued by the Treasury Department has reached that end. So serious is this matter that an instance has oceuiTed that after the col- lector had reported large frauds to the district attorney and had made fall report of his acts and doings to the Treasury Department, the party who was used in the commission of the fraud, the one who actually committed the acts, procured from the department the appoint- ment of a treasury agent and received instructions to investigate such and other frauds."' This might have happened or have been the result of a well practiced imposition. It would be charitable to look at it in this light, but the facts are after his history and agency in the frauds was made known to the department, he was not only not dismissed but employed in other districts by the department. In other cases evidence points to the conclusion that parties who have committed large frauds on the revenue, fearing detection, have made use of influences at their command to secure the appointment of one of their own number as an agent of the treasury through whose offices and manipulations when the same were discov- ered they were able to compromise by the payment of a small sum or escape altogether. Enough however has been stated to show that the effect of the system as it now obtains would not, if we had a properly organized system, be superintending the collection of the revenue, but an interference with the collection of the revenue. And perhaps the worst of all is that the labors and ends reached by such agencies paralyzes and intferrupts that silent invisible power of the law, the substantial growth of time and pre- cedent, which, while it protects the rights of all parties, never fails to give the strongest support which legislation can receive, a power able to defend all orders of men "from the law and even the lawgiver from himself," arising from the conviction that the law is a living entity land not a mere form, which interruption, though in behalf of claimants, by the force of such precedents will not fail of being even to them the fruitful cause of other irregulari- ties and frauds. This spu-it is inherent in the system itself. If the course of judicial proceedings shall become subject to such informal ex parte action as appears to be coming into general practice, all protection by the courts will fail : and not only this, but it is difficult to see, on the one hand, the practical boundary of the power of rem^sion, ajd on the other what degree of protection and stability under it legislation wiU be able to afford the revenue ; for " the precedent of to-day becomes the law of to-morrow." 4. The practical effect of the act of March 2, 1867, has worked badly in many respects for the interests of the revenue. After the experience of 14 months it is believed that the act should be greatly modified ; in fact that the interests of the government require the repeal of the act, with the exception of such provisions as gives to the officer making the seizure one-fourth of the fine, penalty, or forfeiture, in case there be no informer; and sec- tion 2, which provides for the appHcation and issue of warrants by the United States district judge for the seizure of books and papers. CIVIL SEEVTCE OF THE UNITED STATES. 65 The amount of clerical duties imposed in consequence of proriding for the distribution of fines, penalties, and forfeitures, by the Secretary of the Treasury, instead of by collectors, as previous to the passage of this act, both by the collectors and the department, appears to be wholly unnecessary, and is attended with every species of delay. Although the act was intended to benefit the subordinate officers making seizures, and also informers, it is not too much to say that the delay ia the adjustment of such items has produced so much com- plaint that the cause of it is extremely prejudicial to the service, and embarrassing to col- lectors, naval officers, and surveyors, and that so much of the act should be repealed. It has been already stated that proofs of no ordinary significance pointed to the conclu- sion that from 83 to 90 per cent of all importations from the continent of Europe were imported under the form of consignments — that their average undervaluation is about 35 per cent. It has also been stated, a fa(;t of the greatest importance, that the appraisers at the several ports of entry do not arrive at the foreign values which becomes the basis for duties so much from a personal knowledge of the wholesale market value of such importa- tions in the principal cities in the countries from which the same are imported a? they do by comparing one invoice with another — the invoices of an importer not known to them with those known of acknowledged commercial reputation. This they are, no doubt, compelled to do for want of a more satisfactory and practical method ; for it is not to be supposed that appraisers at the port of New YorkJ or elsewhere, are to be found who are personally con- versant with the wholesale market value of all importations they are called on to appraise, iu the countries from whence they are imported. As before stated, only about 9 per cent, are actually imported underthe form of purchases, that 91 is under the form of consignments, and that the undervaluation is equal to about S5 per cent, it follows that the system, so general, of comparing one invoice of consigned goods with another, is, in fact, to a veiy great extent, but a method of fixing by appraise- ment a false foreign valuation as a basis for estimating duties. It has been frequently said by tho Hon. Hugh McCulloch, Secretary of the Treasury, and confirmed by others, that the government did not collect more than 50 per cent, of the duties it was entitled to under the law. Many have been unwilling to give credit to this statement. If the figures before given and confirmed in difierent ways be taken as proof, it can easily be seen how the larger part of such failure to get legal duties occurs, independent of other causes. This is not intended to cast any reflection on appraisers, but to show, while the law devolves on them an important duty and high official trust, it has not by any systematic method provided them with the means necessary to perform such duties intelligently or sat- isfactorily to themselves even. The true test of a statute on this subject is to furnish the requisite information to appraisers. Its aptitude to perform this function can only he seem by practical results. The defects of the present statutes is seen from the fact that as there are collected from $120,000,000 to $130,000,000 at the port of New York per annum, there is a loss to the revenue of from at least $30,000,000 to 40,000,000 every year. This state of things should be obviated. Demanding the attention of the law-making power it should' be remedied. Instead of Congress giving so much attention to matters of minor details and the bestowal of patronage, as has been the case in some instances, this maelstrom of frauds, false ana fraudulent practices and appliances, and persistent mercantile assumptions, should be rendered impossible by more perfect and practical legislation. Various methods might be adopted to this end. The following is suggested for consideration as a substitute for those provisions, or as additional to the provision relative to the powers and duties now devolving on general appraisers, appraisers, and assistant appraisers : 1. At the time of making oath as to the true value by the owner or consignee before a consul, full samples shall be lodged or filed with such consul showing the contents of each packag^e duly labeled, with all the necessary particulars. '2. That there shall be established three commercial agencies, or three consuls to be named to perform this duty, one in Great Britain, one in France, and one in Germany, under the supervision of a capable man with commercial experience, with authority to employ a staff of experts in various branches of all kinds of merchandise. 3. That consuls shall transmit abstract weekly reports, accompanied by samjiles filed, to the designated agencies, and also transmit a weekly report of the market price of all articles of merchandise susceptible of being quoted in commercial price-current. 4. That such commercial agents shall systematize such consular reports, and classify the samples of the goods so received by them, and weekly transmit them to the collector of the port of Npw York, for his guidance and information, and that of the appraiser; and also a duplicate copy of such reports to the Secretary of the Treasury. The adoption of a plan of this character would enable the several commercial agencies to report weekly the true value of all kinds of merchandise, and quote understandiugly the goods appraised in this country. They would, too, be enabled, from having all the .samples of goods shipped, to at once detect any undervaluation, and could report, at any time after- wards, the specific facts at once to the collector or Secretary of the Treasury, when required. In case of any question in regard to the value of any kind of merchandise in this country, by lorwarding the same with samples, or otherwise, to the commercial agency of the coun- try from which the goods were imported, .the matter could, with such means at command of H. Rep. Com. 47 5 66 CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. the agent, be deteimined at once, and thereby prevent many delays here, and no doubt be the means of avoiding much litigation in the federal courts. It need only be added, that by the adoption of this plan the g-overnment oflScials will have full statistical information in regard to the value of all kinds of foreign goods, with little or no additional expense, and wjiich, it is believed, would soon be found of indispensable importance in all matters of revenue. It is the system wtich would be adopted by an intel- ligent private firm were the same necessities to exist for acquiring the same information, which fact, once admitted, is an unanswerable argument in favor of its adoption by the government. In conclusion, all who shall take the trouble to look over this whole subject, in all of its parts, will not fail to see how much must ever depend on the proper execution of the minute details of which it is composed ; that however perfect the code may be made by the repeal of provisions now existing and the enactment of others, the final success of the revenue code must depend on the ability with which its several provisions are executed. The history of states and nations everywhere discloses the great fact that not more than one-half, nor even that much, is accomplished when a code or organic act is adopted. "The administration of a system of polity is the larger part of its establishment." Arrangement and perfection of details can only secure success, and this can only come of industry, exactness, order, time, and experience ; and these again need not be looked for where personal inducements are wanting. Kor is there anything in the nature of the public service which can or should overcome a laticnal demand for permanent and well-paid labor. Whoever demands it or expects it, is nnconsciouply or inadvertently the advocate or indorser of the parent of irregularity, incom- petency, and license, which everywhere are the ministers of political vice. No part of the }inblic service is made up of such an infinite number of details, and each so intimately attended with losses, and on which so vast an amount in money is made to depend, as the collection of ad valorem duties for a great nation. Each successive step should be performed witii at-euracy and despatch, and without which, no matter how perfect the legislation, or who may be appointed collectors, the system will, to a greater or less extent, prove a failure. On the other hand, if each part in detail be duly attended to, the concurrence of parts properly exe- cuicd strengthen each other, different divisions and departments furnish each their quantum in the organism, and thus perfection of the whole arises by degrees, like the several orders of a Palladian palace, crowned with success, giving a permanent revenue to the government, and protection to its law-abiding subjects. To this end, therefore, the system of appointing proper men for the execution of our rev- enue laws is of the most primary and vital impoitance. So much so, that it is not out of ilie way to say, that unless reformation begin here, it is less than useless to hope for a better administration of our revenue laws, however many other changes may be proposed. However enamoured the advocates of the present system of appointments and tenure of office may be, it is confidently asserted that both rest on a false and mistaken basis : that the highest considerations demand that ascertained competency should be made requisite to every a|ipointment under our revenue code, and when appointees are once found to be qualified by educatiim and habits, they should hold their positions during good behavior, and that pro- motion should be made from the number found to be competent and deserving. Kapid suc- cession in appointments, even when qualified, is inconsistent with every idea of certanty, regularity, and a high order of ultimate success ; nor is there on the part of appointi'es that stiniulu.s to excel when appointed, or to exhibit by their conduct a high order of upright- ness. While, on the other hand, feeling they hold their positions by a feeble tenure, and at best cannot hold it long, there is always an inducement to make the most out of it possi- ble, so they escape the penalties of the law. The practical extent of these observations is difiicuit of measurement in matters of revenue. Those most familiar with the collection of the revenue, both customs and internal, attach the most importance to them; for it has been well said, "it is a general principle of human nature that a man will be interested in what- ever he possesses in proportion to the firmness or precariousneos of the tenure by which he holds it ; will be less attached to what he holds by a momentary or uncertain title, than to that he enjoys by a title durable or certain, and of course will be willing to risk more for the sake of the one than of the other. The remark is not less applicable to a political privilege or honor or trust, than to any article of ordinary property." It is as applicable to subordi- nates as to those holding the most exalted stations. It is worthy of remark, if time and training be essential requisites in the army, the navy, and the judiciary, it is believed to be hardly less so in the revenue service. If money be the vital principle of the body politic, then, too, it is not too much to say, to some extent, the permanency and efficiency of the army, the navy, and the judiciary are dependent on the successful administration of the rev- enue system of the country. For' when it shall be made to appear, if ever, by the architects of political indifference and fraud, that our system for the collection of the, revenue is inade- quate, followed as it soon would be by a want of confidence, then will commence the dark catalogue of national evils whose consequences no friend of the government can estimate, nor their end foiesee. Letter of Hon. J. W. Hunter, of Brooklyn, New York : My past experience has been sufficient to convince me that almost any change would be for the better. It could hardly be worse than the present system of political qualifications. CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 67 1 think the public service could be performed by well trained, well educated men, assured of permanence in o£Sce during good behavior, and when meriting promotion to receive it, for about one half the amount now expended. Questions Ho. '6'6, 'Ai and 35 I can answer most decidedly in the affirmative. F. S. McNeely, postmaster at Trenton, New Jersey, au emphatic reformer, sug- gests abolition of franking privilege, and the leasing out of stamp stands instead of appointing stamp clerks, by which an annual saving of $100,000 would be effected : Allow uie to say something in regard to the "franking privilege." For nearly 20 years I have seen it abused most shamefully ; and it is my decided opinion, that to correct the abuse, you must abolish the privilege. The abolition of the frank would very largely increase the revenues of the Post Office Department. I have in the lobby of this office a news-stand, at which postage stamps and stamped envelopes are sold. The news dealer pays three hun- dred dollars ($300) a year rent for the privilege of having said stand. A stamp clerk would have to be employed if the stamps were sold by me. By this arrangement the government saves at this office thirteen hundred dollars (l$l,300) annually. If this plan was generally adopted, the government would save at least $100,000 annually. John B. Headley, collector, Morristown, New Jersey: Urges the discharge of the vast army of revenue inspectors and agents, the selection of collectors and assessors with particular reference to ability, honesty, and integrity, and not on account of political influence ; a fixed salary from $2,500 to $6,000, in accordance with amount of labor and size of district, &c., holding them to a strict account for all frauds committed in the district, and to be removed at once if found guilty by the district attorney. C. E. Wright, collector of internal revenue, 12th district, Wilkesbarre, Pa.: 2. A plan for the schooling and training of the assistant assessors would result in much good. The assessor is generally distant from the most of his assistants, and their instructions generally derived by letter, in answer to inquiries from them. At stated times they should be assembled by the assessor and catechised. It would establish uniformity and correctness in their work; or, if an agent of the department should make the tour of each district once a year, at least, it would be to a good end. The whole efficacy of the system hangs on the action of the assessing power. No doubt great losses are occasioned by the laches and ina- • bility of the under-assessors. 3. Perhaps the greatest evil occasioned the system of internal revenue is the traffic, of an illicit character, in spirits. The ingenuity of man seems baffled in attempts to counteract these frauds. In all parts of the country the railroad trains are shifting immense quantities of spirits from State to State, the tax on which has not been paid. If it were possible to control these common carriers by any congressional legislation, they should be restrained from carrying any cask which has not marked on it the evidence of "tax paid." I have in my district but one revenue inspector, and it is out of the questionfor him to keep watch of the great number of railroad depots, I presume more than a hundred. I know that the officers of one of our roads direct their subordinates to keep watch of the markings of casks of spirits, but this case is the exception to the rule. The transportation of copper stills, worms, &c., is usually by the same means of conveyance. 4. The subject of taxing whiskey is a problem that seems destined to fail of solution. For my own part I have become satisfied that there is but one way to secure this tax. It should 'never leave the premises where it is made until it has paid its tax, and when the distiller has failed to pay on a certain amount he should stop operating. The loss, the amazing loss, on this commodity, is that it is permitted to pass from place to place without payment of its tax. The system of bonds, given for particular purposes, fails in its purpose. 5. Though it may not strictly fall within the scope of your circular, I will mention lastly that the receipts of revenue in this State have been essentially diminished by removal of the tax on coal and iron. In this district the sum of receipts has fallen from $1,000,000 to $400,000. This tax was paid (I mean the tax on coal) the most promptly and easily of all. Coal operatioiis becoming chiefly confined to large and wealthy corporations, the stock of which being much of it owned by capitalists of the Atlantic cities, it was easily paid. And the same remark applies to iron companies. The imposition of those taxes again, as they were, would materially increase the sum of revenue. If there is any other point on which, at any time, you desire information of me, I shall be happy to give it. J. Lee Engelbert. assessor 7th district, Pennsylvania : 37. In my humble opinion the effioiency of the civil service could be promoted by the employment and retention in office of officers who have shown by their abilities and acts qualifications for honesty and faithful performance of the duties devolving upon them for 68 CIVIL SERVICE OP THE UNITED STATES. the interests of the service and satisfaction of tax-payers. Employment being assured at a fair remuneration for services rendered would certainly cause a higher grade of talent and a better class of persons to enter the government service and remain therein. Should the tax on manufactures be removed and the revenue for the government be derived from income, spirits, tobacco, luxuries, succession and legacy tax, I would respectfully recommend the reduction of the number of assistant assessors, the most efficient being retained in the service : let their whole time be devoted for the public good at a fixed salary; this would insure proper and diligent attention to assessment of taxes, because at present in our rural districts considerable ground is travelled over, some of the assistants having eight townships, requiring conveyance, and the small amount of tax sometimes assessed will not warrant the approval by the assessor of a large bill in the assistant's favor for services rendered. C. S. Phillips, assessor internal revenue second district, Pennsylvania : In my opinion the head of every department should give undoubted evidence of his fitness for the position. I do not think that such fitness can only be acquired by rising gradually from the lowest to the highest grade. I do not think that such a system would work well. New men of the necessary qualifications, and of well known character in the community in which they live, should be appointed to the head of each department. An efficient chief makes efiicient subordinates. In all public offices I believe an equal amount of work could be done, and better done, by a less number of persons than are employed. It is impcssible briefly to give a full opinion of the merits and demerits of the system embraced in this inquiry. Fresh men, taken from the walks of active life, infuse more energy into an official department than men who have always lived in it. The latter are apt to become listless and indolent. It is the natme of the man who lives for a long time upon a fixed salary to become so. Care should be taken in selecting the heads of the diflerent civil departments in the State. Political influence ought not be the sole or chief recommendation. A board of well-known merchants or business men, in each congressional district, might he selected, who should examine and pass upon the merits and qualifications of the candidates. The heads of the departments should be held strictly accountable for their subordinates. The proposed system appears to me contrary to the spirit of the age, deriving its origin from governments unlike our own. Fresh men taken from the walks of active life infuse more energy into an official department than men who have always lived in it. The latter are apt to become listless and indolent. It is the nature of the man who lives for a long time upon a fixed salary to become so. T. Wilkins, collector of customs, Erie, Pennsylvania, declares as follows : Since I have held the position of collector my experience has sustained me in the opinion that the duties of a revenue officer are so far professional that their proper administration depends as much upon the knowledge derived from study and continued experience as does a successful practice at the bar. Josiali P. Hetrick, collector of internal revenue, Easton, Pennsylvania, in reply to a demand for furtiier testimony than in his first report, sends a communication setting forth the fact that the revenue act of March, 1867, reduced the collection in his district from $1,300,000 to $700,000 by taking off the tax on pig iron and leather, which makes a moneyed aristocracy of the furnace men and tanners, to. the detriment of the lumber men of the district. His full report is herewith annexed : The new revenue act of March, 1867, reduced the collection in my district from $1,300,000 to about $700,000. This was caused by taking off the tax on pig iron and leather, which never should have been done, inasmuch as the furnace men and tanners were then and are now clearing 150 per cent., and are becoming a moneyed aristocracy in the midst of an indus- trious community of lumbermen, manufacturers, mechanics and merchants, who pay nie the §700,000 revenue tax which I collect annually. To collect $700,000 in small assessments, spread over five counties, requires as much labor as it did to collect one or two millions in large assessments, yet I am "running the machine," (and I believe it is well run, and with the approbation of the department,) with two-thirds of the subordinates formerly employed. This is done by securing men of temperate habits, ability and industry. I am of the opinion that the revenue service relating to assessments might be made more efficient and economical. In some divisions of a district there are too many assistant assessors. They are paid |5 per day, and in many cases have but little duty to perform. It is of vast importance that assistant assessors shall be honest and competent men and before they are appointed by the department should pass through a thorough, searching investigation by the assessor of the district. CIVIL SERVICE OP THE UNITED STATES. 69, William McSherry, assessor internal revenue, Littlestown, Adams county, Pennsylvania, an ex-member of Congress and ex-State legislator, fully iadorses the proposed reform, and states as follows : I do not think there is a branch of the public service in which it is so important thifc competent and faithful offisers should be retained than that connected with the assessment of internal revenue taxes. I refer particularly to the assistant assessors. So long as the system remains such as it now is, it requires months for an assistant assessor to become familiar with the duties of his office, it matters not how well he may have been educated nor how successful he may have been in transacting other kinds of business. Whenever changes are made in a district it disarranges the business of the district for months and causes much trouble. I believe if the services of competent and faithful officers were more generally recognized by the government and the public it would be a great stimulus to encourage them in the discharge of a duty which is generally odious to the public, and in many instances ; not remunerative to the occupant of the office. T. C. Gummert, acting assessor internal revenue, Brownsville, Pennsylvania, offers the following suggestion : Only appoint those of good moral character and able to stand a close examination. Abolish assistant assessors attending daily to distillery ; it is a humbug ; get an honest man for store- keeper and make distillers pay him, thereby lessen expenses of assistant assessors ; many are now paid $195 to f 135 per month that could not earn $80 ; make assessor's pay $2,000 per ■ year and no compensation but office rent and fuel; assistant assessor l|l,000 per year and not allowed to do anything else. And, finally, amend section eight of internal revenue so that in place of assistant assessor being the acting assessor, make the clerk, when competent, the assessor, so that I and any others situated as I am shall be honorably rewarded for past services, and for merit alone. And to make my assertions good, I refer to all citizens of this place, and especially O. P. Baldwin, republican postmaster at this place, and to the assistant ' assessors of 1st, 2d, 3d, 4th, 10th, 12th, 13th, 14th, and 15th divisions, half of whom are republicans and the rest democrats. Hoping that you may carry out your good intentions in this respect by calling at the Commissioner's office, ask for reports of 21st district, and make a decision in my case. T. J. Jordan, assessor internal revenue, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania : Urges the abolition of all bonded warehouses, these being, in his opinion, the chief centres ' of fraud. He further recommends that all cases involving whiskey frauds should be adju- dicated by the courts, and not in the departments. William P. Lloyd, collector internal revenue, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, strongly advocates the adoption of the proposed system, fully indorses and q[uotes the opinions of Commissioner Rollins bearing upon the subject of reform, and- declares : Under such a system an equal amount of work might be done at least in the assessors, and collectors' departments of internal revenue by half the. number of persons now employed. Assistant assessors, as they are required to visit the distilleries in their divisions once a day, might then be intrusted with both their own duties and those of storekeepers at warehouses of as small capacity at least as those of my district, and the checks to fraud which are now- endeavored to be imposed by multiplying officers would be much more surely and effectually accomplished by the ability, honesty, and responsibility such a system would secure in the appointees. P. Z. Heebner, assessor of 6th district, Allentown, Pennsylvania : Urges the reduction of the assistant assessors and the exclusive devotion of all their time to the duties of the office of the assistant assessors. Collector of customs at Philadelphia : Desires that the tests of qualification should include experience, sobriety, and general good character for stability and industrious habits. D. E. Nevin, assessor internal revenue, Allegheny, Pennsylvania : The adoption of a stable civil service, similar, in some respects, to our military system, with, perhaps, a little more regard in it to merit than to seniority in the matter of promotion, would, undoubtedly, draw a superior grade of talent and a higher degree of integrity into the government service. 70 CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. John B. Warfel, assessor internal revenue, Lancaster, Pennsylvania : Has little faith in examinations, bat is in favor of a probationary service, and of reform based thereupon. R. L. Wright, assessor internal revenue, Frankford, Pennsylvania : A plan for the schoolinpf and training of assistant assessors, to whose want of knowledge most of the present evils of the revenue service arise, must do much good. James B. Ruple, assessor of internal revenue, Washington, Pennsylvania : Declares that his views have been fully and intelligently expressed by Commissioner Rollins in his report of February 29, in letters respectively dated June 17 and July 15, 1867, and January 15, 1868, addressed to the Secretary of the Treasury. Abram B. Longaker, collector of internal revenue, Norristown, Pennsylvania : Suggests monthly conferences between the collector and assessor and the assistant assessors with a view of securing a uniform assessment, of detecting fraud and evasions of the revenue laws. He does not think the per diem allowance for assistant assessors should be reduced, but urges a reform in the license to tobacconists, who should be compelled to pay their taxes on all cigars manufactured during each month or else increase the bonds for each hand. Henry H. Bingham, postmaster, Philadelphia : Emphatically in favor of reform ; thinks the peculiar character of the post office labor would not admit of the whole proposition of question 33. A rigid test examination, however, conducted by competent persons to test the fitness of candidates for appointment, would, without doubt, increase the efficiency of the service, and allow of an equal amount of work to be accomplished by a less number of persons than are now employed. A uniforming of all the employes of the civil service would be a progressive step. Test the experiment by uniforming the carriers employed by the Post Office Department. Enforce by legal enactment that all appointees for general work service in the public offices should enter said service at a certain salary, and the increase of said salary to depend upon the parties' merit ; and said increase to be only permitted after a certain length of service, and the increase to be specific. Increase the salary of employes after every three years of service upon the same basis as the " forage" ration in the army. Forbid by law the discharge of employes in the civil service for political reasons, so that when men enter the serve they may regard it as their life profession. Increase the salaries of employes in the civil service so that they may live honestly, and thus take the temptation to commit theft out of their thoughts. He has under his control 327 persons not subject to test examinaUon, but dismissed if, after month's probation, they are unfit. Among the carriers the system of promotion is of emolument under specific law. They enter upon their service at |800 annual salary ; if found meritorious after six months' service, it is raised $100, and after a year another $100, making it |1,000, which is the end of the carrier's promotion. John W. Douglas, collector of internal revenue, Erie, Pennsylvania : Removed one of his subordinates upon the ground that he was a consistent thief and an inconsistent preacher ; declares himself emphatically in favor of the proposed reforms ; ani- madverts upon the system of paying commissions or irregular compensation to revenue officers, and urges the adoption of fixed salaries for all government officers. He is satisfied that permanency of employment, a system of promotion and examination, and regalaaity of compensation will tend to make the civil service more efficient and economical. F. E. Volz, collector of internal revenue, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania : Thinks the collectors and assessors of internal revenue should be paid a salary in full for services, and the percentage, now. allowed, cut off. Likewise that the salaries be established in proportion to the amount assessed and collected and the other labor necessarily required to be done in the offices. The government should have the appointment of all subordinates in these two offices. Wesley J. Rose, collector internal revenue, Johnstown, Pennsylvania: States that the efficiency of the service would be greatly promoted by the adoption of the system indicated. Such a system would secure competent and faithful collectors and asses- CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED fciTATES. 71 sprs. These officers should be left perfectly free and untrammelled in the selection of all their subordinates, and should be held to a strict account fur the actions of the same. Wlijs- key inspectors and storekeepers should be appointed by the collector and should hold their offices during his pleasure. Collectors and assessors should be directly under the control of the Commissioner, and all subordinates under the control of the collector and assessor, and each should be held respon- sible for a faithful discharge of official duty. Charles H. Shriner, collector of internal revenue, Mifflinburg, Union county, Pennsylvania : After declaring his opinion that the adoption of the proper system would increase the effi- ciency and integrity and diminish the cost of the service, urges government "to dismiss all spies and informers who are sent out to harass the people and eat out their substance." B. F, Martin, collector of internal revenue, Columbus, Ohio : Declares himself emphatically in favor of the proposed reform, and recommends an estab- lishment somewhat similar to the English civil service, in which case the government would be bettor and more economically served ; since no prudent man will abandon the business of his life and devote his whole time and mind to a mere temporary position, liable to removal, regardless of his fitness or faithfulness. » » » » The government plan is at variance with the experience and course pursued by every successful business man. They do not employ inexperienced persons to manage difficult and intricate affairs. Yet the government intrusts her immense resources at random, with- out examination, to the management of unqualified persona, and even these are removed, perhaps, just as they begin to comprehend their duties, to give place to a fresh supply of novices. Answer to the last question : 37. In so far as the civil service would relate to the assessment and collection of the internal revenue tax, I would respectfully suggest : 1. That the law for the assessment and collection of this tax be short, concise, and explicit, without ambiguity, so that the intention may be gathered correctly from the language used, thereby avoiding many discussions, rulings, &e., which are made necessary by the crude and imperfect law now in force. 2. I would lop off much of the machinery now in vogue in the office of Commissioner of Internal Revenue, and consequently made necessary and in operation in the local offices of assessors and collectors of the several districts, and would reduce as near as could be the system of accounts to a mere cash account of debtor and creditor, with collectors, charging collectors with amounts of lists, crediting them with cash paid to treasurer, and with insol- vents. 3. I would establish a separate bureau for internal revenue entirely independent of the Secretary of Treasury. The Commissioner to have the entire control of all matters relating to internal revenue. 4. I would suggest for that office a man of undoubted integrity, a good lawyer, and pos- sessing an extraordinary degree of firmness, so that when a decision is once made and com- municated to local officers, they may not be taken by surprise in the frequent overruling of decisions upon questions involving substantially the same facts in each case. 5. I would take from the Commissioner, or "any other man," the power to compromise any crime or offence for a violation of law, and the power to compromise any debt or demand due the government, and would leave these matters with the courts, where they of right belong, and would insist on prosecutioii, through the courts, against all who evade or violate the law for gain nor would I, however, make the penalty for its violation disproportionate to the offence, but would in all cases protest against all "let ups" until the party convicted shall have paid the penalty. 6. I would dismiss from the service any and all officers of any grade whenever their work, linexplaiued, gives the least evidence of incompetence, inefficiency, or dishonesty. 7. All officers of the government, including inspectors of all kinds, storekeepers, of bonded warehouses, &.c., should be paid by the government, and none paid by parties who are engaged in the business of distilling, as inspectors and storekeepers are now paid. 8. All should be well paid, of course having reference to the business capacity required, responsibility incurred, and labor performed by each, and with a due regard to the char- acter and position of the office which he holds. 9. All officers in the several districts under the grade of collectors and assessors should be appointed by the assessors and collectors of the districts, to whom alone they should be responsible for the faithful and honest discharge of official duties. 10. I would decrease the number of articles upon which tax is levied ; decrease the num- ber of occupations which shall pay a special tax, and consequently decrease the number uf assistant assessors, and would have a less number of persons employed in the civil service in all the various branches of the government, and would in that process, I think, make the 72 CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. civil service more efScient and economical ; I would by all means sustain the local officers in the discharge of official duties as against those whose pecuniary interest is antagonistic to the government, until it appesir prima facie that the case is against the government, and that its officers are wrong-doers. Finally, with something like I have here indicated, it is my judgment that a tax of $2 per gallon on distilled spirits or a greater or less sum, may be col- lected, and the " civil service made more efficient and economical." John S. Hogin, assessor of internal revenue, Xenia, Ohio, after declaring that he knew meritorious persons superseded by inferior ones and fully indorsing the proposed reform, states the multiplicity of authorities by which the revenue department is trammelled to be the bane of the service : He urges the establishment of a separate bureau of internal revenue with a practical and accomplished head, who shall be held responsible for the faithful administration of his depart- ment. Let the law be so modified that the Commissioner can call to account and immeiJiately remove any assessor, collector, inspector, or other person acting in a subordinate capacity in his department for failure to faithfully perform the duties of his office with an eye single to the best interests of the government. Let each assessor appoint his subordinates, and be held responsible by the Commissioner for their actions as officers. Inspectors and storekeepers of distilled spirits &c., &c., should be paid by the government and not by the proprietors of distilleries, as is now the case. Under the present law an inspector is paid by the distiller a fee of eight cents per barrel for inspecting spirits, which, upon an average, will not amount to the wages of an ordinary day laborer. The result of this low-wages system causes the inspector to he finally controlled by the distiller, (his paymaster,) with a view of making a fortune before the illicit collusion upon the part of the inspector is discovered. The same is true of the storekeeper ; although he is paid better wages, he is not paid by the right and proper party. It is a natural result that the laborer should be controlled to a greater or less extent by the party that pays him his wages, especially when that party holds out glittering inducements. W. P. Eichardson, collector internal revenue, Marietta, Ohio : Employment and promotion on account of merit is the best method, but will never be adopted. Every office in our government depends directly or indirectly upon the will of the people, and will, I am satisfied, so remain. No "civil service corps" can be created which would be more efficient or economical than the present employment, unless it is given a per- manence wholly incompatible with the spirit of our institutions and the opinion of our peo- ple in regard to the tenure of office. It is possible that a body of men, selected as suggested, might perform the duties of their several positions better than they are now discharged, and, indeed, the same plan might be extended so as to embrace most of the offices within the gift of the people, State and national legislatures included, from which we might expect like favorable results ; but what proba- bility is there of the exercise of so much prudence and self-denial on the part of our people? My acquaintance with the condition of the service and the character of the officers and subordinates is not such as to vvarrant recommendations for its improvement. I would suppose that if the number of persons employed were reduced to the minimum, those retained possessing the highest degree of capacity and integrity, and paid as little as such services could be obtained for, the service would then be as economical and efficient as it would be possible to make it. ' George B. Arnold, assessor internal revenue, Mount Vernon, Ohio : Declares that the proposed system would operate with peculiar benefit to the revenue ser- vice. He urges the extension of the penitentiary provisions of September 5, revenue laws, to Jive years, and that they should be enforced. He is satisfied that millions of dollars o{ just and legal revenue tax lie dead and uneolleotr.d all over the United States, by reason of delin- quency, want of energy, and comprehension of revenue officers, not alone in whiskey and spirits, but in tobacco and cigars, legacies and successions, licenses, and indeed all classes of internal revenue tax. H^ would like to take a contract (say for the State of Ohio) to assess and recover all just and legal revenue taxes that have legally accrued from liability during the last four years, and which have been lying uncollected, and even unlocked after, allowing him a commission of 25 per cent, on the amount that can legally be collected, without extortion or oppresion, but legitimately. He has no doubt that the same applies also to other States. One good and faithful revenue inspector, appointed for and embracing two or three revenue districts, might make himself very useful at a salary of $1,000 to $J,200 a year, and actual expenses paid out by them; but the appointment of one revenue inspector to a single rural district does not afford them Aai/ constant, legitimate employment, and they generally manage somehow to get per diem pay i'or full time, and frequently charge up in their bills expenses, such as railroad fare, &c., when they are travelling on a free railroad pass. It seems to me people are getting very much demoralized in regard to their iurat or oath to official papers in the revenue service. CIVIL SERVICE OP THE UNITED STATES. 73 The office of assistant assessor is the very initium or starting point in the internal revenue system, and the action of assistant assessors depends a great deal upon the promptings and energy of the assessor. It is very important, therefore, that assessors should be themselves vigilant, and constantly stir up and prompt their assistants. I have seen the need of this almost every day, and thousands and thousands of dollars of revenue tax has been added to our lists in this district, which probably would have slept in the pockets of tax-payers, had it not been for prompt- ings to special scrutiny and vigilance and energy on the part of our assistants. George J. Anderson, collector of internal revenue, Sandusky, Ohio : Declares himself emphatically in favor of reform, and demands that the penalties for defraad- ing the government, whether by tax-payers or government officials, be more stringently enforced. F. Van Derveer. collector internal revenue, Hamilton, Ohio, states That all his 18 subordinates have served in the Union army, and declares that' this is a prerequisite in all appointments made by him or upon his recommendation. Carr B. White, assessor internal revenue, Georgetown, Ohio : Evades the questions relating to reform upon the ground that there are no grades in his office, but suggests to make the tenure of office commensurate with a diligent and faithful discharge of duty. He urges to hold the Commissioner of Internal Revenue responsible for assessors and assessors for assistant assessors, giving each power to suspend or dismiss for neglect or inefficiency of duty, in which case he thinks the revenue would be increased one- fourth, with same or less expense to the government. He declares that the great frauds on the revenue are in the collection of tax on whiskey and tobacco. Most of this could be prevented by holding the assessors and collectors respon- sible for it. But little fraud could be practiced if the officers did their duty. The storekeeper or inspector must be suborned, to succeed at the distillery or bonded warehouse, but, to make the matter easy, the assessor, assistant assessor, and collector must be in the ring. The ring being able to pay more to these officers than the government, the avaricious find it hard to resist and generally yield. They expect to hold the office but a short time, and want to make what they can while they do hold it ; hence, many who yield, if they were sure of retaining office during good behavior would not. George M. Woodbridge, assessor internal revenue, Marietta, Ohio : Evades the questions touching reform upon the ground that they do not apply to his office, but declares that in the rural districts, such as his, it was not economy to put up the per diem of assistant assessors to |5, and the abandonment of the requirement that 10 hours' work should constitute a day, he characterizes as unfortunate. James Lewis, assessor internal revenue, Bucyrus, Ohio : I have no doubt if the employment was assured and certain, that more efficient and better qualified persons would enter the service. I believe after the annual assessment is made the expenses of the service in this district may be materially reduced, by making each county an assessment division, and having one assistant only therein, except perhaps in the counties where distilleries are located. If Congress should pass a bill relieving manufacturers generally from tax on their productions, one assistant assessor would be sufficient to each coiinty. This would lessen the expense of assessing the internal revenue in this district about 33 per cent. , and the work could be as efficiently dune as at present. All of which is respectfully submitted. J. M. Oonnell, assessor of internal revenue, Lancaster, Ohio : I received on the 14th instant a -circular dated January 20, 1868, issued by the Joint Select Committee on Retrenchment, and signed by you for sub-committee on the civil service, in which I am requested to answer in writing certain questions appended to the circular, con- cerning my connections with the civil service of the United States, and to furnish "such comments on the condition of the civil service and the best method of making it more effectual as I may see fit to add." In response, I will answer the first 13 questions, touching particularly my own relations to the service and fitness for it, iu one connected recital. I am assessor of United States internal revenue for the ]2th district of Ohio; was appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate on the 18th day of June, 1866, and entered upon the duties of the office July 14, 1866. I was in the civil service of the United States in the years 1857-'58 as chief clerk of the bureau of the First Comptroller of the Treasury, iu which bureau I served 13 months, termi- 74 CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. nating my service by voluntary resignation to return to my professional pursuits. Before this I had served as district attorney, eighth judicial district of Indiana, for oae year. I was in the military service of the United States during the rebellion, as colonel of the ]7th_regi- ment Ohio volunteers, for 30 months, resigning, when unfit for duty by reason of disease contracted in the service, to take my seat in the senate of Ohio, to which elected while in the field. I served two years in the senate of Ohio. Prior to my appointment to the office of assessor I was engaged in the practice of law. I was admitted to tTie bar in 1850, whea 20 years of age. I had no collegiate education ; was educated in private schools and academies, termmating my course of study at Greenfield Academy, a boarding-school in this county, at the age of 16, at which time I had pursued a course of six years' study of Latin, four of Greek, six months each of French and German, and two years of higher mathematics and natural sciences. I then entered upon the study of the law, and continued therein four years, until admitted to the bar. I have ever since principally relied upon my profession for support when not in public service. I have computed the income of my present office for the year 1867; it was in that year $2,700, not equal to the average of my annual earnings in my profession when steadily pursued. It is needless to state that I was not subjected to any examination in regard to my qualifi- cations for my present office. I have understood that I was appointed by the President, with the advice and approval of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue and of the Secretary of the Treasury, my qualifi- cations being certified to by those who recommended me for the position, and being further attested in the faithful and satisfactory discharge of public duties in the official positions of trust I had held. I was recommended for this office by leading business men ot my district, by Senator Sherman, by the members of Congress from my State with whom I had personal acquaintance, by Governor Anderson, members of the legislature of Ohio, and by my mili- tary record, professional standing, and prior official experience. I make such official reports to the Commissioner of Internal Revenue as are required by law and regulations, or become necessary in the performance of my duties. None are iu print. But I would here suggest that if the committee wish to learn something of the his- tory of whiskey frauds, and of the conduct and character of the revenue officers of this district, an examination of my report to the Commissioner of Internal Revenue of an inves- tigation of alleged frauds by Emmitt Brothers, distillers, dated February 1, 1868, and on file in the office of the Commissioner, may prove both instructive and interesting. My office hours and labors are as they were when practicing my profession ; my office is open and public business transacted from 7 o'clock a. m. to 9 o'clock p. m. No arrearages or delays are allowed. All reports, entries, records, and correspondence are made and com- pleted without delay, and as required by law and regulations. To the questions from 14 to 33, having reference to subordinates employed in this district, I will also present one answer covering all of the inquiries. The assessor of this district has the appointment of one clerk for his office, and on his recom- mendation the assistant assessors of the district are appointed by the Secretary of the Trea- sury. After I had entered upon my duties as assessor, I found, as I believed, too many assistants employed. I reduced the number, discharging six, and continuing in employment eleven ; also one assistantin addition was appointed to be placed in charge of Emmitt Brothers' distillery, which has been running constantly for more than a year, producing an average yield of 2,500 gallons distilled spirits per day. In country districts like this, assistants are constantly employed only in the large towns, of which there are three in this district. Eight assistants, therefore, assessing in country divisions are occupied only a few days in each month, except when making the aniiual assessments upon incomes. I have had about 20 applications for appointment as assistant assessors, eight of whom have been appointed on my recommendation. By consolidating divisions I reduced their number six, thus discharging six assistants ; of the remaining eleven two resigned and six were removed. Three who had served for several years were retained. The removals were made for the following causes : absence from division and neglect of duty, one; inefficiency, three ; to give place to men of superior capacity who had served in the union armies, two. Nine assistants (including one in charge of the distillery) have been appointed on my recommendation for merit and qualifications, political and personal con- siderations being subordinate thereto ; the three retained in office were so retained without regard to political considerations, because of their fitness for their positions ; two of them are republicans, one a democrat ; of the nine new appointees, six are republicans and three democrats. Of course none of these assistants were subjected to the test of examination by a com- mittee. As I am in a great measure responsible for their acts, I satisfied myself of their fitness. They were selected, as your committee would select its clerk, or as a banking or business house would choose its employes, for their integrity, industry and qualifications. CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 75 1. Over 50 years of apje, is an able lawyer of ttiirty years' practice, high character, qualified by education, experience, integrity, habits and ability, for any position under the fovernment. Has had four years' experience in his present position, and knows more of his uties than any committee that could be selected to examine him in regard to them. 2. Over 50 years old, has been a merchant for many years, a correct business man of strict integrity, energetic, good business education, clear-headed and faithful in discharge of duty ; he too has had four years' experience in his present position. 3. 50 years old, formerly proprietor of a printing establishment, competent and faith- ful, with good judgment, and four years' experience in his present position. 4. Over 50 years of age, a lawyer of good standing, well educated, able, faithful and zealous. 5. Over 50 years of age, of large business experience, formerly a canal superintendent, good education and abilities, active and faithful, and peculiarly well fitted for his position. 6. Over 30 years old, a merchant who left his business to go into the army, where he lost an arm ; of correct habits, good education, faithful and well qualified. 7. Over 30 years old, farmer and schoolmaster, well educated, lieutenant and captain in the service for four years, well qualified for his position. 8. Over 50 years old, farmer, formerly county auditor, a, superior man in every respect, fine education and large business experience. 9. Over 50 years old, a lawyer of good abilities, high character, great industry, and a first-class officer. 10. Over 30 years old, a good lawyer, well educated, of correct habits, faithful and fitted for any government office ; was colonel of a regiment in the late rebellion, and was greatly distinguished in the service. 11. Over 60 years old, was clerk of court for many years, of high standing, large official experience, a first-class man, with no defect as an officer except age. 12. Over 40 years of age, a physician, highly educated in European schools, of great abilities and large experience ; fit for any government office ; was in the military service in the war of the rebellion. These appointments have been made on my recommendation, which was given in nearly every instance because of my personal knowledge of the fitness of the appointees ; and I may here say, by way of general answer to several of your inquiries, that in this district, since my accession to the office of assessor, the employes of the United States revenue service have been as carefully selected with reference to qualification and merit, and with as little regard to personal or political considerations, as the employes of any private business establishment in the district. Promotions in the revenue service in the country districts cannot occur, as the law requires each assistant assessor to be a resident of his division ; nor does long service, without zeal and high character, (which neither education, competitive tests, nor constant employment can give,) add to the efficiency of revenue officers. Under the present system there can be no grades of office in the assessment districts. The same duties are to be performed by all assistants, and all should be equally well qualified. The frequent changes in the revenue laws prevent officers from acquiring permanent and useful knowledge of official duty by experience. If it be desirable that those who execute the laws should be prepared for that service by a course of study and experimental labor required by law, it is also essential that those lolio make the laws should " pass rigid test examinations" to give evidence of their fitness for their duties before being allowed to discharge them. The imperfections of the internal revenue system, and errors in its workings, are mainly attributable to defects in the law, and the cumbrous and unwieldy machinery prescribed by law for its executiou. I have no hesitation m saying that so far as I have knowledge or information in regard to the charac- ter, experience and ability of the officers of the internal revenue service, they not only compare favorably with the lawgivers of the nation, but have merit and ability above the average standard required for the making of a respectable congressman. As you have called for my "comments on the condition of the civil service, and the best method of making it more effectual," I will very frankly-state that, in my judgment, nothing could be more disastrous than an attempt to create a civil service system in analogy to military service in the regular army, and borrowed from the governments of Europe least popular and most antagonistic to republicanism. The theory is totally opposed to our system of responsibility to the people, is exceedingly unpopular, and its adoption would be temporary. It would only tend to derange our executive system for a time, and could not last two years before it would be made a political test ques- tion, and it would be buried with the party which advocated it by a popular majority that would be overwhelming. A permanent army of civil-service men, nearly as large as our armed forces during the war, fastened upon our government, irresponsible to the people, and creating a distinct caste, segregated from and independent of the people, would become so offensive in this free government as not only to arouse a great political storm, but to cover with popular odium all connected with it. The tendency of the popular will and judgment is towards making all offices elective ; even the judiciary in perhaps all of the States has been made elective through this tendency ; and 76 CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. so jealous are the people that it has long been difficult to maintain a small regular army, and a military establishment as large as the proposed civil establishment woald never be per- mitted. Our people learned to appreciate the great efficiency of the volnnteer service during the war, and were taught that from the farm, the office and the workshop could be furnished soldiers and officers superior often to the hotbed growths of a permanent military service establishment. Even, therefore, if the proposed civil service system would be more efficient for the execution of our laws than the present, its unpopularity would be an insuperable objection to its adoption. It would be too ephemeral to be of any benefit, and the derangement of the public business by its brief use should prevent its adoption. I cannot, however, believe that the system proposed would secure more competent officers or better and more prompt and faithful discharge of public duties. It is the people's business that is to be done, their interests to be oared for, and any removal of the people's agents from direct responsibility to their principals would be unwise and improper. While in the Comptroller's office at Washington I had good opportunities for testing your proposed system, for up to that time it was acted upon in the departments. A majority of the clerical force of the Treasury Department were old clerks with assured positions, trained for years in the department, and rising in grade by promotion for seniority and merit. In the bureau of which I was at the head of the clerical force were some clerks who had been in the service for from 20 to 50 years. I found it true that few died, none resigned, and removals seldom occurred. The old clerks, the " civil-service men," were numerous enough to control and shape, the business of the department. I saw daily the effects of such a sys- tem in the creation of a "circumlocution office," such as was satirized by Dickens ; " red tape" circumscribed everything; dreary routine wore out all energy and life in performance of duty ; the civil-service men walked the treadmill of daily duty as patiently and lifelessly as blind old horses, " assured of their positions." They put in so many hours of each day in feeble, slow efforts "how not to do it." Arrearages accumulated, ancient precedents clogged all rapid action, and served as pretexts for needless delays, unjust settlements, and unintelligent rulings. I can imagine no worse fate for a young, vigorous, energetic man of brains than the stifling life of a department clerk under this circumlocutory system of service, and no more inefficient way of doing the public business. In the comptroller's office I had the assistance of three or four clerks newly appointed and fresh from active life, with hopes of return to the outer world of life and action, who looked upon rotation in office as safety to themselves, and as beneticial to the service in frequently infusing new blood and vigor into the executive offices I can remember well one John liedel, a young lawyer from New Hampshire, fresh, active, and hopeful, whose official duties were performed with zeal and intelligence, who was not satisfied merely to sit six hours a day at his desk, but who averaged 10 or 12 hours a day of hard, exciting, official labor, who almost terrified the dreary, sleepy old clerks by his energy, and who in a day would get through more actual work than any two of the old civil-service men could do in a week. I noticed many such cases, and all satisfied me that the civil service in the departments needed reform by adopting a system of frequent changes, and bringing the employes of the govern- ment more directly under the control of the people. In all popular governments short, prescribed terms of service in civil office is an unvary- ing rule. Experience, justice, and sound judgment all justify it. Life tenures of offii'e are odious in all republics ; they are corrupting and paralyzing, and no State constitution now exists which recognizes them. In no constitutional convention in the last thirty years have there been found politicians or statesmen who had the hardihood to defend the life tenure-of- offico theory. Experience, therefore, certainly shows that the innovation proposed in the civil service bill is unpopular, dangerous, and without precedent. You will excuse the freedom and extent of my comments. I understood them to be invited, and I felt glad of the opportunity of stating freely and at length my views. I now give them without personal or political bias. Politically I am without party affiliation, and per- sonally I cannot in any way suffer by the adoption or rejection of the proposed civil-service system. I have only to add, in response to the 37th question and last, that my experience and observation have led me to believe that in the execution and administration of the internal revenue laws, it would be well to abolish the offices of district assessors and collectors, and substitute a deputy commissioner of internal revenue for each State, with his office at the capital of the State, and with the same powers within his jurisdiction that are conferred upon the chief commissioner at Washington, though subordinate to him. The clerical force of his office would not be more costly than the allowance for clerk-hire to the district assessors now is. There should be one inspector or police agent for each State, subordinate to the deputy commissioner, aud one United States assistant treasurer undor his control and orders. With this system adopted there would need to be but one collector in each county in the State paid by salary, (or the county treasurer might be authorized to receive United States taxes,) and but one assessor for each county where the total internal revenue taxes would not exceed $100,000 per year, (the number proportionally increased in counties where larger assess- ments Would be made,) to be paid by commissions not to exceed $2,000 each per year. CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 77 I know that this system would be better, more efficient, and more economical than the present, and I could give many reasons for its adoption, and merely suggest that I believe the district system causes or encourages and furnishes facilities for the commission of nearly all of the great whiskey frauds. I have not the slightest idea, however, that Congress will ever make a change such as I have suggested, for the reason that politicians, the men who get into Congress, generally first look to political results even regardless of the interests of the country, and district assessors and collectors, with their subordinates, furnish too often an active corps to manage conventions and secure nominations in the interests of congressmen to be dispensed with. In fact, I fear that civil-service bills, civil-tenure laws, and projects for the reformation of the civil service, have had their origin or adoption in the fears and jealousies of politicians who think more of the success of "the party" than the good of the country, and who would cripple their adversaries by depriving them of political appliances that they would gladly use themselves, if they still had the manipulation of them. 0. L. Mann, collector of internal revenue, Chicago, Illinois : 37. I am of the opinion that the efficiency of the civil service can be greatly increased Jby the adoption of a carefully arranged system of examination of candidates for appointment to government offices, and a plan for promotion for meritorious services. There are a large number of general and special agents connected with the revenue depart- ment whose services could be dispensed with if certain modifications of the law are made. Duncan Furguson, assessor, Rickford, Illinois : 33. Certainly. Just what is wanted. 34. It could in populous districts, but in the rural districts the extent of territory that would be in a division, if they were made larger, would be inconvenient to the tax-payers. 35. Most unquestionably. Until this mode is adopted in the civil service of the country, I have no hesitancy in stating that the class of men who will be desirous of entering it will not be of a high grade of talent or likely to make efficient officers, nor generally would they be of a high standard of honesty or integrity. 36. None. 37. There is no doubt but that great frauds have been committed on the revenue, and I presume they will continue to be perpetrated until the present system is altered nearly to what is suggested in question 35. Men who enter the service' now are generally of that class who have no particular business or profession, and who want some temporary employ- ment until something better turns up ; and I need not say that many of such a class will not hesitate to take bribes to look over frauds, when they think they can do so without detection. When officers can be turned out of office at any time without any charge being preferred against them and without any reference as to whether they have been good and efficient officers or not, it cannot be expected that a high state of attainment will be reached. I may be more in favor of the course suggested in question 35, from having been educated in Scotland, where very nearly this course is adopted, and although the tax on high wines is higher than with us, yet there is no difficulty in collecting the tax, and frauds either by the distiller or of officers conniving at the frauds are of rare occurrence. Permit me to suggest, that, in my opinion, revenue officers who have been found guilty of, or in any way implicated in frauds, have not been punished in such a manner as to be a terror lo others from following in the same course. When an officer is found to be concerned in any way in these frauds, he ought to be punished with the utmost rigor of the law. But how is it done ? One of the officers in this district, a distillery inspector, (now discharged, ) was implicated with the distiller in a fraud to a large amount. It was proved in an investiga- tion before the United States commissioner by the district attorney that the fraud was com- mitted by the distiller, and that it was impossible to have been done without the officer being cognizant of the fact. The distiller was allowed to. settle by paying a fine of |2,500, and the inspector by paying a like fine. The back taxes assessed by me on the liquors fraudu- lently conveyed away amounted to over |26,000. Was that any punishment for a fraud of this amount? I presume that in very few districts have there been fewer changes for political considera- tion than in this. R. B. Noleman, collector of internal revenue, Centralia; Illinois : The present system of collecting by one general deputy seems to work satisfactorily to this office, but tax-payers in some instances complain at not having local deputies. In dis- tricts situated as this is, where we have more frequently to inquire who will accept, rather than who is the most competent, it is a difficult matter to adopt any system based upon merit and competency. I have but four subordinates— three deputies and one clerk — and none of these have been apj)ointed or hold their situations from any other consideration than that of In th6 assessing- department of this district there have been many changes, both of asses- sors and assistanit assessors ; and many of these changes have been made without reference 78 CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. to the qualifications of the incumbent or the applicant, but entirely from political considera- tions, which has necessarily caused a great falling off of the revenue in this district during the last year. You will find herewith annexed answers to some of your interrogatories, cor- responding to the numbers in the same. W. C. Flagg, collector interaal revenue, Alton, Illinois, thinks — The civil service could be improved by the three following .steps, taken together ,- 1 . Increasing salaries and making them fixed, not contingent at least on matters beyond the control of the ofiicer. 2. Severe tests of ability and integrity applied to all applicants, and statedly to all incum- bents. 3. A wider margin of discretion to officers so approved, that the spirit rather than the letter of the law might be executed. Nathan M. Knapp, collector of internal revenue, Winchester, Illinois : I will venture a suggestion ; that is, in regard to the revenue agents or foot-loose inspectors. Ifseems to me that the amount of good they do the government is hardly equal to the expense. In every county there are two or more revenue officials, who from their knowledge ot the people are better qualified to judge in cases of fraud or evasion than a stranger, and who will often secuie to the government all its rights without expense and vexatious litigation, where an inspector moved by a desire to do something or to make something must involve the gov- ernment and citizens in a controversy upon technical grounds, fruitless in the end and calcu- lated to bring the government and the revenue system into odious disrepute. I think there are too many inspectors, Jackson Grimshaw.'Collector of internal revenue, Quincy, Illinois : No storekeepers, inspectors, or officers of any class should be paid fees or any other com- pensation by the tax-payer. Government should pay all compensation to officers and should not directly or indirectly compel tax-payers to pay storekeepers, inspectors, &c., fees. Moie- ties or shares should be abolished and government officers should rely on government for compensation and costs of seizures. All money made by seizures should go into the Treasury Department to be used as taxes, and no portion used up as moieties or shares. Quincy D. Whitman, assessor internal revenue, Ottawa, Illinois : Among other things I tMnk it would be a great saving to the government if the services of the large number of special revenue agents, that are nuw swarming through this section of the country pretending to detect frauds on the government, could be dispensed with. There are, perhaps, some honest ones among them ; but it is well known to all revenue offi- cers, as far as my knowledge extends, that, as a class, these agents, (or, as they style them- selves, " government detectives,") while they pretend to work for the interest of the govern- ment, work for' themselves, and many of them have become wealthy in their operations. I believe, as a general thing, one general revenue inspector is all that is required in one district. C M. Hammond, collector internal revenue, Joliet, Illinois : Dispense with special treasury agents in a great measure. H. L. Bryant, assessor internal revenue, Lewistown, Illinois : No 34. In this particular branch of service, I believe an equal amount of work could be accomplished better under such a system, but not by a less number, because county lines are the boundaries of the different divisions in the district, and residents of the counties are better acquainted with the persons and business of a county than a stranger would be, although residing in a contiguous county. No. 35. I think they could. No. 36. There are not. No. 37. I would respectfully suggest, in auswer to interrogatory No. 37, that the very short period of time I have been in the service of the government of the United States, and from my limited experience, my opinions or suggestions would not perhaps be entitled to very much weight. Notwithstanding, I will give my idea of such matters as have come under my cognizance and seem to me to need reform. In relation to the office of revenue inspector: this officer is employed by the government at an expense of five dollars per day, and his duty is that of ferreting out frauds upon the reveuue. He is not always appointed from the district er districts in which he is to act and consequently is a stranger to the localities through which he travels, and is not presumed to know of the secret places where illicit manufactures may be carried on, and where frauds may be perpetrated. e CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 79 In my short experience I do not know of any beneficial result to the revenue arising from his efforts. By the law as it exists, it is the duty of the assessor of his district to report any fia.iids upon the revenue that may come to his knowledge, to the collector, whose duty it is to iriake seizures, arrests, &c. Under the present system, by the time the assessor has noti- fied the collector of a fraud that he has ferreted out, the guilty parties . may, and frequently do, get wind of the matter, and make their escape. In my judgment it would tend to make this branch of the service more efficient and eco- nomical to dispen.se altogether with revenue inspectors, and not only empower but require the assessor of his district to canvass the same ; and wh?n he detects frauds on the levenue, to make arrests and seizures as an executive officer. As I understand the law, the assessor, as far as frauds upon the revenue are concerned, acts merelj' as a spy or informer. If the office of revenue inspector could be safely dispensed with and the duties of this office be performed by the assessor, as suggested, it strikes me that it would be an immense saving in the expense of conducting this branch of the service. David T. Little, collector, eighth district, Illinois : No. 34. An equal amount of work under such a system could be accomplished by a much less number of persons than are now employed. No 3.5. If the employment was assured and certain, and promotion granted only to seniority or merit, and no discharge permitted except for cause, I am of the opinion a much higher grade of talent could be induced to enter the government service. No. 36. There are no females among ray subordinates. No. 37. The action of Congress in the abolition of the bonded system, through which the major part of the enormous frauds upon the revenue lia^e been comniitl;ed, meets with my hearty approval. Under the operation of the new Jaw, the chief source of fraud upon the revenue, in my judgment, has been closed up. The most satisfactory evidence of this fact is that there are but a very few distilleries in active operation in the northwest. The statistics in the Treasury Department show that, while the tax upon distilled spirits ranged from 20 to 50 cents per proof gallon, more revenue was paid into the treasury of the United States in any given time than has been collected and paid since the tax \f as increased to $i per proof gallon in the same stated time. The only hypothesis upon whicli this s'tate of facts can be explained is, that the inducements to fraud and collusion between officers and manufacturers ai e so great under the present system of taxation that a general demoralization of subordinate officers and distillers has been the result. I therefore respectfully recommend to your honor- able committee the careful consideration of the question of the reduction of the tax upon dis- tilled spirits as a means of increasing the revenue of the government. On account of the inadequate compensation paid to revenue inspectors, general inspectors of spirits, and United (States storekeepers, I would respectfully recommend that the law be so changed as to reduce the number of these officers and an increase of the per diem of those who may be retained or hereafter appointed to these places. By this change in the law a higher class of business talent, and a higher standard of morals, could be induced to enter the civil service. I think in my district one efficient officer could discharge all the duties embraced in the office of storekeeper where the distilleries are located in close proximity to each other, as in cities and towns that now have three, four, six, and even more. I think that the law as it now is with refer- ence to the compensation of collectors is imperfect in many parts. This class of officers receive more for cheir services than they should in many eases, while in many other cases the pay is inadequate to insure the services of good competent men. I think that coUeotors and deputy collectors should be paid a sufficient salary to insure the services of good men, and that the commissions now provided by law on the collections of a district should be discontinued. I deem it proper to state in this connection that, if the law was so changed, the collector of the eighth district of Illinois would receive a less compensation for.-lii^ services than he now does. The law authorizing the appointment of an almost unlim(j^ number of itinerant revenue agents, most of whom are appointed through political influ^jices and without regard to their qualifications, should be entirely abolished ; this change alosB jp the law would save the government an immense amount of money. The same duties now performed by them are also enjoined upon the revenue inspectors of districts, and by who(n the duties could be as well aud efficiently performed, particularly if the pay of revenue inspectors was increased. Jonathan Biggs, assessor 11th district, Salem, Illinois : In answer to the 37th and last question, I am constrained to believe that the interest of the civil government would be subserved if those, and only those, who are duly qualified and diligent in their duty be retained in the service of the government. From my short experience in this department, I have become fully satisfied that in many instances where chai ges have been urged on political giounds, the government is always the loser. And iso long as this practice is pursued there will remain uncollected large amounts of revenue wbioti is justly due. W. S. Cunningham, collector of internal revenue, Danville, Illinois : Retain men for merit and integrity; take the service out of politics as much as possible; punish unfaithfulness surely and severely, bat investigate both sides of all cases when 80 CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. charges are preferred. Tax whiskey $1 per gallon on capacity of still, and enforce the criminal law against delinquent distillers and whiskey thieves. Hageman Tripp, assessor internal revenue, 3d district, Indiana : No. 37. Select men for merit alone ; have them realize that their retention in office depends upon the discharge of their whole duty, and that they must earn promotion by diligence and labor. Throw party to the dogs and you would make the civil service quite respectable, as well as more efficient and economical. G. N. Stevenson, collector of internal revenue, Aurora, Indiana, after express- ing his approval of the proposed reform, and after stating that he is in favor of adopting the same system for the civil service as that governing the armj, explains as follows : I have no comments to make farther than to explain my answer to question 33 in so far as it relates to the test by which qnalificatjons for office should be determined. I think the test should not be a strictly educational or theoretical one, and that a general knowledge ot business, and particularly of such business as may be similar in its details to that of the office to which an applicant may aspire, should have fully as much weight as theoretical acquirements such as are obtained by a course in a collegiate or commercial institute. In proof of this position, I would state that two of my subordinates best prepared to stand an examination like the one last alluded to have proved to be of the least account. William Grose, collector internal revenue, New Castle, Indiana : In the revenue service, in my judgment, a serious error exists in the great number of revenue agents, inspectors, and detectives, that have been appointed with their unlimited expenditures. Their present duties should be performed by collectors, deputies, assessors, and assistants. My observations satisfy me of the total incompetency of a great number of the assistant assessors. In this.district we have Ihree efficient, industrious; and competent assistants, two totally incompetent, and one neglectful of the duties of his office, following the legal profession closely to the detriment of the revenue. A. H. Brown, collector of internal revenue, Indianapolis, Indiana, after declar- ing himself emphatically in favor of the proposed reform, states : We have noticed that the principal sometimes filled the subordinate places with relatives, or the relatives of politicians to whom he was indebted for favors. Selections for examina- tions (candidates) should not be made from relatives of the principal or of his political friends, but from meritorious young men. Advocates the priority principle only when accompanied by merit. Frequent examinations might correct the evil of continuing in place an inferior officer simply beoaijse he held the oldest commission. He advocates an annual salary for assistant assessors instead of the per diem compensation, and states that a chief clerk with $1,000 is allowed in his district, though the services of such an officer are required for only three months. A. J. Pope, collector internal revenue, Sigourney, Iowa : 33. I believe it would be the best system that could be adopted. 34 and 35. In my opinion, yes. 36. There are no females among my subordinates. 37. The adoption of a system that would secure the appointment to office of competent persons without regard to personal or party considerations ; that would make retention atid advancement in office dependent upon faithful and meritorious conduct ; that would not make removals upon the representations of "rings" or cliques, but only upon proven charges of incompetency or dishonesty. I make these suggestions because of the fact that to learn the duties of the service is not the work of a day only, but should be the study of years. D. B. Henderson, collector internal revenue, Dubuque, Iowa : I am bitterly opposed to the present system of giving moieties to informers. It is a great source of corruption ; does more to make expense to the government than to lessen expense. It causes unwarranted seizures and persecutions ; it taints the action of officers who seize or prosecute, and brings unprincipled and avaricious men into the service. So baneful has been the influence of this system upon the public that they are predisposed to take the side of violators, believing that the hope of gaining a, moiety has induced some government agent to take advantage of some accidental or inadvertent step made by the party who is prosecuted. Every lawyer who defends violators of the laws of the United States, thunders the words " moiety" and " blood money" at the juries until the government agent appears a Shylock and the whiskey-thief an Antonio. Let officers be carefully selected, well paid, and give them no compensation but their salaries and commissions. CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 81 Cole Noel, assessor internal revenue, Adel, Iowa : So far as concerns the sub-revenue branch of the civil service, I would, upon further con- sideration, respectfully make the following suggestion : If the time from which special taxes commence running (May 1st) were changed to Januaiy ]st, to correspond with inciome tax, and the annual assessment were ovdeied in January instead of March, I have strong reason to believe that the work of assessing and collecting would be more thoroughly, more easily and speedily done, and, of course, more economically, and that it would result in an increase of revenue to the government. Jos. E. Lancaster, collector of internal revenue, Nebraska City : Examinations alone could not decide in that part of the country ; as in addition to business talent, the positions for the revenue require industry, pluck, and considerable knowledge frontier life. F. Eenner, assessor of internal revenue, Nebraska City : Urges a heavy special or license tax as a substitute of the present tax upon distilled spirits ; further, the more efficient administration of justice and the withdrawal of the power of com- promise from the judicial officers. No pvecrastination in revenue cases, as quashing indict- ments, entering nuUe prosequi, &c., should be permitted in the revenue cases, and all decis- ions be prompt and decisive. District attorneys should never be permitted to have law partners actually acting as attor- neys for the defendant while carrying on the prosecution for the government. J. C. Geer, collector internal revenue, Boise City, Idaho Territory : Suggests that the civil service be placed upon the same footing as the military service as far. as the tenure of office is concerned. He knows from experience that it i.s simply impos- sible to defraud the government out of one dime without either gross negligence or compli- city on the part of the officials. He urges upon Congress the necessity of doing away with the present army of useless agents and the adoption of some such system as proposed, and of using a fair proportion of the money saved by abolishing all useless appendages of the government in paying honest and efficient officers a fair salary, in which case the service would, in his opinion, be better performed, and at less aggregate cost to the government than in any other country in the world. He states that there are two special Indian agents in Boise City, Idaho Territory, who are drawing fljiiOO per annum each, and literally doing nothing. He does not suppose for a moment that they are the only agents paid by the government for doing nothing. Let econ- omy reach those ornamental gentlemen as well as the hard-working revenue officer. D. Mills, assessor internal revenue, Dakota Territory ; No. 1. Under the present system of appointment, which is but a system of party affiliation or favoritism, it often happens that those are selected whose only qualifications are that they are good political managers ; and such a recommendation does not speak well in a moral point of view. No. 2. It may happen that a person is appointed to some position who, at the time of receiving the appointment, was not conversant with the routine of business, but by study and perseverance has become master of the situation. In such a ca-^e it would be but poor reward for his diligence and labor to be Cast to the winds simply because the political com- plexion of the times had changed. No. 3. Let the appointee at the time of receiving the appointment understand that he will be continued in position so long as he is a faithful and competent officer and consults the interest of his government, and in so doing his own. I believe that under such a condition of things the government would be vastly the gainer ; that officers engaged in the service of the government would discharge their duty far better I have not a doubt. But as it now is there are a thousand temptations to neglect some portion of their duty. Some influential per- son is to be conciliated, or he will use his influence to get me out of office ; but were i t known by the officer that he would be removed only for neglect of duty, he would at all times do his duty. I have not a doubt millions might be saved to the government by adopting such a line of policy. Politics should not enter into the consideration, for I know of none wh) would not make any sacrifice to save our country from wrong. We may differ as to the best means to arrive at the same end. We cannot take a difference of opinion as an evidence of disloyaltj'. F. W. Swift, postmaster, Detroit, Michigan : 35. Emphatically ; yea. This is the great curse of the service. The uncertainty of their positions debars many, whosfe services would be very valuable to the government, from accepting them. This is especially the evil in the postal service and should be remedied. 3t). Tliere are eight females among the clerks of this office. I consider them fully as com- petent as males ; quiet, unobtrusive and diligent in the performance of their duties. For ' H. Rep. Com. 47- 6 82 CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. this service I recommend their employment. I believe the service would be vastly benefited by a system of appointment and promotion for merit alone, and retention in office during good behavior. N. G. Isbell, collector of customs, Detroit, Michigan: I think the efBciency of the service would be increased by such a system of appointments as is indicated in this interrogatory, (33,) providing the rule of removing for cause is strictly enforced'. via,. Under such a system I have no doubt an equal amount of work could be accomplished by a less number of persons than are now employed. In this country, where there are so many fields of private enterprise inviting the energies of young men, I do not think a higher grade of talent would be attracted to subordinate public service by the conditions named in this interrogatory (35) than now seeks such service for temporary purposes and on account of business disappointment ; but if the appointing and promoting power were protected from political influences, persons of less talent and qualities for usefulness would be excluded from the service. Under the license given me to state any matters in my judgment that would tend to make the civil service more efficient and economical, I have to say briefly, in regard to that branch of the service in which 1 am engaged, that though great improvement has been manifest within the last few years, I am of the opinion that the customs service of the country at large is more loosely and extravagantly officered than any other branch of the civil service of long- established standing with which I am acquainted. This comes partly from the necessarily irregular character of most of the service, making it difficult for persons in charge to know ■H hen suboidinate service is laboriously discharging its full duty or when '• shirking" labor; but mainly from the fact that it has long been the practice of political parties and politicians in power to seek positions as '" tide-waiters," where the duty is supposed to be nominal, for persons who are supposed to have rendered, and are expected yet to render, some service to their parties, but who are not qualified by energy and application to maintain themselves in private business dependent upon energy and integrity. Though I cannot complain of any such interference in my own case, I can conceive of cases where collectors and others in charge of subordinate service might overlook inefficiency on the part of employes, fearing that their own tenure of office might be affected by thus incurring the disapprobaticr of friends who have influence at court. The public at large have also arrived at a very low standard of morals on this subject of official responsibility in the customs service, doing great injury to persons engaged in its duties. It is generally supposed that the custom-house is fiill of fat sinecures, and when a man receives an appointment to the service, and, in answer to the inquiry of his friends or acquaintances as to the worth of his office, says his salary is " two," " three," or "four" dollars per day, the reply is, "Oh, yes, I know that is the salary, but what is the stealing?" Thus encouraging him to think that to obtain compensation beyond the provision of the law will be regarded as legitimate by his friends and the public. Fir this crying evil of which I have spoken, in the official organization and administration ot tne service, there can be no remedy but in subjecting all appointments of collectors to a rigid test of fitness, and prohibiting their removal, except for cause well supported. The same rule should be applied to the subordinate service, making the tolerance of inefficiency on the part of subordinate service one of the causes for which a collector may be removed. F. W. Curteniens, collector of internal revenue, Kalamazoo, Michigan : Does not think that the service of females could be made efficient in the collecting depart- ment, or brought within the range of propriety. In regard to the collection of the revenue, he declares that men of large incomes have not always been deterred from rendering false and fraudulent returns from the fact that they have relied too much upon the interposition of senators and representatives to have their penalties and fines remitted by the 'department, and in some cases have measurably suc- ceeded. They seem to overlook the fact that favors bestowed upon the guilty result in great injustice to the innocent and honest tax-payer. George Q. Erskine, collector of internal revenue, Milwaukee ; appointed 1867 : 37. There are two or three points I will give you my opinion upon. The law as it now stands, requiring the tax on all high wines to be paid at the distillery, is right. This law will save millions to the treasury flie coming year. I think that storekeepers of distillery bonded warehouses (class A) should be required to be at the distillery at all times when the distillery is running, and distillers not allowed to run unless they are there. The office of assistant assessor in charge of distilleries would, in that case, be unnecessary, as it is now, in my opinion, of no benefit to the government. I think the bill before Congress requiring the stamping of all packages of tobacco and all cigars is a step in the right direction. It appears to me that the law relating to the collection of taxes on tobacco and cigars is very inadequate to the detection of frauds, and should be thoroughly revised. The bill introduced, I think, by Senator Patterson, looking to the doing away with the appointment of special CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 83 treasury agents and others, and in their stead having 25 agents to be nominated hythe Presi- dent and confirmed by the Senate, will save the government a large sum of money. Besides, I think it will improve the efficiency of the revenue service. I state my views on these points with some hesitancy, in view of my limited experience. J. H. Warren, collector of internal revenue, Albany, Wisconsin : Fully agrees with the report of Commissioner Rollins, and with the remedies he proposes. The present evils of the revenue seiTice are not as much due to the defectiveness of the law as to the indolence, inefficiency, and corruption of revenue officers. To remedy this, the Commissioner should have the power to remove for cause any revenue officer and to appoint his successor. To require a man to be responsible for the proper administration of a department so import- ant as that of the revenue of the government, and at the same time deprive him of the authority to select and govern his subordinates, seems to me unjust, unwise, and highly pre- judicial to the best interests of the government. He is powerless to remedy the evil growing out of the practices of the corrupt and ineffi- cient for the reason that he has no authority to remove them and appoint in their stead honest, capable, and diligent men. Until this power is given to the Commissioner I am unable to understand or conceive how he can even retrieve the revenue service from the reproach under which it is rapidly falling. Luke A. Taylor, assessor of internal revenue, Prescott, Wisconsin : Suggests a law giving the entire amount of fines for fraud to the informant, who should be responsible for costs if the case failed. This would secure increased revenue by removing temptations to combine with offenders in the commission of frauds, and take from the trans- gressor the ability to compromise with officers or others who may have discovered the cause of complaint. Jacob S. Bugh, assessor internal revenue, Wautoma, Wisconsin: Twenty-four persons in favor of the proposed reform. Urges that the office of general inspector of spirits and the office of inspector of tobacco, snuff, and cigars should be abol- ished, and the duties now performed by such inspectors devolve upon assistant assessors. He further urges the collection of taxes on distilled spirits at the still, and the' abolishing of all bonded warehouses. He attributes the present evils of the revenue system to the frequent removal of revenue officers, and to the failure of the courts to heartily co-operate with' revenue officers in the enforcement of the law, particularly that relating to distilled spirits. C Shuter, collector of internal revenue, Sparta, Wisconsin : Thinks the proposed reform will most undoubtedly be beneficial, as is satisfactorily known in the English system of examination for civil officers. 37. I would suggest that the pay of assessor and collector of internal revenue should be graduated according to the amount of labor and responsibility of their offices ; that all fees or commissions should be discontinued ; all subordinate officers of the revenue, as deputy collectors, inspectors, &c., should be paid by the department ; that the bonds of the several officers of the government should be graduated according to the amount of responsibility or amount of moneys passing through their hands, and not, as now, according to the office they hold. All inspectors are required to give bonds in |5,0U0. I have two inspectors of cigars in this district, the amount of whose compensation is less than $25 per annum, and they consent to act at all only to oblige me. My office as disbursing agent requires me to give bonds to the amount of $10,000; the amount disbursed by me to others than myself will not average |850 per month, and which disbursements are made monthly by me as soon as money is received for the purpose. 1 think it of the utmost importance that all civil officers should be qualified for the offices with which they are intrusted, and that politics should not be considered a necessary qualification. I am of the opinion that but too many holding responsible positions are totally unqualified, and that the whole of their duties are performed by their subordinates. I would respectfully call your attention to the great disparity between the compensation of collectors in thickly and sparsely-settled districts. The com- missions of the former are very large in many instances, while in the latter both salary and commissions amount to the sum paid to not nigh-class clerks. Thomas Moonlight, collector internal revenue, Kansas : 36. There are no fertiales among my subordinates. Females could not be employed except as clerks in my department. 37. I have said so much in the 36 preceding that there is but little left to say. One of the greatest curses of the revenue department is that of secret special agents. They are rotten to the core, and may very justly be termed the leeches of the revenue department, for, having the confidential private ear of the department, their every word is believed, to the injury of lM)th tax-payers and revenue officers. There is not a revenue officer to-day but who 84 CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UXITED STATES. is at the mercy of these secret agents, and must do their bidding^, right or wrong. For instance : a collector makes a seizure ; a special agent slips in, and having the private ear of the department, lays before the different oflScers a statement of facts which blinds the department ; the collector is ordered to release at once, and is threatened with beheading, perhaps, while the agent has rolls of greenbacks in his pocket for the part he has played. The fraud continues, and so the thing goes on. Sweep away all political interference with the oflSces ; make the civil service as near as possible to the military, and with a discrimina- ting judgment in making the first selection of officers to fill all the offices of trust and profit, from the highest to the lowest ; fraud will hide its head and secret detectives will have to look for some honest way of making a living. I only wish I were present to talk with you instead of writing, but I presume you hare much better counsel. Thomas L. Sternberg, assessor of internal revenue, Lawrence, Kansas : Rather evasive on the subject of reform, but elaborately calling attention to the vast dif- ference in the compensation of assessors compared with the amount of labor performed by each, which is lighter in eastern and populous than in remote western and scantier districts. John S. McFarland, assessor of internal revenue, 2d district, Kentucky : Is rather inclined to believe that if the employment was assured on account of merit alone and no removals permitted except for cause, that it might and would be the means in the course of time of redeeming the employes in the revenue department from the terrible sus- picion that now rests upon them, in consequence of the frequency and magnitude of the frauds committed upon the revenue. He thinks that a uniform salary of $2,000 should be allowed assessors and no commission allowed unless their assessments exceed $300,000 or $400,000. This change could be made without increasing the aggregate cost ; I presume it would be reduced ; as the law now stands they only get $1,500 salary, less five per cent, on |500 thereof, unless their assess- ments exceeds f 100,000, and their commissions upon sums above that until their pay may reach $4,000. But in my district, and I presume in a great many others, under the |1,UU0 our assessments do not reach $100,000 ; consequently we have to live and support our family on $1,675 per annum ; and I assure you, at the present rate of house-rent and provisions, I have precious little left of my salary to buy clothes with. John E. Beckley, collector of internal revenue, Shelbyville, Kentucky, (52 persons under his control:) 37. It is my opinion that if the appointments in that grade of the service were made irom candidates whose fitness for the appointment was evidenced by passing an examination con- ducted by competent persons, and the candidates should be required to produce testimonials of their integrity, honesty, moral and social worth, with assured and permanent employment, with promotions granted only for seniority, merit, or fitness, and no discharge permitted without 'good and sufficient cause, the efficiency of the service would be greatly increased. F. C. James, collector of internal revenue, Mount Sterling, Kentucky, (9th district,) suggests : That in frequent instances laws have been made and instructions issued that do not as well apply to widely extended, sparsely populated districts, situated in rural regions at great distances from the great commercial centres of the country, as to the more compact and densely populated districts. Frequently such regulations are of such a nature that the appli- cation of them is almost impossible. If the districts themselves were graded, and the regu- lations of the department made to suit the different grades, many difficulties under whichwe of the remote and weaker districts labor would be done away with, and the result would be advantageous perhaps to an economical and certainly to a more efficient execution of the revenue law. W. J. Landram, collector of internal revenue, Sth district, Kentucky : No. 37. I am of the opinion that assistant assessors ought to be paid only in proportion to the number of lists they take ; and not $5 per diem for the days employed, and three cents per list, as under the present law. This objection to the law as it now stands is peculiarly applicable to the raral districts, where nearly all the assistants pursue some vocation in addi. tiontothatof assistant assessors ; and when, no doubt, tjiey often charge the $5 03 for every day they enter a list, even though the assessment against the tax-payer amounts to less than the compensation of the assistant assessor. There is no incentive to action othur than his oath to do his duty, and a lazy assistant doubtless often waits for many a tax-payer to come to him who never comes, because he is satisfied the officer is too indolent to look him up. If the amount of his pay depended alone upon his vigilance, the revenue would be matenally increased and the cost of the assessments doubtless diminished. All will admit that it is more trouble to collut than to assess the tax. It is more laborious, more complicated, more perplexing, and more dangerous. And yet, if we examine the sub- ject closely, it will be seen that the pay of the one who assesses is largely in advance of the one who collects. Take this district, for example. CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 85 The pay of the assessor, clerk, and assistant assessors for the nine months ending Decem- he." 31, 1867, was as follows, after deducting tax : April $1,141 91 May 1,184 18 June 797 70 July 578 61 August 805 62 September 1,434 79 October 1,599 79 November 1,067 U December 1,271 05 9,880 76 Salary of collectors during that period, including tax 1, 125 00 Commissions on amount collected, $63, 296 67, at 3 per cent 1, 898 96 3,023 96 Thus it will be seen that while the cost of assessing during the nine months is near $10,000. The cost of collecting is not one-third that sum. Out of the $3,023 96 cents aforesaid, the collector has to pay his deputies and the expenses of his office. It is true that all the taxes asse.ssed during the period aforesaid have not yet been collected ; but that will not materially aifect the great disproportion between the rela- tive cost of assessing and collecting. Whether this disparity exists in other districts I do not know, but think the probabilities are that in the rural districts particularly something of the kind will be found. This is a mountainous district, composed of 18 counties, containing at least 150 miles square, embracing about one- fourth of the territory of the State ; no railroads yet in operation, no telegraph, and no turnpikes except in three counties ; the mails are carried chiefly on horse-back, except in some four counties. The population is sparse, and although the people are loyal to the government, it is difiScult to obtain officers of the first order of qualifications, on account of the collections being small and the commissions correspondingly insignificant. Rolfe S. Saunders, collector of internal revenue, Memphis, Tennessee: Urges the preparation of a well-arranged digest of the revenue laws, rulings of the depart- ment, regulations, decisions of the courts, &c. Samuel F. Cooper, collector of internal revenue, Van Buren, Arkansas : No. 37. I would respectfully suggest that the present method of assessing and collecting rev- enue, with its scale of fees for subordinate officers, is both expensive and unjustly discriminating in its operations. My deputy collectors, as a class, are superior to the assistant assessors in tal- ent and responsibility. Their labors often greater, yet their compensation bears no comparison to that of an assistant assessor. This district comprises 1 9 counties. It is cut up into 1 little divisions, with an assistant assessor in each ; not one of them allows his revenue duties to interfere in the least with his regular business or profession, and all their charges are fear- fully constructive. They charge not only for the days actually employed, but for the days upon which they are ready and willing to be employed. I have carefully studied this matter, and am satisfied that the plan of dividing a district into petty divisions, with an assistant assessor to each, is a pernicious one, and opens a wide door to perjury and fraud. Four men, real live working men, could do the work of this district better than it is now done by ten, and at much less expense. The deputy collectors, as well as assistant assessors, should be appointed by, and responsible to, the Secretary of the Treasury ; and above all, both should receive the same compensation, and no assessor or collector should henceforth be appointed till he shows a creditable record as a subordinate. And present incumbents, high or low, should by all means be required to give evidence before a proper board of exaniiners of their fitness, intellectually and morally. States that he had 100 applications for employment since November 15, 1866, when he came into office. The oath prescribed by the act of July 2, 1862, render it almost impossible to procure suitable persons to fill the positions. Would probably have had 300 or 400 more applications had the parties been able to take the oath. He advocates the payment of stated salaries to the employes in the collector's office, and to assistant assessors and their subordinates. This he thinks would secure competent men, which cannot be obtained under the present system, collectors being now compelled, from the small compensation received for their services, to employ deputies and clerks at rates for which honorable and competent men could hardly be expected to work. 86 CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. Bernard Zwart, collector internal revenue, Ironton, Missouri, is emphatically in favor of reform, provided religious morality be also made a test. He submits suggestions in paper A for the more efficient execution of the revenue laws, and in paper B about the tax on distilled spirits, &c., which are herewith annexed : A. The mode of collecting revenue and accounting therefor I consider deficient for the follow- ing reasons, to wit : 1st. It does not hold the collectors sufficiently responsible, and if they are so inclined it allows them the use of large amounts of money belonging to the government for a long period without the proper means to detect such use. 2d. It often operates harshly and unjustly on collectors, in large districts which are sparsely settled and where mail facilities and other means of communication are unsafe and unreliable, in holding them responsible for nncoUectable taxes, which are too often assessed by assistant assessors on parties who are insolvent or are not liable to assessment. First. To obtain an additional check on collectors I would suggest that allblank receipts issued by the department to collectors should be provided with or bear the impress of a stamp representing the money value for which it is to be a receipt, ranging from the smallest to the highest amount of tax assessed ; that every collector should draw the receipts on quar- terly requisitions based on the tax assessed on each quarterly list by him received from the assessor, the amount of which receipts should be charged to the collector, and against which he should be credited with the amount of money deposited each month. The daily collec- tion book of the collector should contain an additional column showing the amount of receipts drawn by him from the department, as well as a column for total collections and total deposits, so that the difference between the aggregates of the first and last named col- umns will show the amount of stamped receipts and money he should have on hand at any time, and enable inspectors (to be appointed for that purpose) to verify the collector's accounts whenever desired. The collectors should also forward a monthly abstract from this book to the department and further be required to impress their own official seals on each receipt, and the collection of any taxes without issuing the proper receipt therefor, stamped and sealed as above stated, should make them or their deputies respectively, on conviction thereof, liable to punishment by fine and imprisonment, the fine to go to the informer, even if he induced the issuance of such receipt without the required seal and stamp. This provision of law should be printed in large letters on stiff paper, and by the govern- ment furnished to all civil officers to be posted up in their offices in a conspicuous place, and a failure to do so should make the offender liable to punishment. At the end of every quarter each collector should return to the department the stamped receipts remaining on hand at such time and belonging to the quarter for which he makes return ; with the amount thereof he should be credited, provided he furnish within three months thereafter t}ie proper vouchers to show that said taxes were not collectable and ought to be abated, as now provided for. Second. For the protection of collectors and saving of considerable expense to the govern- ment, I would suggest that it should be provided by law that if any assessor return to the collector any assessment which is uncoUectable at the time of the assessment by reason of the insolvency of the party assessed, his own liability to assessment, or other good cause, such assessment should be charged to the assessor (who should also be required to give bond) and credited to the collector on proof of the existence of such cause at the time of the assess- ment. For the protection of the government and the assessor the latter should be furnished with blank applications for assessment of the different taxes and duties, at the head of which applications should be printed the provision of the law imposing such tax, and such applica- tion should contain a clause admitting that the applicant comes within such provisions, and be signed by the party applying, and any person liable to such tax and refusing to sign the proper application at the request of the assessor or assistant assessor should not be assessed but reported by the assessor to the United States attorney of the proper district for prosecu- tion under section 73, act July 30, 1864, which section ought to be so amended as to make the offence punishable by imprisonment in all cases coming within the provision, as well as by fine, a moiety of which fine should go to the informer. This is necessary, as too often parties are assessed who are not liable under the law or who are really insolvent at the time, so as to make it impossible for the collector to collect the tax, thereby causing a vast amount of useless labor and consequent expense to the government, which might be saved by the exer- cise of reasonable diligence on the part of assessors and their assistants besides ; as the law now stands parties who have no property liable to distraint too often carry on their business without paying their special taxes therefor, thereby defrauding the government and also doing an injustice to the well-disposed citizen without adequate means of redress. In relation to all manufactured articles subject to duty it should be provided that the same shall be liable to assessment and seizure in the hands of any party after removal from the CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 8t place of manufacture, unless the same be duly tax paid, whicli fact should be made to appear either by the proper stamp or collector's certificate, the expense of which certificate should be paid for by the party obtaining the same. K From observation in this district and elsewhere, I think that unless the tax on distilled spirits be reduced considerably, say to 50 cents per gallon, no spirits of any amount can be manufactured with the certainty that the tax thereon can be collected, because a high tax, as is now imposed, is too strong an inducement for fraudulent practices to be withstood by the generality of men engaged in that business ; it is true that by strict surveillance and extraordinary exertions on the part of officials large frauds may be prevented for a while , especially when the market is glutted, but it is to be feared that such vigilance on the part of the officers will be but temporary, or at the utmost spasmodic, as their attention will be diverted by other official duties, or former exertions will be followed by corresponding inac- tion. Most men engaged in the business of distilling seem to consider the existing law a viola- tion of their rights, and look upon smuggling as merely a "male prohibita," not a "male in se ;" and as the profits are enormous, if they succeed they are willing to pay the penalty, if detected, and in proportion as their means and ill-gotton gains give them influence, they will try to use that influence to the detriment of the government and public morality in the corruption of officials whenever possible, and whenever this fails, in denouncing and perse- cuting honest officers whom they find to be incorruptible ; the result whereof is, that all officers connected with the revenue department fall into disrepute, and are looked upon with contempt by the honest masses, and that large amounts of revenue, which would be paid cheerfully if the tax were not prohibitory, are lost to the government. Besides, the imposition of prohibitory taxation on any manufactured article has a tendency to drive men of moderate means (who are often the most conscientious, and satisfied with a reasonable profit) out of the business, to the detriment of the national industry, because such men cannot compete with their more wealthy neighbors, by investing their means which they need to carry on their business in the tax imposed, especially when, as it seems to be mostly the case with distilled spirits, their manufacture will not sell in the market for enough to pay the tax itself ; hence the capital invested by such men in the erection of buildings, and the necessary stills, vessels, &c., becomes a dead capital for all practical purposes, which not seldom works the ruin of worthy citizens. To establish a system of taxation which must under all circumstances prevent fraud is well- nigh an impossibility, yet it would seem that a system of moderate taxation of distilled spirits might be devised under which the manufacturer would fulfil all his obligations to the government rather then to run the danger of interference with his business by a non-com- pliance with the requisitions of the law, and which at the same time might stimulate him to devise and invent improvements in the mode and instruments of manufacture so as to pro- duce the greater amount of the article taxed, from the same materials. But to do this, the tax should be imposed upon the raw material instead of on the pro- duct, and ag it has been ascertained to within a fraction what amount of spirits of a certain strength can, under existing circumstances, be obtained from a given amount of grain, it would only be necessary to impose such restrictions and safeguards on the manner of using the necessary materials for distilling purposes, that it would be impossible under any cir- cumstances to perpetrate frauds therein, without almost certain detection. If such a plan was adopted, by prohibiting distillers from grinding their own grain, or having it ground elsewhere, without a permit from the collector, describing the quantity and weighi of the grain, place where to be ground, time allowed therefor, and for its con- veyance to the distillery, and also the time within which it is to be placed in the fermenting tubs and worked oif, it would seem that but little difficulty could exist to prevent a full assessment of the tax ; or the fermenting tubs in every distillery might be numbered in regular order, which number, together with the capacity of the tubs (which latter should be proportionate to the distilling power of the still) and be branded thereon, and a record thereof should be kept in the collector's office; ten days before the first of the month the dis- tiller should hand in to the assessor a statement in triplicate, designating by their numbers and capacity the fermenting tubs which he desires to fill for fermenting purposes, on each day in the month, also those from which he desires to draw for distilling purposes, (allowing only sufficient time for the purpose of fermentation,) and those which shall be empty at any given time in the mouth. From this statement the assessor should ascertain the tax, and forward the duplicate of such statement to the collector, and return the triplicate, with his certificate, t6 the distiller, to enable the iuspector to ascertain at any time whether the proper fermenting tubs are filled, in use, or emptied as designated. Or, if it be not considered desirable to assess the tax on the raw material, the tax might be assessed and collected by means of stamps of the value of the tax, to be procured by the distiller from the collector, and by the inspector to be attached to the barrel or keg contain- ing the spirits and by him cancelled in a proper manner; the distiller should, however, obtain a credit of, say, three months, on all such stamps by him purchased, provided he gives 88 CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. tlierefor sufBcient security to tte collector to prevent loss to the government. This is necps> sary to enable the distiller to dispose of his distilled spirits by the time that he should pay the fax ; and such distillers as should pay for the stamps in cash at the time of purchase f-hould be allowed a suflScient discount thereon. Each inspector and distiller should make his returns as now required. Tax on tobacco and cigars. — This tax I think should be collected by the use of stamps in the manner as last above suggested in relation to distilled spirits. John H Fox, assessor internal revenue, De Soto, Missouri, makes the follow- ing suggestions : As the tax has been taken off from cotton, and probably will be from a great majority of all industrial pursuits, that the revenue laws be so amended that assessors make returns of their monthly assessments to their respective collectors on or before the 10th of each suc- ceeding monthj in place of making same by the 20th of each succeeding month ; and if the collector's time for making the collections be also shortened ten days, it will give him ample time, and I think have a tendency to lessen the delinquent list by one-half. The collector should also make it the imperative duty of his deputies to visit all parts of their respective divisions to make the collections, and not make it the duty of the tax-payer to hunt him up to pay his tax. This I find to be a very general complaint among the parties that have been assessed with an annual or monthly tax. They seldom ever get a notice from the deputy collectors unless the penalty is attached, and then they are required to ride from 1 to 25 miles to settle the tax. My assistant assessors have from six to eight places, m each county, where they make regular appointments to meet the tax-payer. Each assistant sends out his notices a mouth ahead, besides giving each known tax-payer an indi- vidual notice to meet him on the appointed days. Tliis gives general satisfaction; but the deputy collector sends out circulars, calling on the tax-payer to meet him at the county seat and settle their taxes, and never sends individual notices unless the penalty is attached. I do not name this as applying to my district alone. It appears to be a general complaint, and ought to be remedied. I have no other suggestions to make at present, and hope that the answers and suggestions may meet with your approval. John Van Lear, assessor internal revenue, Hagerstown, Maryland : Thinks the introduction of a civil service, with some such mode of appointment as is pursued in the army ; some such means adopted as are combined under the heads of ques- tions 33, 34, and 35, to regulate the appointment, advancement, and continuance in office, would greatly advance the personnel of the service ; some such regulations as would allow transfer from one sphere of duty to another within it— from the customs to the internal rev- enue, and vice versa. If all supervising officers of the internal revenue were required to give bond for their faith- ful performance oi duty, I can see no reason why, in tins department, the collectors and assessors might not be transferred ; the assessor performing the duty of the collector, and vice versa. Not only should this transfer take place as the appointments to these offices now stand, but a civil service instituted, which would have no bounds by States or con- gressional districts, that they might be ordered for duty over the United States, would add greatly to the efficiency of the department. Then, too, in the districts where the assessmeut is small, power should be given the department to consolidate with the larger. If honesty were made the basis of all the other requirements, then intelligence, then determination, the expense of collection of the revenue would be lessened and the amount collected increased. It is impossible to collect the revenue without, at some one point, for the time, trusting to the integrity of the subordinates ; hence the vital necessity of having all honest. The pay of the offices is sufficient to secure good and competent men, and if a system of examination were introduced which was known to be thorough, the applicants would be less, and the service benefited by those who were successful. This may be all brought about by such a system as was proposed to Congress at its last regular session. I think that phrase, older than Shakespeare, "to the victor belong the spoils," has about as much sin on its head as any theory advanced by mortal man. The only objec.iun I have ever seen against the adoption of a civil service as is herein alluded to, which had in it a semblance of plausibility, is that same eflfete prejudice, which tlie war oi the rebellion exploded, against the regular army, that it foisted a horde of idle, useless cormorants upon the people, whose industry was taxed for their maintenance. Good and true men had begun to believe in the cry against them until tlie war for the Union showed the latent value of McClellan, Grant, and Sherman. 1 hope that I have not uselessly consumed the time of the committee in making these general reiparks ; it certainly is not my intention ; and I close them by saying, that 1 know ot nothing suggested for efticiency and the general good of the civil seivice which will bring about a more hap^y result to a tax-ridden people— who have endured the heat and burden of CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 89 a war unparalleled in its magnitude and its concomitant taxation with such uncomplaining firmness— as the adoption of a civil service, the groundwork of which is suggested by ques- tions 33, 34 and 35 of the circular from the Committee on Eetrenchment. E. H. Webster, collector of customs, Baltimore : 33. The efficiency of the service would be greatly increased if the course indicated by this (33d) interrogatory was generallj followed in cases of appointments and promotions, but in some cases it might be benepcial to make new appointments in grades above the "lowest grade only." The lowest grade in this office, for instance, is that of watchmen, boatmen, messengers and porters, who receive $2 50 per diem. It would not be possible to secure the services of officers in these humble positions, who, as a general rule, could aftei-wards be safely advanced to much more important and responsible positions ; especially would this be so it promotions were infrequent, as they necessarily would be were removals only made for want of efficiency ; but I repeat that strict examinations of all applicants ifor appointment and promotion would be very beneficial to the public service. 34. If public officers were more efficient they would of course perform more labor than under the present system, and fewer officers would be required. 35. If employment was assured and certain, and promotions granted only to meritorious officers, and removals only made for want of efficiency in the discharge of official duty, I believe "a higher grade of talent and a better quality of persons" would be "induced to enter the government service," and that the public interests would be greatly subserved thereby. Wm. H. Smith, collector of internal revenue, Easton, Maryland : Is satisfied that the only sure way to enforce the revenue law is to create a civil service such as recommended by the Commissioner in his report. William Welling, assessor internal revenue, Ellicott's Mills, Maryland : 37. I am of opinion that if the policy indicated by your questions is adopted, efficiency and economy in the administration of the civil service will be promoted. George C. Tyler, collector of internal revenue, Onancock, Virginia: Thinks the plan suggested by question 33, together with a fair remunerative salary to officials, would be a great improvement on the present system. It would perhaps be better to give to collectors and assessors a salary each, ranging from $3,000 to $5,000, according to the amount of duty devolving on them, without additional commission or percentage, except reimbursement for expenses incurred in extraordinary work, (to be judged of by the depart- ment,) and taking from the collectors the burden of paying for services of deputies, clerks, and office expense s, the government paying all subordinates of collectors as now it does for assistant assessors. With such an arrangement, in a little while, there woirid ai'ise a mutual respect and confidence in the whole official corps, which it more than now obtains, and which would inspire the officers with a commendable vigor, and desire to be faithful and to please. It would be well to clothe officials with power to summon, and compel assistance, in certain cases where it is necessary to seize and distrain on account of infractions of the law, or in collecting the revenue. John B. Ailworth, assessor of internal revenue, Drummondtown, Virginia : Thinks that some plan should be adopted for the purpose of reducing the expense of assessing the income tax, which, in a purely agricultural district, yields but little income to the government. The deduction of the $1,000 exemption allowed the farmer exempts almost the entire community from the payment of any income tax. It is a fact that the very best tax-payers to the State do not pay a cent into the federal treasury, and this causes great complaint on the part of those who pay specia.1 taxes. I think the exeuiption should be reduced, or that such a modification of the law be made as will authorize the Commissioner of Internal Revenue or the assessor in certain localities to dispense with such a general visitation on the part of assistant assessors as the law now seem.5 to make obligatory. John H. Hudson, assessor, Eichmond, Virginia: Declares that the internal revenue service could be made more economical, efficient, and profitable to the government if the laws now under contemplation by Congress were made plain and explicit, the duties and responsibilities of each officer clearly set forth, and he held strictly accountable for the proper administration of his office. John M. Donn, assessor of internal revenue, Norfolk city, Virginia : The adoption of the proposed system has his fullest sanction, based upon convictions derived from many years of observation of the present system. 90 CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. John H. Oley, collector of internal revenue, Kanawha Court House, West Virginia: Urges the abolishment of all systems of fees and commissions, and the appointment of a fixed salary for each officer, with allowance for proper and necessary expenses. A. G. Leonard, assessor of internal revenue, Parkersburg, West Virginia : 37. I think if more care was taken in securing proper persons to fill the various and firmness of character, with a due regard for the experience, educational and social acquirements of the applicants, the service would be vastly improved. I am firmly of the opinion that, if such men could be selected and induced to enter the service, there would be no necessity for resorting to the very questionable policy of reducing the tax on spirits and tobacco, thereby seeming to acknowledge that there is not virtue and integrity enough left in the land to execute the laws. In addition, would suggest that all officers of government should give bonds with suitabl security conditioned for the faithful performance of the duties of their office. Again, would say that suitable checks should be so arranged that no government money could possibly come into the hands of one officer without a fair charge on the books of another. There is at this time no check on the collectors in the return of unassessed penalties. They are required now to return monthly, on form 58, all unassessed penalty. This form is received by the assessor and charged up to the collector, without any mode whatever of verifying its correctness in this particular. And now, to secure the pi'oper officers, I suggest, instead of revenue inspectors — who, so far as my experience goes, are very expensive without much efficiency — for each district, as now exists, that there be one revenue agent, who should be appointed to have the supervision of three districts, with suitable compensation ; that he be appointed from the most experienced and efficient officers now in the service in the various districts ; that three of these agents should form a board for the examination of all applicants for office in the various districts and divisions, and without their recommendation no appoint- ment or promotion should be made in the several districts or divisions over which they have for the time being the supervision. Average pay per month, for the year 1867, of assistant assessors. First division $105 93' Second division 12] 53 Third division 127 09 Fourth division 51 30 Fifth division 83 40 Sixth division 30 52 Seventh division 47 38 Eighth division 92 31 Ninth division 22 78 J- Average per month each division. Tenth division .•. 18 88 Eleventh division 68 22 Twelfth division 35 49 Thirteenth division 117 74 Fourteenth division „ 120 58 Total J, 042 58 General average of each division per month, |74 42. W. Grant, collector of internal revenue, Greensboro', North Carolina : In favor of reform ; submits that owing to the scarcity of railroads, telegraphs, and mail facilities in his district, and in the south generally, frauds on a small scale are more easily jjerpetrated than in the more densely settled districts of the north, small distillers and manu- facturers "running the blockade" with wagons into adjoining districts. He suggests as a remedy the prosecution and arrest of such parties, and the seizure of property removed in violation of law wherever found. Under the present law, violators of the law escape with impunity. He urges that manufacturers before shipping tobacco should be required to procure permits from the collectors of the district to ship the same, the manufacturer at the same time giving his note, with at least three good securities, to be regarded as additional security for the pay- ment of the tax. He advocates the appointment of those who have served in the Union army as collectors of internal revenue throughout the south, upon the ground of its securing a more co-op- erative system between collectors, and of contributing materially to the suppression of fraud and increase of revenue. _ He boasts of having collected in nine months about $571,000, while his predecessor col- lected only in 12 months about $338,000, though under his administration the distilling of grain was entirely prohibited by General Sickles, and more than a hundred distilleries had been at work under the 12 months of his predecessor. CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 91 William E. Bond, collector internal revenue, Edenton, North Carolina : I think some system should be adopted which would enable a collector in districts like mine, entirely rural, covering a large area of territory, where the collection is attended with a great deal of expense, trouble, exposure, and some danger withal, to pay his subordinates better compensation (without working for nothing himself ) than lean aiford to do. As I have before remarked, it appears to me that the best system in public service is to pay good men a good price, and render them directly responsible to the department. Would it not be best, therefore, to place the deputy collectors on a fair salary, and hold them bonded and directly responsible to the department, and, at the same time give such compensation to the collector as will be fair and right, and allow him to secure the services of a No. 1 man as clerk. Suggestion in respect to the collection of taxes from delinquents scattered over a wide expanse of territory : In my replies to the questions propounded by you, I neglected one suggestion which I designed to make, and which I .regard as highly important everywhere, and absolutely indispensable in districts like this, covering a large extent of country with few modes of c«m- munications, and even scanty mail facilities, ft is simply impossible for a collector in a district like this, with a weak force at his command, to collect from a large number of delin- quents, scattered everywhere through the country, by actual personal distraint. Under the present revenue law suits cannot be instituted in the United States courts against delinquent tax-payers unless authorized by the honorable Commissioner of Internal Revenue, and he is of opinion, as the law seems to indicate, that it requires a separate authorization for each suit. There are some 800 or 1,000 delinquents scattered through the 15 counties of this dis- trict, and it would take me and my deputies at least six months or more to collect from them by actual distraint, to the entire neglect of the other duties of my office, and at least 12 months if we gave necessary attention to other imperative duties. But I am satisfied that if the power were given me to institute suit in the United States court, much the larger portion could be collected very soon, for in ninety cases out of a hundred, the service of a writ would be the end of the proceedings, the parties would raise the money "by book or by crook," and pay. The cost of the proceedings would not be so great to the delinquent as by distraint. The suggestion I would make, therefore, is to invest collectors with the power to institute suits in the United States courts for the recovery of tax claims. The law could be framed so as to protect the government from imposition in the way of costs incurred on account of useless and unnecessary suits, by providing that in all cases in which the collector could not vindicate the justice of the claim by getting judgment, he should pay the costs himself. This would have another good effect ; it would enable the collector to silence just complaint on the part of those who have paid, that " others are not made to do so too." The law pro- vides for distraint I know, but, as before remarked, it, in districts like this, is a slow and expensive process, not quick enough to silence complaint, and cannot be done, in any great number of cases, without the neglect of other important duties. I do hope this suggestion may receive your favorable consideration and be incorporated in the law. The collectors being heavily bonded officers, it appears to me that every possible advantage should be accorded to them. Jesse Wheeler, assessor internal revenue, Greensboro', North Carolina : In favor of the proposed reform ; urges legal provisions and regulations with a view of checking the system of blockade runners. About three-fourths of the revenue of his district (5th district of North Carolina) is derived from the tax on tobacco. A very considerable portion of it, that is assessed for tax, is removed from the district in wagons by pedlars. Under present regulations fraud cannot be prevented. He suggests to accompany each removal (not in bond) by a permit from the collector of the district, properly identifying the parcels or packages covered by the permit, and said permit to be indorsed by every revenue official to whom it is shown so as to prevent it from being used twice. , jv, •, /. , He recommends the same provisions in regard to tobacco, which may be pffered for less than the tax, that there is in regard to distilled spirits, except in cases of tobacco accompanied by official certificates attesting to it having been damaged after it had been manufactured. H. H. Helper, assessor internal revenue, Salisbury, North Carolinia, believes : From his knowledge of the duties of public officers at Washington and other large cities, thatfflt least one-third more work should be done by each and every employ^ than is. 0. W. Dudley, assessor of internal revenue, Bennetsville, S. C. : Prefers his subordinates to be in all cases of the Caucasian race, and thinks that the offi- cers of this government should all be '^ white people," if white people are to be ruled by them. He is emphatically in favor of the proposed reform, and says the great thing was to put the right man in the right place, without regard to the complexion of their politics. Give authority to good men and they will not abuse it. Find them wherever you can, among all political parties, and the government will be administered in the only spirit any wise maa ever supposed a republic could exist. 92 CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. He inveipflis strongly against officers addicted to drink, and if he had the power would select officers only from persons abstaining from the use of wine or strong driuk. He advo- cates modification of test oath, so as to make citizens eligible for office who are at present debarred from the civil service under the operation of that oath. Assistant assessors are now paid |6 50 per diem, or §2,034 50 annually. Total cost in his district $22,387 50; while citizens with proper qualifications could be employed at |1,200 per annum, making an annual saving of |9,]79 50. F. A. Sawyer, collector of interaal revenue, Charleston, South Carolina, (graduate of Harvard College, and a teacher all his life :) Has no doubt that the plan proposed would be of advantage ; but the fact that many a man makes a first-class subordinate, but will be quite unfitted for a principal and controlling position, should never be ignored. W. H. Watson, assessor 4th district, Georgia : I am satisfied that the interest of the civil service of the United States and the general welfare of the government requires that a board of examination should be established to judge of the qualifications and examine each and every applicant for a position in any department before entering upon the duties of his office ; political influence alone should hardly be taken into consideration, except, perhaps, merely to introduce the applicant to the notice of the board. In the majority of oases parties should apply in person and be required to furnish some record of their antecedents. In a great many instances the compensation of government officials and subordinate officers is too great, while in others it is insufficient ; but that is a subject that belongs to the heads of the departments, and is a difficult one to legislate upon, and no general rule could be made to apply to every case. W. P. Kellogg, collector of customs, New Orleans : 33. Should the course proposed in this interrogatory be pursiied, I have no hesitation in saying that it would unquestionably add to the efficiency of the service. Until this or a similar system is adopted, I think we can look for no great improvement, where so much necessity for improvement exists. 34. Unquestionably it could. 35. Undoubtedly such would be the case. 36. There are no females employed in this custom-house. 37. I believe that the course proposed by the tenor of the interrogatories numbered 33, 34, and 35 would very much tend to make the civil service more efficient and economical. E. G. Cook, collector of internal revenue, 1st district, Mississippi : In my district half the counties are not assessed more than will pay the cost of assessing and collecting. Several of them are assessed from |1,000 to $2,000, of which not one- half can be collected. The labor to assess the tax and to collect in a county of 1,000 square miles is as great for toOO as for $10,000. The assessor must travel over the whole territory, and it will take as long to see and examine a citizen who will make no return of tax whatever, as it will to enter the items and tax of $10 or $100 : so an assessor may and they do work and properly charge* for services when there is no apparent return of revenue to be collected. Then the collector will perform nearly the same service by going over the same extent of country to see all whose names are returned, and very often must go a second or third time. There can be no legal notice through the post office, as there is no mail service in any county in this district except, probably, to supply the county seats ; all other small post offices are not supplied, and the sending of notices is a mere waste of time. The deputy collector, for this travelling over a county of 1,000 square miles two or three times, can only get at most three per cent,; this on $1,000 would be only $30 — this for horse hire and two or three mouths' hard labor and one month in making out the returns required on 102, 47, 46 and 53. No one can be had for the compensation provided by law, and something must be done or the poor divisions omitted in the annual assessments. I think it would save to the treasury if some plan can be devised by which no division shall be taxed if the whole tax will not pay the expense of assessing and collecting the tax therein. To illustrate : the county of Green has been assessed not as mxich as $50 for two years, and yet the assistant assessor may have been required to " proceed through every part of this county," &c., (see act of Congress, ) but finding all too poor to be charged anything, made no report on 23, but charged for the labor actually performed per diem. Expecting some assessment, a deputy collector was engaged to collect all assessed in that county, make all returns, and detect all violations of revenue laws, at a salary of $100. Now,, he has collected only $10 special tax on one physician, and this all that was assessed and collectable. The assistant assessor is compensated by per diem. He will continue though CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES 83 notbing be assessed ; but do deputy collector can be had, because the amount, $100, is too sniall to require annual attention, though but little be done, and then the suppositiou will be that he makes no adequate return of revenue for his pay. I know as well as I can know anything future that at least ten counties in the first district of Mississippi will not be assessed enough to pay the assessors and collectors reasonable com- pensation for the labor actually required in assessing and collecting; and then I am equally certain that not one-half will be collected of what may be assessed. I am certain that I could not have secured the services of competent men by examination. No one is prepared to discharge the duties of assessor and collector at first, and it is hard to learn. I requested (by letter' to Commissioner Rollins) an oflScer to be sent to me when I was first appointed who would be recommended by deputy commissioners of internal revenue, but have failed to secure such a one. I expected a Mr. Payne, who declined coming; then Mr. Lawton came last ; he knew little more than one whom I had in the office. I have been under the control Of treasury agents both general and special, and am still no expert in the office, and my deputies less so. Several have declined, and I think all will. The cotton tax repealed leaves this district a charge upon the revenue department, unless no assessment or collection be attempted in many divisions. Whether a county or division of a district should be omitted for any one year may be left to the discretion of the assessor of the district or the joint determination of the assessor and collector, or to the honorable Commissioner of Internal Revenue, if the facts and sugges- tions made by me on the 6th and 7th pages be considered at all in reference to such action. The following officers of the customs answered the principal questions relat- ing to the proposed reform affirmatively : 0. Utley, collector, Middletown, Connecticut. John Brooks, collector, Bridgeport, Connecticut. R. R. Boiling, surveyor of customs, Louisville, Kentucky. William P. Kellogg, collector of customs, New Orleans, Louisiana. Washington Long, collector, Passamaquoddy, Maine. Stephen Longfellow, collector, Machias, Maine. E. 8. J. Malley, collector, Bath, Maine. Thomas Russell, collector, Boston, Massachusetts. John M. Fiske, deputy collector, Boston, Massachusetts. A. B. Underwood, surveyor, Boston, Massachusetts. Francis A. Osborn, naval officer, Boston, Massachusetts. John Vinson, collector, Edgartown, Massachusetts. William Silvey, collector, Newark, New Jersey. James Brady, collector, Fall River, Massachusetts. William A. Pew, collector, Gloucester, Massachusetts. William Standly, collector, Marblehead, Massachusetts. John H. Folger, collector, Nantucket, Massachusetts. Lawrence Grinnell, collector, New Bedford, Massachusetts, Enoch Gr. Currier, collector, Newburyport, Massachusetts. N. G. Isbell, collector, Detroit, Michigan. T. Harmon, collector, Belfast, Maine. S. K. Devereux, collector, Castine, Maine. E. H. Webster, collector, Baltimore, Maryland. H. A. Smythe, collector. New York, New York. C. P. Clinch, assistant collector, New York, New York. J. H. Stedwell, deputy collector. New York, New York. Abram Wakeman, surveyor, New York, New York. James S. Benedict, special deputy surveyor. New York, New York. C. S. Franklin, acting naval officer, New York, New York, John C. Grannis, collector, Cleveland, Ohio. John Young, collector, Sandusky, Ohio. J. W. Cake, collector, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. D. N. 0. Baxter, naval officer, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, William Harbeson, surveyor, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Thomas Wilkins, collector, Erie, Pennsylvania. W. R. Taylor, collector, Bristol, Rhode Island. 94 CIVIL SERVICE OP THE UNITED STATES, George W. NefF, surveyor, Cincinnati, Ohio. T. P. Chandler, assistant treasurer, Boston, Massachusetts. A. Loudon Snowden, chief coiner, mint, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Seth W. Macy, collector, Newport, Rhode Island. Charles Anthony Oolector, Providence, Rhode Island. The following officers, in other branches of the service, answered the main questions affirmatively : W. D. Mann, assessor of internal revenue, Mobile, Alabama. John TVE. Oliver, assessor of internal revenue. Little Rock, Arkansas. John Edwards, assessor of internal revenue, Fort Smith, Arkansas. Alphonso 0. Crosby, assessor of internal revenue, Rockville, Connecticut. John B. Wright, assessor of internal revenue, Clinton, Connecticut. Samuel Wilson, assessor of internal revenue, Fernandina, Florida. John Bowles, assessor of internal revenue, Augusta, Florida. W. H. Watson, assessor of internal revenue, Atlanta, Greorgia. Dancan^Ferguson, assessor of internal revenue, Rockford, Illinois. Quincy D. Whitman, assessor of internal revenue, Ottawa, Ohio. Henry L. Bryant, assessor of internal revenue, Lewistown, Illinois. Jonathan Biggs, assessor of internal revenue, Salem, Illinois. William C. Kueffner, assessor of internal revenue, Belleville Illinois. Samuel H. Halmon, assessor of internal revenue, Tamaroa, Illinois. Joseph Gr. Bowman, assessor of internal revenue, Vincennes, Indiana. J. G. Harrison, assessor of internal revenue, New Albany, Indiana. Hageman Tripp, assessor of internal revenue. North Vernon, Indiana. Richard H. Swift, assessor of internal revenue, Brookville, Indiana. H. W. Shuman, assessor of internal revenue, Milton, Indiana. David Braden, assessor of internal revenue, Indianapolis, Indiana. David Turner, assessor of internal revenue, Crown Point, Indiana. George D. Copeland, assessor of internal revenue, Goshen, Indiana. George Meason, assessor of internal revenue, Muscatine, Iowa. Lucius L. Huntley, assessor of internal revenue, Dubuque, Iowa. John Council, assessor of internal revenue, Toledo, Iowa. William T. Ousley, assessor of internal revenue, Paducah, Kentucky. John S. McFarlaud, assessor of internal revenue, Owensboro', Kentucky. William M. Spencer, assessor of internal revenue, Lebanon, Kentucky. J. Crockett Sayers, assessor of internal revenue, Covington, Kentucky. James H. Veazie, assessor of internal revenue. Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Nathaniel J. Marshall, assessor of internal revenue, Portland, Maine. George P. Sewall, assessor of internal revenue, Oldtown, Maine. Thomas K. Carroll, assessor of internal revenue, Church Creek, Maryland. William E. W. Ross, assessor of internal revenue, Baltimore, Maryland. John Van Lear, assessor of internal revenue, Hagerstown, Maryland, William Willing, assessor of internal revenue, EUicott's City, Maryland. Charles G. Davis, assessor of internal revenue, Plymouth, Massachusetts. Otis Clapp, assessor of internal revenue, Boston, Massachusetts. Phineas J. Stone, assessor of internal revenue, Charlestown, Massachusetts. Alexander H. Morrison, assessor of internal revenue, St. Joseph, Michigan. G. Thompson Gridley, assessor of internal revenue, Jackson, Michigan. Westbrook Divine, assessor of internal revenue, Ionia, Michigan. Levi Bacon, jr., assessor of internal revenue, Pontiac, Michigan. Henry Raymond, assessor of internal revenue, Bay City Michigan. William McMicken, assessor of internal revenue, Mantonville, Minnesota. John H. Fox, assessor of internal revenue, DeSoto, Missouri. Joseph A. Hoy, assessor of internal revenue, LaGrange, Missouri. Mack J. Leaming, assessor of internal revenue, Pleasant Hill, Missouri. CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 95 Frederick Renner, assessor of internal revenue, Nebraska City, Nebraska. George M, Henning, assessor of internal revenue, Farmington, New Hampshire. Isaac W. Smith, assessor of internal revenue, Manchester, New Hampshire. Bolivar Lovell, assessor of internal revenue, Alstead, New Hampshire. Benjamin Acton, assessor of internal revenue, Salem, New Jersey. Robert Rusling, assessor of internal reveoue, Hackettstown New Jersey. Benjamin F. Robinson, assessor of internal revenue, Ridgewood, New Jersey. Robert B. Hathorn, assessor of internal revenue, Newark, New Jersey. William R. Cummings, acting assessor of internal revenue, Long Island City, New York. John Williams, assessor of internal revenue, Brooklyn, New York. Pierre C. Van Wyck, assessor of internal revenue. New York city, New York. David Miller, assessor of internal revenue. New York city. New York. John F. Cleveland, assessor of internal revenue. New York city. New York. Abraham Hyatt, assessor of iuternal revenue. Sing Sing, New York. James C. Curtis, assessor of internal revenue, Coshocton, New York. Benjamin Piatt Carpenter, assessor of internal revenue, Poughkeepsie, New York. Frederick Cooke, assessor of internal revenue, Catskill, New York. John G. Treadwell, assessor of internal revenue, Albany, New York. Philip N. Neher, assessor of internal revenue, Troy, New York. Uriah D. Meeker, assessor of internal revenue, Malone, New York. Alexander H. Palmer, assessor of internal revenue, Schenectady, New York. Nelson J. Beach, assessor of internal revenue, Watson, New York. Charles M. Dennison, assessor of internal revenue, Rome, New York. William H. Wheeler, assessor of internal revenue, Oswego, New York. William Candee, assessor of internal revenue, Syracuse, New York. Joseph W. Gates, assessor of internal revenue, Lyons, New York. Lewis Pesk, assessor of internal revenue, Phelps, New York. Curtis 0. Gardiner, assessor of internal revenue, Elmira, New York. James P. Murphy, assessor of internal revenue, Lockport, New York. James C. Strong, assessor of internal revenue, Buffalo, New York. Lewis Hall, assessor of internal revenue, Jamestown, New York, Robinson Piemorit, assessor of internal revenue, Elizabeth City, New York. Jeiinings Piggott, assessor of internal revenue, Wilson, North Carolina. William H. Worth, assessor of internal revenue, Fayetteville, North Carolina Solomon Pool, assessor of internal revenue. Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Jesse Wheeler, assessor of internal revenue, Greensboro, North Carolina. H. H. Helper, assessor of internal revenue, Salisbury, North Carolina. Joseph Hamilton, assessor of internal revenue, Hendersonville, North Caro- lina. . Obadiah.C. Maxwell, assessor of internal revenue, Dayton, Ohio. John T. Hogue, assessor of internal revenue, Xenia, Ohio. Milton W. Worden, assessor of internal revenue, Mansfield, Ohio. James Lewis, assessor of internal revenue, Bucyrus, Ohio. Melancthon W. Hubbell, assessor of internal revenue, Toledo, Ohio. Elias Nigh, assessor of internal revenue, Ironton, Ohio. George B. Arnold, assessor of internal revenue. Mount. Vernon, Ohio. John Sargent, assessor of internal revenue. New Philadelphia, Ohio. Anson G. McOook, assessor of internal revenue, Steubenville, Ohio. Charles A. Harrington, assessor of internal revenue, Warren, Ohio. John W. Frazier, assessor of internal revenue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Clifford S. Phillips, assessor of internal revenue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. William B. Elliot, assessor of internal revenue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Thomas H. Forsyth, assessor of internal revenue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Francis Z. Heebner, assessor of internal revenue, Allentown, Pennsylvania. 96 CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. J. Lee Englebert, assessor of internal revenue, West Chester, Pennsylvania. John B. Warfel, assessor of internal revenue, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. William Mutchler, assessor of internal revenue, Easton, Pennsylvania. William M Post, assessor of internal revenue, Susquehanna Depot, Pennsyl- vania. William McSherry, assessor of internal revenue, Littlestown, Pennsylvania, Robert H. Foster, assessor of internal revenue, Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. John B. Hays, assessor of internal revenue, Meadville, Pennsylvania. A. Gr. Booth, assessor of internal revenue, Brownsville, Pennsylvania. Daniel E. Nevin, assessor of internal revenue, Allegheny City, Pennsylvania. James B. Euple, assessor of internal revenue, Washington, Pennsylvania. Christopher W. Dudley, assessor of internal revenue, Bennettsville, South Carolina. John P. Holtsinger, assessor of internal revenue, Creenville, Tennessee. William T. Tune, assessor of internal revenue, Shelbyville, Tennessee. Joseph H. Travis, assessor of internal revenue, Paris, Tennessee. Halsey T. Cooper, assessor of internal revenue, Memphis, Tennessee. William C. Kittredge, assessor of internal revenue, Fairhaven, Vermont. Thomas E. Powers, assessor of internal revenue, Woodstock, Vermont. Henry C. Adams, assessor of internal revenue, St. Albans, Vermont. John H. Hudson, assessor of internal revenue, Richmond, Virginia. John M. Donn, assessor of internal revenue, Norfolk city, Virginia. Jacquelin M. Wood, assessor of internal revenue, Lynchburg, Virginia. John H. Freeman, assessor of internal revenue, Lexington, Virginia. William M. Fitzhugh, assessor of internal revenue, Fairfax Court-house, Vir- ginia. , George S. Smith, assessor of internal revenue, Marion, Virginia. Albert Gr. Leonard, assessor of internal revenue, Parkersburg, West Virginia. George B. Bingham, assessor of internal revenue, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Henry Harnden, assessor of internal revenue, Madison, Wisconsin. Smith S. Wilkinson, assessor of internal revenue, Prairie du Lac, Wisconsin. Jacob S. Bugh, assessor of internal revenue, Wautoma, Wisconsin. Lute A. Taylor, assessor of internal revenue, Prescott, Wisconsin. Henry A. Bigelow, assessor of internal revenue, Prescott," Arizona Ten-itnry. David M. Mills, assessor of internal revenue. Elk Point, Dakota Territory. Austin Savage, assessor of internal revenue, Boise City, Idaho Territory. Charles B. Andrews, assessor of internal revenue, Mobile, Alabama. William J. Patton, assessor of internal revenue, Little Rock, Arkansas. Henry A. Grant, assessor of internal revenue, Hartford, Connecticut. John Woodruff, assessor of internal revenue. New Haven, Connecticut. David F. Hollister, assessor of internal revenue, Bridgeport, Connecticut. W. A. Wilhaner, assessor of internal revenue, Fernandina, Florida. Alex. N. Wilson, assessor of internal revenue. Savannah, Georgia. Will. D. Bard, assessor of internal revenue, Augusta, Georgia. James Atkins, assessor of internal revenue, Atlanta, Georgia. Jackson Grinshaw, assessor of internal revenue, Quincy, Illinois. Charles M. Hammond, assessor of internal revenue, Joliet, Illinois. W. T, Cunningham, assessor of internal revenue, Danville, Illinois. David T. Little, assessor of internal revenue, Lincoln, Illinois. Leonard F. Ross, assessor of internal revenue, Avon, Illinois. Nathan M. Knapp, assessor of internal revenue, Winchester, Illinois. Willard 0. Flagg, assessor of internal revenue, Alton, Illinois. Benjamin F. Scribner, assessor of internal revenue. New Albany, Indiana. Smith Jones, assessor of internal revenue, Columbus, Indiana. Gillett V, Stevenson, assessor of internal revenue, Aurora, Indiana. William Grose, assessor of internal revenue, New Castle, Indiana, CIVIL SERVICE OP THE UNITED STATES, 97 Austin H. Brown, assessor of internal revenue, Indianapolis, Indiana. Norman Eddy, assessor of internal revenue. South Bend, Indiana. William W. Belknap, assessor of internal revenue, Keokuk, Iowa. David B. Henderson, assessor of internal revenue, Dubuque, Iowa. Alonzo J. Pope, assessor of internal revenue, Sigourney, Iowa. Thomas Moonlight, assessor of internal revenue, Leavenworth, Kansas. John E. Beckley, assessor of internal revenue, Shelbyville, Kentucky. Philip Speed, assessor of internal revenue, Louisville, Kentucky. James W. Hudnall, assessor of internal revenue, Covington, Kentucky. Robert M. Kelly, assessor of internal revenue, Lexington, Kentucky. William J. Landram, assessor of internal revenue, Lancaster, Kentucky. Fielder C. Barnes, assessor of internal revenue, Mt. Sterling, Kentucky. Nathaniel J. Miller, assessor of internal revenue, Portland, Maine. Peter F. Sanborn, assessor of internal revenue, Augusta, Maine. Jeremiah Penno, assessor of internal revenue, Bangor, Maine. David Howe, assessor of internal revenue, Lincolnville, Maine. William B. Smith, assessor of internal revenue, Easton, Maryland. James L Ridgely, assessor of internal revenue, Baltimore, Maryland. George W. Harrison, assessor of internal revenue, Camberlaud, Maryland. James Buffington, assessor of internal revenue. Fall River, Massachusetts. William H. McCartney, assessor of internal revenue, Boston, Massachusetts. John Sargent, assessor of internal revenue, Boston, Massachusetts. Nathaniel S. Howe, assessor of internal revenue, Haverhill, Massachusetts. John Nesmith, assessor of internal revenue, Lowell, Massachusetts. Augustus B. R. Spra^ ue, assessor of internal revenue, Worcester, Massachusetts. Daniel W. Alvord, assessor of internal revenue, Greenfield, Massachusetts. E. R. Tinker, assessor of internal revenue. North Adams, Massachusetts. Frederick W. Ourteniens, assessor of internal revenue, Kalamazoo, Michigan. Chauncey H. Millen, assessor of internal revenue, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Sluman S. Bailey, assessor of internal revenue, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Edwin G. Cook, assessor of internal revenue, Hazelhurst, Mississippi. Bernard Zwart, assessor of internal revenue, Ironton, Missouri. W. J. Chandler, assessor of internal revenue. Pleasant Hill, Missouri. Joseph E. Lanaster, assessor of internal revenue, Nebraska City, Nebraska. James M. Lovering, assessor of internal revenue, Exeter, New Hampshire. John Kimball, assessor of internal revenue, Concord, New Hampshire. Chester Pike, assessor of internal revenue, Cornish, New Hampshire. Elston Marsh, assessor of internal revenue, Plainfield, New Jersey. George F. Carman, assessor of internal revenue, Long Island City, New York. Alfred M. Wood, assessor of internal revenue, Brooklyn, New York. Maunsell B. Field, assessor of internal revenue. New York city. New York. Marshall B. Blake, assessor of internal revenue. New York city. New York. Thomas E. Smith, assessor of internal revenue. New York city. New York. John M. Mason, assessor of internal revenue, Yonkers, New York. Edward W. Budington, assessor of internal revenue, Kingston, New York. Theodore Townsend, assessor of internal revenue, Albany, New York. Asahel C. Geer, assessor of internal revenue, Troy, New York. Erasmus D. Brooks, assessor of internal revenue, Potsdam, New York. Allen 0. Churchill, assessor of internal revenue, Gloversville, New York. George W. Ernest, assessor of internal revenue, Cooperstown, New York. Laurence L. Merry, assessor of internal revenue, Ilion, New York. Ralph H. Avery, assessor of internal revenue, Canastota, New York. Silas P. Smith, assessor of internal revenue, Syracuse, New York. Adrian R. Root, assessor of internal revenue, Buffalo, New York. Charles W. Root, assessor of internal revenue, Fayetteville, North Carolina. H. Rep. Com. 47 7 98 CIVIL SEEVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. Jobn Crane, assessor of internal revenue, Greensboro, North Carolina. Samuel H. Wiley, assessor of internal revenue, Salisbury, North Carolina Ferdinand Van l)eweer, assessor of internal revenue, Hamilton, Ohio. William W. Wilson, assessor of internal revenue, Urbana, Ohio. B. Franklin Martin, assessor of internal revenue, Columbus, Ohio. Eugene Powell, assessor of internal revenue, Delaware, Ohio. George J. Anderson, assessor of internal revenue, Sandusky, Ohio. Harry Chase, assessor of internal revenue, Toledo, Ohio. John A. Hunter, assessor of internal revenue, Lancaster, Ohio. Albert A. Guthrie, assessor of internal revenue, Zanesville, Ohio. William P. Richardson, assessor of internal revenue. Marietta, Ohio. Kent Jarvis, assessor of internal revenue, Massillon, Ohio. Abraham B. Longaker, assessor of internal revenue, Norristown, Pennsylvania. William M. Swayne, assessor of internal revenue, West Chester, Pennsylvania. James A. Inness, assessor of internal revenue, Pottsville, Pennsylvania. Joseph P. Hetrick, assessor of internal revenue, Easton, Pennsylvania. Caleb E. Wright, assessor of internal revenue, Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania. Charles H. Shriner, assessor of internal revenue, Mifflinburg, Pennsylvania. William Penn Lloyd, assessor of internal revenue, Mechanicsburg, Pennsyl- vania. John W. Douglass, assessor of internal revenue, Erie, Pennsylvania. Peter M. Gough, assessor of internal revenue, Franklin, Pennsylvania. Fred E. Voltz, assessor of internal revenue, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. John M. Sulivan, assessor of internal revenue, Allegheny, Pennsylvania. W. D. Brayton, assessor of internal revenue, Warwick, Rhode Island. Fred. A. Sawyer, assessor of internal revenue, Charleston, South Carolina. Elijah Simerley, collector of internal revenue, Elizabethtown, Tennessee. James T. Abernathy, collector of internal revenue, Knoxville, Tennessee. Joseph Ramsey, collector of internal revenue, Shelbyville, Tennessee. Rolfe S. Saunders, collector of internal revenue, Memphis, Tennessee. George C. Tyler, assessor of internal revenue, Onancock, Virginia. Thomas L. Sanborn, assessor of internal revenue, Alexandria, Virginia. Geo. W. Brown, collector of internal revenue, Kingwood, West Virginia. John H. Oley, collector of internal revenue, Kanawha Court-house, West Virginia. G. Q. Erskine, collector of internal revenue, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. H. M. Lewis, collector of internal revenue, Madison, Wisconsin. J. H. Warren, collector of internal revenue, Albany, Wisconsin. J. C. Geer, collector of internal revenue, Boise City, Idaho. W T Otto, Assistant Secretary Department of Interior, Washington. Joseph H. Barrett, Commissioner of Pensions, Washington. John Potts, chief clerk War Department, Washington. A. B. Eaton, Commissary General of Subsistence of United States army, Washington. A. A. Humphreys, brigadier general engineers United States army, Washington. J. K. Barnes, Surgeon General of United States army, Washington. Jos. Smith, rear admiral United States navy, Washington, H. Bridge, Chief of Bureau of Provisions and Clothing in Navy Department, Washington. P. J. Horwitz, Chief of Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, Washington. John Lenthall, Chief of Bureau of Construction and Repair, Washington. B. F. Isherwood, Chief of Bureau of Steam Engineering, Washington. John B. L. Skinner, First Assistant Postmaster General United States, Wash- ington, D. C. George W. McLellan, Second Assistant Postmaster General United States, Washington, D. 0. CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES, 99 A. N. Zevely, Third Assistant Postmaster General Uaited States, Washing- ton, D. 0. ■ S. J. Bowen, postmaster, Washington, D. C. T. P. Robb, postmaster. Savannah, Georgia. Edward 0. David, postmaster, Dubuque, Iowa. Jno. J. Speed, postmaster, Louisville, Kentucky. Geo, Fuller, postmaster, Bangor, Maine. E. Schriver, postmaster, Baltimore, Maryland. W. L. Burt, postmaster, Boston, Massachusetts. Jno. R. Yarney, postmaster, Dover, New Hampshire. F. S. McNeely, postmaster, Trenton, New Jersey. Joseph Davis, postmaster, Albany, New York. A. Allen, postmaster, Troy, New York. A. Miller, postmaster, Ealeigh, North Carolina. H. H. Bingham, postmaster, Philadelpliia, Pennsylvania. J. J. Horn, postmaster, Easton, Pennsylvania. J. H. McClelland, postmaster, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Wm. Briner, postmaster, Reading, Pennsylvania. Robert C. Gist, postmaster, Memphis, Tennessee. 0. J. Rawling, postmaster, Wheeling, West Virginia. H. A. Starr, postmaster, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The following officers answer questions 33, 34, and 35, negatively : Jesse S. Ely, assessor of internal revenue, Norwich, Connecticut, Dudley Wickersham, assessor of internal revenue, Springfield, Illinois. Robert M. Tindall, assessor of internal revenue, Okolona, Mississippi. Benjamin C. Gunn, assessor of internal revenue, Utica, Michigan. George W. Fish, assessor of internal revenue, Flint, Michigan. William P. Tatem, assessor of internal revenue, Camden, New Jersey. William A. Halsey, .asse.Q chamber keeper chamber keeper office porters 6675 to 110 messenger to counsel for drawing bills for^arliament 100 £1, 200 1,000 800 600 300 600 300 300 150 400 300 150 200 150 200 190 26,000 * To be abolished when vacant and additions made to third class clerks. CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 16t H. — Treasury. Salaries. 1 first lord ^£5, 000 1 chancellor of the exchequer 5, 000 3 lords commissioners \ qoo 2 secretaries g qqq '17,000 13 7 1 1 5 1 assistant secretary . .minimum 1 auditor of ann'l list . do 4 principal clerks do 7 first-class clerks do second-class clerks.. do third-class clerks ... do accountant do assistant accountant. do supplementary elk's, 1st class do 5 supplementary elk's, 2d class do 8 supplementary elk's, 3d class 2 private secretaries to first lord 1 private secretary to chancellor 2 to secretaries 1 to ass't secretary 1 ofiice & house keeper 1 superintending mes- senger of first lord 24 do do do do do do do messengers do 662, 000 (after 5 years 2, 500) ^£2, 500 1,600 maximum 1,500 1, 000 ann'l inc'e 50 max'm 1, 200 ^4, SOO 700 350 100 500 350 400 250 100 300 300 150 150 200 220 85 do do do do do do do do do 25 20 15 20 15 to do do do do do 15 do 10 do 10 do do .. do .. do .. do 5 do do 900 6, 300 600 7, 800 250 800 800 500 500 500 350 200 300 300 150 150 250 220 150 500 92 50,000 APPENDIX I. FRENCH CIVIL SERVICE. A. — ON PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, BY EMILE DE GIRARDIN.* — POLITICAL EDUCA- TION. — FUNCTIONARIES. Public education should be established for the formation of statesmen by the study of history, living languages, public law, the interest of nations, and of all that can make them useful for public affairs. This would do away in empires with those ministers hastily ap- pointed by patronage who only exhibit to the public supposed talents and who reveal their duties only by their blunders. — Bacon. Considerations of classes and of fortunes — Government offices, puhlic func- tions, of whatever order, have been for a long time, as they probably still are, dis- pensed by patronage in the interests of partisan polities. This is a great evil, the eifect of which is felt in the very heart-life of the nation. When governments select their officers according to their political opinions • Since this disquisition was published by Mr. Girardin, the progress of reform in the French service has been remarkable. H. Rep. Com. 47 11 162 CIVIL SERVICE OP THE UNITED STATES. or to narrow family considerations, they demoralize the nation, they revolution- ize it, they increase the abuses, they squander the resources which are at their disposal, and are only temporarily sustained by arbitrary power or by corrup- tion. We hope that the day will come when the interest of the nations is no longer sacrificed to that of petty coteries, and when men of education and experience are no longer wanting in the public service. The number of capable officers is certainly not equal in France to that of offices. Diminish the number of offices and increase the number of good officers — this is the progress which we still have to make. There is a future for men who prepare themselves by serious studies for pub- lic functions. This future cannot be very remote, and we only suggest it to the children of wealthy parents, but it must come sooner or later, the periodical press and the parliamentary tribune affording two means to discriminate between the mass of writers and politicians who discuss public affairs without study and without experience. Aptitude should imply the following qualities : Comprehensiveness of ideas, soundness of judgment, a self-possessed mind, a firm will, conciliatory character, and high integrity. National instruction. — First and second degrees. Professional instruction. — All that refers to the professional instruction of young men destined for the public service is really provided for, but nothing is harmonious, nothing obligatory. Political economy, for instance, which all public functionaries ought to under- stand, is taught at the College de France and the Conservatoire des arts et metiers. In the same manner the divers branches of political and administra- tive science are taught, but in a different manner. They are nowhere united in one nucleus. They do not constitute a systematic and progressive method of instruction ; there is no royal school or special school of administration ; there is no faculty of economical, administrative, and political sciences where the youBg men destined for the public service can obtain their certificates of qualification and their degrees. Thus, while the faculties of letters, science, law, medicine, and theology, offer extended resources to the various professions and impose the safe check of examinations upon the public careers open to intelligent men, the administrative career is the only one to which access is open to the pretensions of ignorance and the presumption of incapacity. It is well known from whence come the lawyers, the physicians, the teachers, and by what studies they have prepared themselves for the exercise of their profession and what guarantees they were obliged to furnish to society before obtaining its confidence, but it is in vain to search the laws which have estab- lished these guarantees for regulations applicable to public administration, or, in other words, it is in vain to look side by side with the various seats of learning or a special civil service school, founded upon analogous bases and supported by the state. Such a serious want in our system of instruction has been recognized and signalized by the illustrious Cuvier, who agrees on this subject with Bacon, whose opinion we have quoted. On this occasion we may cite what has been stated* by a distinguished pro- fessor, Mr. Macarel, councillor of state, on the necessity of establishing at Paris a faculty of administrative and political sciences, or at least a special school : f Superior instruction is taught in France in five orders of faculties ; in the university of * Elements of Political Law. (Elements de Droit Politique, page 51 OJ t This note served for text to a letter addressed on December 24, 18'32, to the minister of public instruction, and ever since 1829 the same idea has been submitted to M. de Vatimesnil, who then officiated in the same capacity. CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 163 France, the laculties of law, medicine, letters, physical and mathematical sciences, and theology. The country is greatly benefited by these liberal institutions, but the University of France does not provide tor the teaching of political and administrative sciences. In some of the academies there are courses of lectures on administrative law ; formerly two courses of lec- tures on public economy were also given in Paris. But these lectures are evidently insuffi- cient to form the class of men who devote themselves to the difficult conduct of general inter- ests, and who are destined to occupy either the official posts in the various bureaus of the administration or the legislative chambers themselves. Such a separate institution seems to me necessary in France. It is probable that at some future day the country will be endowed with a faculty of polit- ical and administrative sciences, and that degrees, and consequently certificates of qualifi- cation, will then be expected to be possessed at least by those who fill, under the supreme direction of the ministers, the functions of members of councils of state, civil officers of all grades, and the offices of chiefs of bureaus of divisions, &c. The ministers will then have more enlightened auxiliaries. This sixth faculty might com- prise the following branches of instruction, namely: 1 . Natural law or moral philosophy. 2. International law. 3. Public, general, and positive law. 4. Political economy. 5. Statistics. 6. General administration. Courses of lectures on the following subjects might be given in connection with the same institution, namely, on administrative law cases, parliamentary eloquence, history of French public law, and comparative administration. These last-named subjects would crown, in a measure, for those who wish to study social science, the benefits conferred by the instruction of this sixth faculty. The period of instruction might extend over three years. The first year to be devoted to Batural law, (3 months;) to international law, (3 months ;) and to public law, (4 months.) The second year to political economy, (3 months ; ) statistics, (3 months ; ) and to the first rudiments of general administration, (6 months ) The third year to be altogether devoted to general administration, (10 months;) degrees would be confeiTed in this faculty according to the different grades of studies. For that ofbachelier the institution to be attended during two years, and the natural law, public law, and general administration to be studied. For that of ticenci6, three years of study will be required. Finally, the doctorate could not be obtained without having also attended the lectures on public law and comparative administration. Moreover, on leaving this faculty the young supernunieraries entering the public service might find in the special administration for which they are destined a special course on leg- islation, on the regulations and customs of the service in which they are employed ; this special instruction to be equal to that aiforded to the youthful eUms — engineers of mining and public works in their respective bureaus. Efficacious measures might be taken by government to that effect, and I have no doubt that each administrative branch could obtain an efficient special professor. In this manner the theoretical instruction on the most extended scale possible would be perfected for the French service. That of practical knowledge could be afterwards added thereto, and rectify by its actual applications erroneous or impracticable ideas. Thus the complete framework of tliis excellent system of instruction might be established upon the foregoing basis. In the University of France there are faculties which offer more extended means of instruc- tion. The faculty of sciences, for instance, comprises the instruction of aYithmetic, the various geometrical and mathematical sciences, algebra applied to geometry, differential and integral calculation, statics, mathematical science, astronomy, physical science, chemistry, and natural history. These are the vast studies intended for the formation of learned mathematicians and physicists. . „ . Is it not equally necessary to devise means for the creation of civil functionaries and statesmen? The science of government, is it not too much neglected ? Should it not be taught in all its bearings 1 Is it not possible to achieve this result successfully? The rapid progress of civilization seems to call for such a system of instruction. It would be honorable to France if she were to give the first example of systematic and perfect studies in that direction. In proportion that men are enlightened in regard to their individual rights, is it not neces- sary that the civil officers of the country should better understand the rights of society, of which they are the organs and defenders ? 164 CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. The periodical press is incessantly engaged in the discussion of principles. It is important for society that the doctrine really essential ibr its conservation, welfare, and perfection, should be taught publicly with the same incontestable authority which gene- rally attends the sworn interpreters of other sciences. It is easy, therefore, to anticipate the good which would result from the new creation which I invoke at present with all the force of my personal conviction. We fully agree with the foregoing views expressed by Mr. Macarel, and are .glad to join him in the task of speedily effecting the realiization of ideas which have received the imposing sanction of two men like Bacon and Cuvier. We will only refer on this occasion to the necessity of frequent rhetorical ■exercises. The bar has created for lawyers a species of monopoly of speechify- ing, which, in our electoral legislative assemblies, in our general and municipal councils, is often exercised iu an unfortunate inanner, detrimental to the men of ■specialities, of practical powers and experience, though these are more convers- ant with the routine of business than with rhetoric, and allow themselves to be too often intimidated by the pluck of lawyers in rushing into speech, by their coolness and the nonchalance in keeping the platform, and by their artfulness and talent in the manipulation of words. Hence the narrow lawyer-like spirit which is generally perceptible in our laws and strips them of all grandeur and all stability ; hence their meanness and weakness; hence a certain one-sided and deplorable tendency to discuss and regulate our greatest interests only from one point of view ; hence the barrenness of the representative system in France. In our opinion, an enlightened and far-seeing government could not too much encourage by all the means in its power the opening and the multiplication of courses of study of improvisation and of all exercises calculated to promote the art of public speaking. We have stated in our introductory the motives and the interests in behalf of which we demand that elementary education should cease to be the privilege of a few and become a duty for all. The same consid- eralious of the welfare of society lead us to wish that those who know how to read should also learn how to speak, so that the talent of expressingone's thoughts should cease to be a general difficulty and a professional privilege, and simply become a free and easy exercise of a faculty of the mind. Other not less important considerations also militate in favor of the prompt «stablishment of a faculty of economical administration and political sciences. Is it not one of the saddest spectacles to see all avenues of the public service encumbered with office-seekers without legitimate claims, and generally with no other rights than their pretensions ? The only rfficarAuus way to diminish their rtMnher, is it not, to subject them to severe tests nf examination and competi- tion 1 Public education, thoughtfully considered from an elevated point of view, presents the advantage of providing means of restraining and regulating the very ambitions which it stimulates. From the moment that all the resources of public education become manifest to statesmen of resolute will and powerful judgm.ent, a new era would be inaugurated in the hierarchy of society ; order would then take the place of the present deplorable chaos; the degree of educa- tion would then determine political right and administrative aptitudes, and place invincible obstacles in the way of exaggerated pretensions and improper appli- cations for office ; the speciality and variety of education would then maintain the balance between all professions ; for the sake of its own preservation, the government would then be made to understand that it must impose upon itself the imperious duty of employing only the most capable and educated men, who have proven themselves to be so in the examination and competition to which they have been successively subjected. The public functionaries will then be necessarily composed of the elite of the nation, and ambitious mediocri- ties will be, as a matter of course, excluded and consigned to obscurity by the mere force of their ignorance. Thus will the government be elevated by the CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES 165 respect due to its agents. It will then achieve what it njw fails to accomplish, namely : the government will govern and at length acquire that moral authority without which its precarious existence is ever jeopardized by the conflict of personal ambition. How many mediocrities, even incapacities, are there not who only covet public offices because they seem to be open to whomsoever feels inclined to take them, and because they may be secured all in one bound without any test of qualification. This access to them without preliminary studies, without trial, without guarantees, must necessarily encourage the most shallow preten- sions. Indeed there are not a few persons who, on seeing the candidates to the public service relieved from presenting any test of fitness, imagine that the law winks at these proceedings and that tests are not at all necessary. They will tell you that common sense is all that is required to become an efficient prefect, and that no special studies are needed; that administrative business consists only of constant intercourse with human nature, and that for its management nothing more is required than tact and prudence ; as regards the questions of facts and of material interests confided to the departmental administration, they will make very light of it, without entertaining the least doubt that several months of experience will be sufficient to initiate an intelligent and sagacious man into the management of all this public business. Uence.the predilections in favor of the old routine, the subjection to routine, the too frequent" inca- pability to deal with questions the examination of which would require a solid instruction ; hence, lastly, the little confidence in the application of the best-established principles of economical science and the prejudice which still prevails to such a gr(;at extent, against what is called theories, as if a theory worthy of that name were not the faithful embodiment and analysis oi facts, upon which all issues depend. It is not so in Germany. For a long time past political economy, or camer- alistics (science of administration and finance) have been taught everywhere by special professorships, and the faithful attendance to the same, tlie evidence of the Ixnowledge there acquired are demanded from all candidates to offices, in which such knowledge is required. These candidates are subjected to examinations. Their admission to or exclusion from the public service is dependent upon the more or less favorable result of the same, in the same manner which with us (in Prance) determines the fitness to enter the professions of the pedagogue, the lawyer, and the phy- sician. In France, on the contrary, administrative science is little regarded. Its detractors are all those who find it more convenient to neglect than to cultivate it. Hence the constant struggles imposed upon the government against so many preposterous office-seekers, who, strong in their sense of the immunity of the laws, hiipe to find the minister as little able to baffle their pretensions as the law itself. Those guarantees of instruction, morality and experience which the laws fail to impose upon the candidates, must be frequently demanded by the government whenever it fears that its confidence may be abused by incapable or faithless persons ; its interest as well as its duty require it to make up by severe vigilance for the remissness of the law, but the most vigilant minister is not always proof against mistakes. Responsible for the conduct of their agent, the ministers need, no doubt, much laiitude in their selections, but guarantees of qualification would not impose any imppdiment upon the freedom of selection, and certainly diminish ministerial responsibility by securing greater chances of infallibility for the secondary branches of the service. The imperial decree of December 26, 1S09, which regulates the instruction of auditors to the council of state, organized administrative grades. Forty auditors were attached to the different ministers ; ISO were distributed among the ministry of police ; the general direction of military reviews and of con- 166 CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. scription ; the administration of public works; of registry and domains; of asylums ; of waters and forests ; of the various taxes ; of victuals ; of the post ; of the lottery ; of powder ; the board of maritime seizures ; the board of mines ; the redeeming fund ; the prefecture of the department of the Seine, and the prefecture of voters. One hundred and sixty auditors thus received in the various special adminis- trations of Paris an instruction which fitted them to occupy, next to the super- numerary posts, more or less important situations in the different offices to which they had been attached. The youthful auxiliaries of the provincial administration passed, under the direction of the prefects, a regular apprenticeship. They were at the disposal of this magistrate who could appoint them to officiate provisionally, in the case of death, vacancy, leave of absence, or other legitimate causes, as sub-prefects of the provinces. They could be, at the same time, intrusted with the management of all litigious business. By the article 20 of this law, the fourth part of sub-prefectures that became vacant was to be allotted to auditors. In combining the plan proposed by Mr. Macarel with the stipulations of the decree of 1809, the organization of tests of qualification for the public service might be fully effected, and to perfect it some faculties of economical, adminis- trative, political, agricultural, industrial and commercial sciences should be established. B. — FORCES OF THE FRENCH SERVICE. The following are the principal members of the government : 1. The secretary of state and of the house of the Emperor. In the latter capacity he is charged with the administration of the civil list; of the domains and forests ; of the imperial palaces ; of the museums ; of the imperial manufactures ; of the libraries belonging to the crown ; the administra- tion of the private domain, and the direction of the imperial theatre of the opera. He is the highest dignitary of the house of the Emperor, and presents the decrees of nominations to public functionaries of the house of the Emperor and of the princes and princesses of the imperial family. As minister of state he has to attend to the relations between the government and the senate, the legislature and council of state; the correspondence of the Emperor with the different ministers ; the certification of the decrees nominating ministers, president of the senate and legislature, senators and members of the, council of state ; decrees convening and closing the senate and legislature, and all those decrees which do not specially belong to any other ministerial depart- ment ; the exclusive control over the official part of the Moniteur ; the service of the fine arts, of the imperial archives ; civil buildings and historical monuments. The ministry of the house of the Emperor consists in a general secretariate, with three divisions of, respectively, three and two bureaus ; and in a general administration of domains and forests, with four bureaus ; in a general direction of imperial museums, with a general director and intendent of fine arts ; in an administration of the effects of the Crown, (with a superintendent,) assisted by a chief of bureau, an inspector general and three adjoint inspectors, and in the imperial manufactories, [tevres, Gobelins, Beauvoir,) and under the charge of a director. The same ministry is further assisted by three committees, namely :' a com- mittee for litigious affairs, a permanent superior board for the investigation of affairs relating to the imperial theatre of the opera, and a board for the verifi- cation and sifting of the accounts of the administration of the imperial civil list. The ministry of state consists of a general secretariate, with four sections, namely : section of the secretariate and accounts, (with two bureaus ;) section of CIVIL SERyiCE OF THE UNITED STATES. 167 civil buildings, (two bureaus ;) section of fine arts, including schools of fine arts ; publication of works relating to the fine arts ; orders and compensations to artists ; section of the theatres, comprising theatres of Paris and the provinces ; imperial conservatory of music and declamation ; schools for music in the prov- inces ; compensations to authors and dramatic artists. Further, of the service of historical monuments, including the preservation of historical monuments and the distribution of credits granted to that effect to the general inspector attached to this service, and finally of the general direction of the archives of the empire, including three sections, viz., historical, administrative, and judiciary, in the per- sonal and disbursing branches of the secretariate. The ministry of state is also assisted by two committees, viz : a board of con- trol relating to the public works connected with the Louvre, and a special ser- vice to that effect, and a permanent board relating to historical monuments. 2. The minister of justice, or keeper of the seal, is charged with the organiza- tion and the superintendence of all parts of the judiciary. He is in constant cor- respondence with the solicitor general concerning all matters which are subject to the action or pertaining to the administration of the public ministry. He attends to the nomination of ministerial officers and superintends the organiza- tion of notaries. He draws up reports to the Emperor on all subjects relative to the administration of justice; on the demands of dispensation of age and parent- age in marriages ; on naturalization ; on the application for pardons and the commutation of penalties. He prosecutes in criminal cases and watches over the execution of verdicts. He promulgates the laws, and retains the original of the same. He has, finally, charge of the direction of the imperial printing establish- ment, and of the publication of the Journal des Savants. The ministry of justice consists of a general secretariate, with three bureaus ; of a direction of civil affairs and of the seal, with four bureaus ; of a direction of criminal cases and pardons, with three bureaus ; of a direction of accounts and pensions, with two bureaus. The minister is assisted by a council of administration, composed of directors, and presided over by the general secretary. The imperial printing establishment is administered by director, assisted by six chi,efs of the service : 1st, for the administrative ; 2d, for all concerning typography, lithography, &c. ; 3d, for the superintendence of the transmission of the Bulletin des Lois, and of all publications and works of the imperial print- ing establishment; 4th, for accounts and comptrol; 5th, for accountability in raw material and in money; and 6th, for the superintendence of the interior service of the establishment. The director is assisted by a committee for the examination of those works of which a gratuitous publication is demanded. 3. The minister of foreign affairs is charged with all that regards relations with foreign countries. He negotiates treaties of alliance and commerce, and attends to their execution ; he is in correspondence with diplomatic and con- sular agents, and is in intercourse with the foreign agents accredited near the emperor. This ministry consists of — A. Bureau of protocol for the despatch of treaties or conventions, &c. B. Direction of political affairs, divided into a sub-direction for the north and for America, and a sub-direction for the south and the Orient, charged with the correspondence and business relating to the respective countries in the respect- ive divisions; and a sub-direction of litigious business, i. e., claims of French- men against foreign governments, and vice versa. C. Direction of consulates and commercial affairs, divided into sub-directions for the north, for the south and the Orient, and a bureau for America and the Indies. D. Direction of the archives and the chancellary, consisting of a depot of cor- 168 CIVIL SEEVICE OP THE UNITEI) STATES respondenceand diplomatic documents, and of a bureau of passport; legalizations, viz., as of claims of individual citizens against foreign governments. B. Direction of the funds and accounts allowed to general and particular business relating to the expenditures of the ministry. 4. The minister of the interior has under his control the bureau of prefects, sub-prefects, councillors, of prefects, and mayors. He superintends the execution of the laws relative to electoral assemblies and national guards, the general administration of the provinces and communes, of hospitals, charitable institutions, and the distribution of relief to the poor; the prisons, central police stations and penitentiaries, the telegraphic wires, and all that relates to public safety. The printing establishment, the library, the censure oiSce, and that of colportage are annexed to his ministry. The ministry of the interior consists of — A. The office of the minister, with two bureaus. B. General secretariate, with three bureaus. C. Division of general and departmental administration, with three bureaus. D. Division of commercial and hospital administration, with four bureaus. E. Division of prisons and penitentiaries, with three bureaus. F. Two divisions of general direction of public safety, with, respectively, four and two bureaus. G. Two divisions of telegraphic service, with, respectively, two and three bureaus. H. Direction of accounts, with four bureaus. 5. Ministry of finance, (Treasury,) charged with the administration of the national resources, namely, public revenues proceeding from direct and indirect duties and taxes, from domains, forests, tobacco, post, and all monopolies, (regies,) and enterprises which yield an income to the treasury. The finance minister pays all public expenditures decreed by the different ministers, in accordance with legislative appropriations, inscription on the rentes, (public securities,) pensions, and moneys serving as securities, the debts of the state, and all transactions of the treasury. He superintends the public treasuries and responsible account- ants, all matters rela^ng to the receipt and the appropriation of public moneys, talies proceedings against the bondsmen of reponsible accountants and against the debtors of the treasury, and verifies the coinage and fineness of money. Besides, he is bound to submit the general budget to the legislative body, and to attend to the definitive settlement of the public accounts. The ministry of finance is divided into two distinct parts : firstly, the central administration ; and, secondly, the. administrations which are under its control. First. The central administration consists of — A. The minister's office and inspector general's office, with one bureau each, respectively. B. General secretariate, with two divisions, namely, central bureau with two bureaus, accounts of the ministers' expenses, &c., &c., and financial administra- tion, with two bureaus, domains, forests, direct taxes and mints, custom-houses, indirect taxes, tobacco and mints. 0. Law officer of the treasury, attending to all litigation connected with the treasury, with three bureaus, and having sub-law offices in every principal division of the treasury. D. Direction of the general distribution of public expenditures of home and foreign service, with four bureaus. E. Direction of the inscribed public debt, with five bureaus. F. Direction of the general comptrol of the finance department, with five bureaus. G. Treasurer's office, with two bureaus. H. Division of central comptrol of the daily receipts and expenditures of the treasury, three sections. CIVIL SEEyiCE OF THE UNITED STATES. 169 Secondly. The administrations under the control of the treasury — A. General direction of direct taxes, with two divisions and, respectively, two and one bureaus. B. General direction of registry and domains, with two bureaus, containing the director general's office and the office of litigious cases, and four divisions, consisting each of four bureaus. C. General direction of customs and indirect taxes, consisting of the following three bureaus, namely, customs, indirect taxation, and direct taxation, and of six divisions : 1st division, (three bureaus.) Customs tariff; colonial and transatlantic, and commercial and merchants' navy statistics. , 2d division, (4 bureaus ) Land boundaries ; ports and coasts ; other limits; gen- eral liquidation and regulation of the expenditure of. the general direction. 3d division, (three bureaus.) Seizures and inspection of the custom-house laws; premiums on exports; general estimate of salt production, and fisheries. 4th division, (four bureaus.) Administration of laws regulating drinks and public carriages; direction of indirect taxation in 33 departments, (provinces;) direction of indirect taxation in 27 departments, (provinces) — the other depart- ments included in the custom-house service ; legal documents relating to seizures and other litigious business. 6th division, (three bureaus.) Navigation on rivers, streams and canals; tariff and regulation of towns' dues, pension-list and bonds of all custom-house and indirect revenue officers. 6th division, (tobacco and powder — in four bureaus.) Direction of the service iu the stores and manufactories of tobacco, culture of tobacco in France and Algeria, distribution of tobacco (in leaves) among the manufactories, and orders and distribution of powder, comptrol regarding tobacco a«d powder. D. General direction of the post, (two bureaus,) namely : director general's office, and two divisions, namely, first division, (six bureaus and archives,) home correspondence, foreign correspondence, inspection and reclamations, franking privileges, infractions, verification of revenue, dead letters, &c. Second division, (five bureaus.) Establishment and suspension of relay sta- tions, (diligences,) transmission of despatches, budget, accounts, printed and various other matter, articles of money. Active service, (six bureaus.) Arrival and departure of mails, distribution of letters in Paris, prepaid and registered letters, prepaid and registered journals and printed matter, poste restante letters, dead letters, and misaddressed letters. E. General direction of forests, in three divisions : First division, (two bureaus.) Budgets, accounts, works of improvements in regard to forests, purchase of leal estate. Second division, (two bureaus.) Clearing of forests, laws regarding forests, examination of general and particular functions. Third division, (two bureaus.) Civil matters, questions of deportment and of menial service, police matters, appeals, &c., &c. F. Board of merits and medals, consisting of a president and ten members, with the function to comptrol and superintend the coinage of moneys and medals in every part of France, and assisted by verifiers, assayers and engravers. 6. Ministry of war, intrusted with the defence of the state, recruiting and organization of the land forces, administration of arsenals and manufactories of tire-arms, and of powder and saltpetre ; provisions for the men and the horses ; clothing of the troops ; mounting of the cavalry ; quartermaster's depart- ment ; military equipages. These are among the principal and most important functions of the minister of war. Besides, he is charged with the preservation of the archives, the civil status of the army, &c., and the high administration of Algeria. The minister's office consists of the service of despatches, particular and secret 170 CIVIL SERVICE OP THE UNITED STATES business, aud business that does not come within the duties of any special bureau. The ministry is composed of — A. First directoriat, five bureaus ; general correspondence and military oper- ations ; staffs ; military schools ; recruiting and military justice ; infantry. (Special direction of cavalry and police force, two bureaus.) B. Second directoriat — (artillery, two bureaus.) C. Third directoriat — (engineer corps, two bureaus.) D. Fourth directoriat administration — ffive bureaus.) Military intendance, transports, quartermasters ; military provisions, fuel ; medical officers, military hospitals, invalids ; equipment, encimpmeat, harnesses ; pay; accounts. E. Fifth direction, Algerian affairs, (four bureaus.) General and municipal administration ; colonization and domains ; public works, mines, forests, diverse taxes ; commerce, customs. F. Sixth direction, war office, (two sections.) Geodesy, topography, draw- ing and engraving, historical archives, libraries, charts and plans. G. Seventh directioUj general accounts, (five bureaus.) Control of expen- diture, litigation, budgets, funds, decrees, general accounts, subject-matter of accounts, pensions, relief, laws, archives, decorations. The minister of war is assisted by seven consultation committees, namely : 1, staffs ; 2, infantry ; 3, cavalry ; 4, police force ; 5, artillery ; 6, fortifica- tion, and 7. Algeria ; and further, by a board of health for the armies, by a board of health for the horses, {hygiene hippique,) and by a mixed board for public works. The following public offices are also under the control of the minister of war, namely: The central depot of artillery; the powders and saltpetres; and the Imperial Hospital of the Invalides. 7. Ministry of the navy and the colonies comprises the personal and mate- rial forces of the imperial navy, the impressment for the naval service, the direc- tion of commercial navigation and maritime fisheries, maritime tribunals, naval constructions, arsenals, iron works, forges and worksteads of the marine hos- pitals, the support of naval ports, the administration and the superintend- ence of the convict establishment, the establishment for invalid naval officers, the military, civil and judiciary administration of the colonies. The ministry cons'sts of — A. The minister's office, (two bureaus.) B. Directoriat of the personal forces, (six bureaus.) Military and civil employes ; organized corps of the department of the marine ; impressment for the naval service ; superintendence of navigation ; fisheries and maritime public domain, maritime justice, pay and compensations of all kind, C. Directoriat of the material forces, (four bureaus.) Naval construction and hydraulic works, stock of artillery in the arsenals and on board of men-of-war, general arrangements, provisions, hospitals, &c. D. Directoriat of the colonies, (three bureaus.) Political and commercial system, legislation, justice, education, religion, civil, judiciary, ecclesiastical and military officers, finance, and supplies of provisions. E. Directoriat of general accounts, (five bureaus.) F. Treasury of the invalids of the maritime service, (three bureaus.) The minister of the navy is assisted by — 1st. A board for seizures, (prizes.) 2d. A consultation committee for the colonies. 3d. A committee of surveillance of colonial banks. 4th. A superior commission for the treasury of the invalids of the maritime service, and 5th. A superior commission for the improvement of the system of training in the imperial naval school. CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 171 The following public offices are also under the control of the minister of the navy : The general depot of maps and plans of the navy and the colonies, and the depot of fortifications of the colonies. 8. Ministry of public education and of religion — In the former capacity the minister controls the whole educational system, the chief administration of superior, secondary and primary public schools, and of scientific and literary insti- tutions, and has the surveillance of all institutions in France in which instruction is gratuitous. As minister of religion he attends to the execution of the laws connected therewith ; he publishes the bulls, pastoral letters, and rescripts of the Holy See ; he proposes to the Emperor nominations for archbishoprics and bishoprics, for the canons of St. Denis, and he submits for the Emperor's approval the nominations made by the bishops, as well as by the ministers, pastors, and rabbis ; he regulates the boundaries of parishes, congregations, and synagogues ; he provides for the temporary administration of diaconal establishments, authorizes the acceptance of donations made to religious bodies, attends to the preservation of religious buildings, and, finally, extends his surveillance over religious con- gregations. A. The ministry consists of the secretariat of the ministry of education and religion, with three bureaus, namely : subscriptions, missions, historical labors, scientific bodies, literary and scientific institutions, public libraries, proceedings of the superior council ; archives. The academical administration and that of superior education is divided into three divisions: first, with two bureaus, academical administration; personal forces of superior education ; second division, two bureaus, secondary schools ; third division, two bureaus, primary schools. B. The generwl directorate of the administration of religion is divided into : 1st division, (Catholic denomination,) two bureaus, clergy and ecclesiastical police, parish service, litigating religious congregations ; 2d division, (Catholic denom- ination,) two bureaus, temporary administration of diocenal establishment, pres- ervation of religious buildings. Section of non-Catholic denomination, personal forces, organization and limits of congregational duties, oratorios and synagogues. C. Division of central accountability, (three bureaus ) The imperial council of public education, presided by the minister, is called upon to give its advice on all questions interesting to education. He also decides, in last appeal, on the verdict of the academical councils according to the 16th article of the Statute of March 15, 1850. The ministry is attended by, first, a central com- mittee of patrons of public asylums ; second, a committee of the French lan- guages, history, arts, divided into three sections, namely : philology, history, archaeology ; third, a commission of the fine arts and religious buildings, divided into three sections, namely : architecture and sculpture, painted glass and reli- gious ornaments, organs and sacred music. 9. Minister of agriculture, commerce and public works. — In regard to agriculture the minister has to attend to the improvement of agricultural labor, to the administration and the instruction in the various agricultural and veteri- nary schools, to the preparation of laws and regulations relating to agriculture, to the distribution of relief for losses proceeding from disastrous accidents and cattle diseases, to the study and the application of legislation to the question of food. In regard to commerce, he prepares the laws and regulations concerning the domestic commerce, the industrial arts and manufactures ; he controls the industrial schools, pension and savings banks, insurance companies, anonymous societies, the sanitary police, and that of weights and measures. Besides he is charged with the preparation of tariffs and custom-house laws, of the centrali- zation and publication of documents relating to the commercial and maritime 172 CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES legislation of foreign countries, as well as all matters pertaining to the general movement of commerce and navigation. As regards public works, be attends to the preservation and improvement of liver, steam and canal navigation, of the great means of inter-communication, as railways, high roads, bridges, pontoons and ships. Further, he attends to tiie exploration and concession of mines, the administration of metallurgical work- steads and the construction of light-houses. This department also comprises the service of harnasses and the general sta- tistics of France. The ministry is composed as follows : General secretariat, (one bureau.) Division for personal forces, (two bureaus,) nominations, promotions and changes, expenses, indemnities, relief, pensions, litigation. Division of accounts, (three bureaus,) central operations and decrees, accounts relating to agriculture and commerce, to bridges, high roads and mines. Depot of maps and plans, (archives,) presided over by an engineer. Bureau of the general statistics of France: centralization, elaboration and pub- lication of the documents relating to the continuation of the general statistics of France. Division of agriculture, (three bureaus,) agriculture and veterinary instruction, encouragements to agriculture and relief, legislation relative to provisions. Division of stables, (one bureau,) administration of the stables and depot of spurs, encouragement to hyppic industry, (relating to horses.) Division of interior commerce, (three bureaus,) preparation of laws and regu- lations relative to interior commerce, authorization of anonymous societies, life insurances, &c., industrial arts and manufactures, sanitary and industrial police. Division of foreign commerce, (three bureaus,) legislation and custom-house tariifs in France, commercial legislation and tariffs in foreign countries, general movement of commerce and navigation. General directorat of bridges and high roads and railways. Section of high roads and bridges, division of high roads and bridges, (two bureaus,) imperial high roads, departmental high roads, police of traffic. Division of navigation, (two bureaus,) naval ports, navigable canals, navigable rivers and accessible to fleets. Hydraulic bureau, water. courses, and various studies. Section of railways, (two bureaus,) projects and concessions, works. Section of railways, in exploration, (two bureaus,) commercial exploration, technical exploration, central statistical railway bureau, collection of statistics of engineers, inspectors and companies. Mines, included in the general secretariat. Division of mines and worksteads, (two bureaus.) Bureau of mineralogical statistics. The ministry is assisted by, first, a superior council of commerce and agri- culture and industry ; second, a general council of agriculture ; third, a com- mission of registry of matriculation for the inscription of animals of pure race and of the bovine species ; fourth, a commission for a bank for old people ; fifth, a consultation committee on the public sanitary condition in France; sixth, a commission of stables ; seventh, a central commission of races ; eighth, a consultation committee on arts and manufactures; and 11 more committees, altogether 19. The ministry also controls a great number of imperial schools, &c., &c., &c. The total number of persons more or less connected with the public service in France are estimated at about 250,000, exclusive of the army and the navy. Indeed the number is so great that, although a law passed in 1849 made it incumbent upon the government to render an account of all the persons employed, this law has not been acted upon, the government declaring that to CIVIL SEEVICE OF THE UNITED STATES, 173 cany it out would require the publication of at least 50 quarto volumes of 600 pages each, and entail an expenditure of upwards of 500,000 francs. The following list gives a tabular statement of these 250,000 persons. Under the control of the minister of finance are : Revenue assessors 1, OOO Revenue collectors 7, 700 Eegistry and stamps 3, fioO Forests 3, 400 Customs 30, 000 Indirect taxes IS, 000 Postal service 17 oOO Mint '200 Court of accounts 100 Bureaus of the ministry of finance 2, 000 83, 000 Bureaus of the ministry of justice 100 Bureaus of the public instruction ] 60 Bureaus of religious instruction 60 Bureaus of the navy 250 Bureaus of war 460 1, 020 Bureaus of the interior 230 Bureaus of commerce and agriculture 140 Bureaus of public works 150 Bureau of foreign affairs 90 Under the control of foreign affairs, viz : diplomatic and con- sular agents 310 400 Agents employed in the navy and arsenals 6, 000 Agents employed in the army 6,000 12, 000 Commercial and departmental organization : 86 prefects, 7 secreta- ries genera], 278 sub-prefects, 329 counsellors of prefecture, 4,000 ■ mayors 4, 700 Public works 2,700 Surveyors and naval officers 101 Inspectors of rivers and navigation 17 Agents of agricultural and industrial establishments 700 Ministers of religion, Roman Catholic 40, 800 Protestant 755 Hebrew 114 41,669 Judiciary 14, 872 Justices of the peace 2, 847 Deputies of justices of the peace 5, 694 8,541 Education, viz : professors, teachers, &c., not including the special administrative schools 40, 000 210,300 Sundries, of which no official estimate is accessible, about 39, 700 250, 000 174 CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. C. — GENERAL PKINCIPLES RESPECTING ADMISSION TO THE FRENCH CIVIL SERVICE. The special schools are most fertile in supplying the state with able public officers. These are the various polytechnic and military academies ; the naval acad- emy; the normal school, for teachers; the school of forests; of charts; of foreign languages (called ecoledes jeunes de langues, school of languages for the young, because boys from S to 12 years are admitted there, languages being more easily learned at this early than at a more mature age ; ) the veterinary school, &c. In most of the branches of the revenue, customs, and treasury services, the candidates are subjected to repeated examinations, In many of the branches of the public service candidates must possess diplo- mas attesting to their proficiency in law or in literature. The probationary system exists in many branches of the service, to which young men are, as it were, put in apprenticeship under the name of pupils, auditors, supernumeraries, attached, aspirants, or auxiliaries. The word "pupil " (elivej is employed in the consular, telegraph, and sur- gical service. That of auditor is applied to the young men attached to the council of state; in the central and treasury bureaus the probationers are styled supernumerarie.=i, and aspirants to the supernumeraryship. In the ministry of interior they are called attaches, as well as in the ministry of foreign affairs and in the foreign legations. In the bureaus of public works, in the sanitary bureau, and in various branches of the war and army department, the probationers are called auxiliaries. In some cases these titles do not imply the possibility of promotion, but generally they do, and in almost all cases it would be next to impossible to obtain an office without having served in one or the other proba- tionary capacity. Those who prove to lack in zeal or in capacity are dismissed. If not dismissed after three months in the postal service, after two years in the department of the interior and the direct revenue bureaus, and after six months in the bureaus of public works, the respective probationers are sure t« be appointed to some permanent office. In other branches of the public ser- vice the term of probation varies according to circumstances, and in all cases it is subordinate to the relative merits of the candidates, and the number of vaca- tions of which they have availed themselves. In the navy department no person is admitted to the bureaus of the minister who has not been previously employed three years in some other branch of the department. Persons who have been employed seven years in the civil service, or whose office happens to have been abolished, may be appointed collectors of revenue without servino- as supernumerary in that branch of the service. The system, however, of examination and competition is only fully perfected in those branches of the service which are recruited from the special schools and comprising the army, the navy, and several kindred avocations, and the educa- tional bureaus. Although the admission to other branches of the services is hemmed in by various regluations, comprising probation and examination, they cannot be expected to attain the same perfection as in the military, naval, and pedagogical service, until a special school exists for each principal branch of the public service; and candidates for the treasury, interior, and judiciary and other departments are recruited from those that have been disciplined in special schools, whose aptitude for the service has been sedulously developed from their earliest infancy. Singular anomalies continue to exist ; so-called diplomats, for instance, may be appointed to important foreign missions without having passed through the ordeal of examination, or having given the evidence of possessing the first CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 175 essentials of a q^ualificatiou for their important duties, whicli they do not hesi- tate to exercise. The same applies to some extent to the magistrature and the judiciary. The consular service is better perfected, the system of consular pupils having been in successful operation since the times of Louis XIV. The diplomatic service, on the other hand, is altogether chaotic, and the transfer of young attaches to the ministry of foreign affairs and attach^ships of legations seems to be discretionary with the minister, and hence objectionable. Napoleon I charged the Count de Ilauterive with the elaboration of an appropriate system for the diplomatic service, but nothing came of it. Polignac in 1830 established in the ministry of foreign affairs a course of public law and diplomatic instruc- tions, destined for 24 pupils, but the July revolution crushed this establish- ment in its bud, and nothing has been done about it since. It will be difficult, of course, to establish special schools for each separate branch of the public service; but no doubt that M. de Girardin's ideas on the subject, namely, the establishment of new professorships for teaching the princi- pal branches of the public services, are entitled to serious consideration. _ Promotions can take place in all the ministries after two years, excepting in those of the interior and public instruction, when employes may be promoted after one year's service. The mode of promotion varies in the different depart- ments. The general rule is not to make any nominations, excepting among the titularies of the grade or the class immediately inferior to the vacant office. This rule is strictly adopted in the army, the public works and mines, the con- sulates, the university, and in the financial administration and the central war department, in the ministries of foreign affairs, of justice, of religion, of the navy ; only a portion of the intermediate offices of writers, chief clerks, subchiefs, is reserved for the purpose of promotion. No rule has been laid down for the still higher offices. In the war depart- ment the mode of promotion is defined by stringent regulations, from the smallest office up to the chiefs of bureau. In the ministries of the interior, of commerce, and of public instruction, the offices are accessible to all the functionaries without distinction, only that measures are taken to prevent promotion from being too rapid. But the nominating power uses discretionary power in the conditions upon which promotion is contingent. The deputy inspector general of finance must have made two tours of inspection. The employes of the direct revenue bureau are called upon to execute certain labors for the central administration. Exam- ination is resorted to for the inferior treasury and war office employes who still occupy probational positions. When there is no examination the interme- diate chiefs of tne respective bureaus are called upon to render accounts, at stated periods, of the capacity of their subordinates. Promotion is dependent, therefore, in some cases, upon probation ; in others upon examination; and in others upon the report of superior officers. However, in the army, in the public works, in the mining department, the university and the financial bureaus, the various offices are reserved only for those who have commenced to serve from the lowest grade. Special examinations are held for verifiers of weights and measures and for several other public servants ; and, on the whole, there are few persons occupy- ing publicoffices in France, excepting the diplomatic service, who have not proven their competence by probation or by examination or by authoritative testimo- The members of the clergy, of the magistration, of the army, and of the diplo- matic service, must be native-born Frenchmen. In the other branches of the public service, the government may admit those who have declared their inten- tion of becoming naturalized citizens. 176 CIVIL SERVICE OP THE UNITED STATES. The most stringent inquiries are made into tLe integrity, good morals, and upright character of the candidates for the public service. Women are only employed in the postal service, and, strange to say, are not allowed to occupy posts the salary of which exceeds 2,000 francs annually. They may be also employed in the stamp and printing bureaus, but rather as mechanics thau as functionaries. As regards opening the civil service to competent women. France is decidedly far behind the United States, superior as she is to this country in all the other principles regulating the civil service. APPENDIX K. EXTRACTS FROM HOUSE REPORT No. 8, 39th CONGRESS, 2d SESSION. From the testimony of Abraham Wakeman, surveyor of customs for the port of New York : The duty of an inspector of customs is one of the most important that can be assigned to the revenue officers. In the port they have charge of the landing of all the goods on board a vessel, comparing the cargo with the permits and the manifest, and therefore it requires a good deal of judgment and care and precision in the performance of this duty; and so much depends on it that I have been anxious that the grade of inspectors should be increased rather than diminished. I am sony to say that many of our new incumbents are not quite up to what I should desire. We have had a list of very excellent officers, indeed. Their great experience and general faithfulness has enabled me to perform the duties of this part of the service with great success. Question. How do you account for the fact that the new appointments are not up to the proper standard 1 Answer. No man can come into the office of an inspector without experience and perform the duty well at once. It requires time to become acquainted with his duties ; it requires time to learn the manner of performing the service, and experience is a great thing in it, to say nothing of the business tact and management that are essential. Q. Then why do you change from experienced to inexperienced men ? A. I do not change. The changes are made, I suppose, on personal grounds by the col- lector. A collector coming into office has his own friends to serve ; he has his own friends to put into place, and he feels that they must, to some extent, be provided for. Changes, therefore, have been made to a considerable extent. Q. What effect would it have upon the public service if officers of this class were appointed for qualifications only, to be ascertained by personal examination, and by their previous conduct and character? A. I am unhesitatingly of the opinion that, if it could be done, it would be a very advan- tageous arrangement for the public service. Q. Would it not be an improvement, also, to have a term of office, or have the tenure of office more certain and fixed than it is now ? A. Unquestionably. Q. Would it not also promote the service to have promotions made for merit ! A. Undoubtedly so. And I should say, in this connection, that those persons who are nominated by the collector for appointment to the Secretary of the Treasury are, by the reg- ulations, required to be examined by the head of the department in which they are to serve. For example, if they are inspectors, Jt is necessary, before they are nominated —that is the phraseology of the regulation, but it is not carried out — they should be sent to my depart- ment to be examined. The practice is, that before a man enters upon his duty as inspector, he is sent- down to my department to be examined as to his qualifications. In several instances, in quite a number recently, I have rejected men who were incompetent. The difficulty is that — I think more through inattention than anything else — these nominations are made to the Secretary of the Treasury, and the men are appointed and come down to my office to take their place and be assigned to duty before they are examined. I am asked to examine a man and the next minute to put him on duty, and frequently that has involved trouble ; but I have not hesitated to reject a man where I found I could not conscientiously pass him. We have had repeated cases of that within the last few months. Extract from the testimony of J. H. Stedwell, deputy collector of customs at New York : I believe that the efficiency of the entire revenue service would be increased by making the tenure of office dependent entirely upon the good behavior of the incumbent, and not CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 177 upon the caprice or political opinion of the appointingr power. I say that from my observa- tion of the comparative efficiency of tried and experienced officers to the new officers who are sent in — sent in, many of them, for political reasons — who feel that their office is more dependent on their political fidelity and services than upon their clerical ability.. Question. And that applies as strongly to the officers in your division, under your charge, as to any in the department? Answer. It is a rule of general application, I think. Extract of a letter addressed to the Secretary of the Treasury, April 19, 1864, by the Commissioner of Customs, proposing a plan for the prevention and sup- pression of smuggling : I hold it to be sound policy for a government, as well as individuals, to pjiy such prices as will command the services of competent, faithful, and conscientious men, and then to exact of them the most rigid performance of their duties. It is the experience of every business man that he who will not pay well will not be served well, and the rule is quite as applicable to governments as to individuals. In many instances heretofore men have been employed at small salaries, or per diem, with the understanding that their whole time would not be required, and that they might, when unemployed, attend to their own private affairs. In such cases it generally happens that the government comes in for but a small share of their time, and is served with such indifference and carelessness as to render the service little better than none at all. But the government has been victimized in times past by another most reprehensible, not to say fraudulent, practice. It is known that men have been appointed as custom-honse inspectors, at compensations varying from |1 50 to $2 50 or $3 a day, who were never required to perform a single day's service, and whose only attendance at the custom-house was for the purpose of receiving and receipting for their pay. Such appointments were made as rewards for past or expected political labors or influence, and were so understood by the appointees, who felt under no obligations, not even a moral one, to render any service to the government whose money their consciences did not forbid them to take. What the political morality of a community must be where such frauds can be practiced upon the government without calling forth a burst of popular censure and remonstrance I need not attempt to describe. Men thus appointed, and thus perpetrating a continuous fraud upon their country, could hardly be expected to exhibit any very extraordinaiy indignation should some one, desirous to evade the revenue laws, chance to tempt them with money to favor such evasions. One of the obstacles in the way of bringing these custom-house employes to a proper sense of what is due from them to the government has been the idea that they were appointed to their positions in consequence, and perhaps in payment, of services rendered to the party having possession of the government, or of some friend to whose political influence they con- ceive themselves indebted for their positions, and who they imagine can alone displace them. I need not say that such ideas, the natural product of practices in which they have their origin, are calculated to paralyze the public service and destroy its efficiency. ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION OP THE REVENUE SYSTEM. Under the terms of the act authorizing the commission they were required to consider the best and most efficient mode of raising the revenue, and were intrusted with power to "inquire into the manner and efficiency of the present and past methods of collecting the internal revenue." In accordance with this provision the commission have devoted as much time as was at their command to the consideration of the above subject. It must be obvious, in the outset, that however perfect may be the system of revenue law devised, unless an efficient and judicious administration of the same is also provided for, the results will be anything but satisfactory. As the case now stands, there can hardly be said to be any general and efficient organiza- tion of that department of the revenue which relates to the customs. The system devised in the infancy of the nation has been gradually enlarged and modified to meet the requirements of an increasing and now enormous commerce ; but so imperfectly and irregularly has this been done that the whole system at present seems wanting in method and centralization ; and the government, in this department of its business, is obliged, as it were, to do the work of a giant with the toy instruments of a child. The commission believe, furthermore, that there is not, at this time, any individual connected with this branch of the revenue who pos- sesses such an acquaintance with the relations oj our customs system to the trade and com- merce of the country as is possessed by the supervising official of the customs departments of either Great Britain or France ; and, what is more, there probably never will be any such so long as appointment and continuance in office are made dependent on political considera- tions. H. Rep. Com. 47 12 178 CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. As regards the New York custom-house, the channel through which about two-thirds of the custom receipts of the whole country pass, want of time has prevented the commission from making extensive personal inquiry ; but, judging from the numerous statements pre- sented to them, and from the evidence elicited by the Committee on Public Expenditures, CH. of Rep., 38th Cong., 2d sess , Report No. 25, 1865,) they feel satisfied that the necessity of reform in the manner of doing business in this institution was never more urgent than at present, , . Of the officers employed in the New York custom-house, it is believed that a majority of them have no special qualifications for their places, and little knowledge of the law under which they discharge their duties ; while the estimates presented to the commission of the annual losses experienced by the government, through the frauds perpetrated in connection with this institution, range from |12, 000,000 to $25,000,000. It ought to be clearly understood by the people of the country that a continuance of this laxity in the management of the customs revenue is equivalent to increased taxation, and that every dollar taken from the revenue under various pretences in this department must, necessarily, be made up bv an equivalent assessment. _ In regard to the internal revenue departinent, the commission have no allegation of fraud to present, but at the same time are constrained to say that, in point of organization, it is very far from what it should be. In proof of this they have but to cite the opinion of the late Commissioner, before referred to as concurred in by the commission, that if the law, as it now stands, could be fully and effectually executed, the receipts from it would not fall short of $500,000,000 per annum ; or, in other words, that a complete administration of the law would justify wiping out more than one-half of the excise tax from the statute-book.* .If we admit the truth of this statement, even in an approximate degree, the commission might here rest their argument in favor of the necessity of reorganization. They will, however, briefly call attention to some of the leading imperfections of the present system. One of the most prominent of these is a lack of power and authority in this department to control itself, especially in the matter of expenditures. In regard to this latter, the law itself allows but little discretion; and what little there is -is vested in officers of the Treasury Department, who, although they may be the most faithful and vigilant guardians of the public moneys, have little or no experience in connection with the collection of internal rev- enue, or practical knowledge of its workings. It therefore, undoubtedly, often happens that in an honest desire to prevent the waste of public money, a small sum may be saved at an expense of one of much greater magnitude. Thus, as illustrations of this character brought to the notice of the commission, they might cite cases where vigilant officers, who have devised plans at slight expense for sim- plifying returns or detecting fraud, have been obliged, after the government has adopted their recommendations and been benefited by thehr services, to have the small expenditures thus incurred deducted from their salaries — a course equivalent, in fact, to offering a pre- mium for continued inefficiency and want of method. Again: officers who have been detailed on special service, and have performed such service, bringing back thousands of dollars to the treasury, have had their accounts for small expenditures, even when approved by the Commissioner, disallowed or reduced by the auditing officers. The commission would not be understood as intending to censure the auditing officers for the course pursued by them, as it was undoubtedly in strict accordance with the law ; but they would say that - they do not think it is for the interest of the government or the country to allow the revenue system to be curtailed of its usefulness, either by reason of such laws, or by any special iuterpretation placed upon them. Another cause of imperfection in the internal revenue system is undoubtedly due to a lim- itation in the number of highly competent and responsible officers, and to the inadequacy of the salaries paid to them. Starting less than four years since with one Commissioner and one clerk, the business of the internal revenue has increased to such an extent that probably it now exceeds in magnitude the entire Treasury Department previous to the war, and is at present receiving more money every quarter than the whole annual revenue of the govern- ment prior to 1860. The amount of mailable matter which leaves the office is reported to average one and a half ton daily. With all this labor and responsibility, the internal revenue is but a bureau of the Treasury Department, and, with the exception of the Commissioner, deputy commissioner, and cashier, no provision has been made for clerical assistance independent of the department. With the present organization of the office, the commission believe that no one man can be found mentally or physically competent to faithfully discharge all the duties devolving upon and expected from the Commissioner; while the clerk in charge of the division of accounts is required to possess as high an order of qualifications, and to perform more intri- cate, responsible, and laborious duties than any employ^ of any private firm or corporation 41 — * Thus a committee of the association of journeymen boot and shoe makers of the city of New York, in a jeturn to the commission, estimate the value of the boot and shoe industry in that city as being $16,867,200 per ^nnnm. DeductingSOpercent. from this to represent the exemptions of $1,000 each to each manufacturer, allowed Dy law, and for over-estimatt-a, the amount of revenue which ought to have accrued to the government from this source, under the six per cent, manufacturing tax, would be $506,016, while the amount actually collected wasless than $100,000, CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 179 in tlfe country. The salary of the former of these officials is now fixed by law at four thou- sand dollars per annum, and that of the latter at eighteen hundred dollars. The operations of the internal revenue, and also of the customs, affect the character of nearly every industrial and moneyed interest in the country ; and all experience has shown that great numbers of designing persons are ever on the alert to take advantage of imper- fections in the law, and of the inexperience of officials, to evade the law and defraud the government. The only counter-check, therefore, for government to rely Upon Is the integrity, faithful- ness, capacity, and experience of its agents; and for the government to endeavor to procure and retain the services of men competent to discharge responsible trusts at less salaries than are paid by leading banks or private mercantile firms or corporations, will not only, probably, be impossible, but will result in very poor economy. The system under which drawbacks are'allowed on products of American industry exported from the country which have previously been subjected to excise is also represented as being very imperfect and complicated, and as presenting an obstacle to the resuscitation and devel- opment of our trade with foreign nations, impaired by the events of the last four years. With the adoption, however, of the policy recommended by the commission, viz., of removing the excise from nearly all products of industry, many of these difficulties will undoubtedly be obviated. The present system of the allowance of moieties of forfeitures and penalties to infonne.i;* is also undoubtedly exercising a very demoralizing influence. In a mere pecuniary pofot of view, however, no expenditures of the government probably produce so large a veiw"n» both direct and indirect, as flow from the distribution of those moieties, and so looef as tti^ present organization of the revenue is retained the commission find •'« difficult to aevise a better arrangement. Attention should also be called to the fact that the chief busines'j of the office of the internal revenue at Washington, and the chief depository of its records and papers, are located in a building which is not fire-proof, and that at any moment the whole machinery of the depart- ment is liable to be thrown into great confusion, with the infliction of irreparable losses, by reason of circumstances against which there is now no adequate provision. But an imperfection in our whole revenue policy more serious and radical than any yet adverted to, and which affects alike both the customs and the excise, is that of making the appointment, retention, and promotion of officers of the revenue dependent on other circum- stances than qualifications or good behavior. So long as this policy prevails — a policy never adopted by any private firm or corporation having a due regard to their own interests, and one entirely ignored by all the leading states of Europe— a thoroughly efficient and economical administration of the revenue, coupled with the education of a competent corps of officials, cannot reasonably be expected. Under the present system, inspectors of spirits Lave been appointed who were entirely ignorant of the hydrometer and disregarded its use; and inspectors of tobacco who rei^uire to be instructed as to the nature of the different varieties of this article when manufactured, previous to entering upon the discharge of their duties. The commission are also informed that efforts for the removal of competent officers have, in some instances, undoubtedly been made for the sole reason that in the faithful discharge of their duties they have interfered with the private interests of wealthy and influential indi- viduals. The commission consider it imperative that some action should bo speedily taken by Congress on this subject ; and that the necessities of the country should override any advan- tages that now may accrue in the distribution of patronage in the revenue department of the government. Good men, honest, competent, and efficient, should be sought out and placed in all the positions requiring tact, skill, and judgment, and on such salaries as will enable tbem to live and continue nonest; they should, moreover, hold thtir situations by such assured tenure as to induce application and faithfulness. Thus would the government have the benefit of experience, every year growing more and more valuable. To remedy the imperfections of the existing revenue system, which the commission have thus briefly alluded to, an entire reorganization of .the whole machinery and policy of its administration seems necessary; but, before offering any suggestions on the subject, they would call attention to some of the peculiarities of the administration of the British revenue. The leading features of the British administrative system consist iu placing the customs and excise under the charge of separate and distinct boards o£ commissioners, each con- sisting of five members and a secretary. To each is also attached a law officer of great ability and large salary,* which are respectively known as the solicitor of the customs and solicitor of the exciSe. To these separate boards of commissioners (which the commission understand it is now contemplated to unite) very large powers are intrusted to make and amend the regulations under which the revenues are to betassessed and collected, and in respect to the appointment of all subordinate officials, who, before receiving such appoint- ments, are required to undergo strict examinations as to education, business qualifications, health, and moral character. No distribution of moieties of tines and forfeitures to informi'rs * The salary of the solicitor of customs is ^52,000, ($10,000 in galU,) and the appoiBtment is for life. 180 CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. is allowed, but the boards of commissioners are empowered, at discretion, to pay for infor- mation, to distribute rewards, and to promote in office for good service. Superannuated and faithful officers are also allowed pensions on retirement from office. To such an extent, moreover, is the British revenue, in all its departments, divorced from party and politics, that all officers- and employes of the revenue are even deprived of the right ot suffrage while in service, though otherwise qualified ; while it is understood that no influence on the part of any member of Parliament, or even of the chancellor of the exchequer, will avail for the securement of an appointment under the reveuue, unless the candidate receive, at the same time, the approval of a majority of the board of commissioners, under whose supervision his duties are to he discharged. The consequence of this is, that the administration of the British revenue law is constantly improving, while frauds and defalca- tions on the part of the officials are rarely, if ever, heard of. The reBpousibility of the collection, preparation, and publication of statistics of British revenue, trade, and commerce, to the accuracy and clearness of which we would bear testi- mony, is divided between the respective boards of commissioners and the board of trade. The decision of all law points connected with the revenue, and the publication and legal enforcement of the same, appear to devolve upon the respective revenue solicitors. Whether a plan analogous to the British system, as thus presented, could be advanta- geously carried out in detail in the United States, and whether the same would be in all respects in accordance with the spirit of our institutions, is a, question upon which the commission are not prepared to express an opinion, but they have no doubt that some of its leading features must form the basis of any sound national revenue policy. In proposing a plan of change, however, they would suggest that the work of a reorgani- zation should commence in the office of the Secretary of the Treasury itself. This office, with the exception of that of the Executive, is now undoubtedly the most responsible and important of any under the government; and the position of its occupant, as respects the future condition of the country, is not unlike that sustained by the commander-in-chief of the army during the most critical period of the war — a position in which the nation cannot afford to allow any rislis of mistakes in judgment. With far more power than is intrusted to the British chancellor of the exchequer, or the French minister of finance, the office of the Sec- retary of the Treasury is at the same time, by long usage and custom, in many respects merely clerical. He is called upon at one hour as a member of the cabinet to participate in the decisions of grave political questions, and in the next to decide upon the transactions of his lowest subordinate. Intrusted with the supervision of the expenditures of hundreds of millions annually, he is also the final arbiter for the settlement of the most insignificant disbursements. It is also ihe assumed privilege of nearly every Individual in the country to address him all on subjects connected with either public or private interests ; and courtesy and usage demand that, in all instances, a reply of some nature should be given. The demands thus made at present upon the time and attention of the Secretary of the Treasury are wholly inconsistent with a proper consideration of those great questions of finance submitted to his decision, upon the wise determination of which the future welfare of the nation is inevitably dependent. To impose, therefore, any subordinate and trivial duties on this great officer of state is both to degrade his office and to imperil the financial interest.s of the country. EDUCATION AND THE ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEM OF PROBATION IN GERMANY, BY EDOUARD LABOUL.IYE. Chapter 1. — On the necessity of political and administrative instruction for citizens v>K> receive a liberal education, and in particular for those who are destined to public functions. 1. In order to be truly worthy of its name, and to respond fiiUy to the dignity of its mis- sion, tbe university should embrace in its system of education the whole range of human knowledge, so completely that no Siuperior education than that given by the state should be posable. This .universality is the condition and also the justification of the monopoly with which ithe state is invested by the laws. Hence arises the obligation that the university should continually keep pace with scientific progress ; hence springs the duty to appropriate to itself all new truths which .appear, so soon as they have acquired the degree of consistency and perfection necessary to render ihem the objects of regular instruction. At the present <3ay especially, when the government can lay claim to the direction of society only by sum- moning all knowledge to its aid, since its power is no longer anything but the force of opinion, Lt is absolutely necessary that the university should take possession of the intel- lectual movement, in order to place at the service of the state, from their first appearance, all those just and useful ideas which the progress of the human mind brings to light. It is in the chair of the professor that not only the doctrines which claim to take rank among scientific truths, but also the theories which profess to reform government and society, shonla he brought to the test of examination and proof; it is through the university and in the nniversity that progress should be made, if we would not abandon opinion to the mercy of passion or of charlatanism, and tr-ansfyrm a power into a danger. Thus the political interest and the interests of science impose ujion the educational body the same duties. Every ac- CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 181 of negligence or of delay is a species of forfeiture, and the university cannot postpone any, useful instruction without being derelict at once to science, of which it has the precious deposit, and to the country, which confides to it the new generation, its dearest possession. 2. Our ancient universities comprehended perfectly the grandeur of the function which was marked out for them by destiny ; and, moreover, their organization, more free than the exist- ing one, and more independent of the action of the government, lent itself with much less effort to the aid of scientific progress. Education, following the human mind in its march, was developed and enlarged along with it, chairs of professors and faculties were multiplied whenever there appeared any new light upon the horizon, and Bologna, and Salamanca, and Toulouse, and Paris, disputed between them the honor of inaugurating in public and elevat- ing to the rank of its elders a science which was, as yet, but newly born. Medicine, juris- prudence, literature, have thus come to demand their place by the sid,e of theology, and all the universities flew open to welcome those queens of the earth ; then came philosophy, so long repulsed as a stranger ; afterwards, in its train, the natural sciences, which have shed so vivid a light upon the close of the last century. Thus each age, according to its bent and its vocation, has'impelled human thought in a particular direction, and at each epoch, the university, the faithful handmaid of science, has followed the march of the human mind, without abandoning the conquests already achieved ; at each epoch a new education has come to complete existing studies, and to satisfy the wants which have revealed themselves for the first time. It is thus that science has been diffused and popularized ; it is thus that truths discovered by certain advanced spirits have become the patrimony of the human race. This wise conduct of the elder daughter of our kings should now serve us as the rule and model for our new university, upon which, in a democratic state like our own, devolves a weight of responsibility immensely greater than upon its predecessor, since, through the education which it gives to the superior classes, it decides almost iufalhbly the destiny of the country. 3. The sciences, as we have said, are not contemporaries, and every age lends a new light to that torch of civilization which the generations of mankind pass from hand to hand : our fathers witnessed the birth of the natural sciences, while comparative anatomy and geology are younger than the present century. Now, a new progress is being realized, and the human mind throws itself into paths hitherto unexplored. On the one side, the historical and juridical sciences, left for a moment neglected, are regaining the ground which they had lost ; they are borrowing from the physical sciences the severity of their method and the exactitude of their processes, so as to obtain, by a precise analysis, certain and imme- diately useful results. On the other hand, we have seen sciences unknown to antiquity and the middle ages appearing, sciences new and as yet imperfect, but which appear destined to form the glory of our epoch. I speak of the political sciences, and I understand by that name all the doctrines which the constitution and administration of modern societies embrace, that is to say, political economy, statistics, industrial legislation, comparative legislation, politics properly speaking, administration, diplomacy, the law of nations, &c. 4.- To any one who has followed the progress of ideas for forty years past, it is evident that the political sciences have acquired a theoretical development and possess a practical importance sufficient to demand at this day the right of naturalization in the university. I might even say that we had delayed too long, and that their admission is now not only use- ful, but that it is indispensable, that it is obligatory. I invoke special attention upon this In all ages there have been great minds who have preoccupied themselves with the organ- ization of the state. Among the ancients Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, and among the moderns Machiavelli, Grotius, Hobbes, Fenelon, Locke, Montesquieu, Edusseau, have grappled with this difficult problem, and prepared by their labors for the solution of this delicate question ; but, if I may venture to say so, it is in our days alone that science has discovered its true poikt d'appui, that it has emerged from the domain of the imagination to enter upon that of reality. In fact it is only in our day that there has taken place in Europe an immense revo- lution, which, while fully respecting the forms and exterior pomp of monarchy, has dis- placed the sovereignty, and transformed all governments into real democracies ; the name IS wanting, but the thing exists : the change is more apparent in France than elsewhere, but it is to be found throughout the continent, and it is this change which has rendered pos- sible both political science and its instruction. „ „. ^ j j * i. n The state, in former days, was the patrimony of the prince ; the King pretended to hold his monarchy as a freehofd confided to him by God himself, and for the adnimistration of which he was responsible to God alone. Now, the state is the patrimony of the people, and rovalty is no lono^er a sovereign domain, but a magistracy instituted for the common beneht, and confided by The nation to the prince whom it places or whom it keeps hereditarily at its head The interest of the governed has been substituted for the interest of the prince, and at the same time (so profound has been the revolution) that interest of subieots has become the avowed principle of the most absolute raonarohies, even of those which struggle with the greatest energy against this dislodgment of the sovereign power.* ,^ , „ 5. The very principle of government having been radically ch anged throughout Europe, * See Maurenbrecher, Gmndsmtze des Jieutigen Deutachm Staa(lrec/its, ^59, Dalilmson, Die eolitik auf im Grund,, &o., § 354. 182 CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. (and in France this revolution is consecrated by the national compact of 1830,) the science of government has been necessarily compelled to undergo an entire remodeling. Formerly, the constitution was a mystery which no one might penetrate, and a prompt and terrible punishment awaited the rash innovator who dared to lay his hand upon the sacred ark, were it even for the purpose of steadying it ; now, thanks to God, and to the devotion of our fath- ers, it is no longer such ; the constitution belongs to all, and should he for all a subject of earnest study, since there is no enlightened person who cannot, either by his actions, his words, or his writings, exercise an influence, more or less direct, upon the march of affairs. More- over, we are no longer on the threshold of these grand and important studies ; the philosoph- ical researches of the eighteenth century, the oftentimes cruel proof which our fathers and ourselves have made of all that was visionary in the most attractive theories, history issuing from the domain of literature and of eloquence to raise itself to the rank of a positive science, political economy created for half a century, and, above all, the habit of public life, have given us lights upon the science of government which were wanting to our predecessors, and which permit us to-day to make^of that science the object of regular instruction.* Thus, the interest of science alone would suffice to demand the extension of universal edu- cation to all the political sciences, it being ridiculous that instruction in the sciences most largely developed in the last half century should be found nowhere except in book? and writings often dangerous by their doctrines, hostile to the state, or false ; and thus that the science of government should be taught outside of the government, and oftentimes in hos- tility thereto. But, in addition, it should be carefully noted that at the present day, in our social situation, (and what I say of France is true of all Europe,) political education is an absolute necessity. Since 1789, of immortal memory, the state, and its organization, has been the grand and difficult problem which has occupied all the genius, all the life of the nations of Europe. What has been, during the past fifty years, the cause of all the agita- tions, of all tlie revolutions, of all the civil or extenial wars, which have agitated the con- tinent, if it has not been political reform 1 Why have so many millions of men been slain, so many thousands of millions of money been spent, except to preserve or to destroy forms of government? It is no longer questions of religion, as in the sixteenth century, nor of the balance of power, as in the seventeenth, which agitate the continent; the question which dominates and absorbs all others is how to direct this vast democracy, whose tide is contin- ually rising. The political and social organization of the democracy — it is this that preoc- cupies the most thoroughly monarchical states as well as our own; and Prussia, for exam- ple, although further from the goal than France, although having to struggle against greater difficulties — Prussia, with her diverse nationalities, a race of nobles, a soilfettered with primo- genitures and entails, preoccupies herself far more than our legislators and our ministers with the means of solving that problem which each day renders more important and more difficult. In this situation, and in a country like France,, where every man maybe sum- moned at a critical moment to put his hand to the sail, as to the helm of affairs, what knowl- edge can be more immediately useful ? What more necessary than the political sciences? And I do not intend by this name to characterize mere theoretical researches upon the origin of society and government ; but, on the contrary, the positive and practical science of exist- ing governments, that which comprehends the most profound studies upon the constitution of the state, upon its interior and exterior mechanism, upon the machinery of the adminis- tration, upon the grand scientific or historical laws according to which are developed the wealth, the power, and the liberty of nations. Such an education is indispensable, not only for those who, placed in seats of power, hold the destiny of the country in their hands, but for every functionary charged with any share in the administration, however small it may be, and for every citizen who, by his vote or his opinion, may be one day summoned to decide for his part the future of the countiy. In the sixteenth century every man was a theologian, as in the eighteenth every one was a philosopher — princes, nobles, merchants, priests, physicians, and the rest. Now the physician, the theologian, the philosopher, who desire to be anything more than mere tradesmen, and who remember that befojre all things they are citizens, ought to possess political knowledge — not alone that profound knowledge which demands an impossible sacrifice of time, but a sufficient knowledge to keep out of the control of opinion and of power that species of political dilettanti who, assured of the ignorance of others, and without faith or belief themselves, make of then- audacity a step- ping-stone to a political fortune, oftentimes scandalous, to the great detriment of the country. 7. Finally, and after these general considerations upon the utility of political instruction for all citizens who receive a liberal education, there is a particular consideration of the greatest weight, which should determine the government to establish such instruction, if not for all citizens whose intelligence will one day give them an influence more or less direct upon public afi'airs, at least for those who are called to the direct service of the state ; for it is at once dangerous and absurd, that the only public functions which do not demand pre- paratory studies should be precisely those which the most directly concern the country. Let an engineer of highways miscarry, through ignorance, in the construction of a bridge or a *France has profited by its long aud costly experioQCe. Healthy idea« have been diffused ; intelligence becomes continually one of the beet guarantees of order. Heason does itself honor in consolidating the foun- dations of the noblest beliefs of humanity, and the moral and political sciences will henceforth serve to reaffirm that which formerly they disturbed. (Report to the King upon the re-establishmeut of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, by M. Guizot, minister of public instruction, October 26, 183j.) CIVIL SERVICE OP THE UNITED STATES. 183 sluice-way, and there results only loss of time and of money, which is easily repaired ; bnt let the administration be exacting or vexatious — let the taxes be ill-imposed or collected with intolerable annoyance — and the result is inconvenience and vexation to the entire nation. In a country where the press diffuses, with the rapidity of lightning, the intelligence of the injustice or unslsilfuluess of the administration, upon the very first fault, an electric move- ment, as it were, agitates the public mind ; every man conceives an instant distrust of an unskilful government, and throws upon it the responsibility of the faults committed by its agents. How happens it that in a country so susceptible, so easily alarmed, the state does not assure itself in advance of the capacity of men whom it employs 7 How happens it that we assure ourselves by rigorous tests of the qualifications of an engineer, of an officer, of a professor, even of a school-master, while we take no heed of the political or adminis- trative education of a diplomatist and of a prefect ? Why is one part of our administration organized upon the democratic principle of capacity, while the other is regulated only by the caprice of a minister? Why are lH years' study required to command a battery, while to govern a department nothing more is oftentimes required than the recommendation of a deputy or the importunity of a favorite ? Why this state of things prevailed formerly is easily comprehended. In the ancient mon- archy, the administration, as well as the entire government, was under the control of the prince, and it was sought above all things to keep the subject in profound ignorance on that head. Men acted precisely as Austria acts at this 'day ; and God knows how great was the weakness of such an administration — weakness so extreme that it precipitated the ruin of the monarchy for a miserable deficit of a few millions. The management of the finances, for example, that vital element of the administration, was not the intelligent dis- pensation of the public revenue in the national interest, but a, species of organized rapine for the benefit of the follies or debaucheries of the prince and of his favorites. The whole art of the financier then consisted in squeezing the utmost possible amount from the peo- ple, in what the Germans call plus mackerey, or, according to the French expression, in the art of plucking the fowl without making it cry out. In our day we are no longer in such a case, and, thanks to the intelligent government of the restoration, and to the still more intelligent conduct of the government of July, 1830, we have recovered from our prejudices against the administration ; we are no longer forced to consider that great body which presides over the destinies of the country as an instru- ment of despotism and of oppression, which only profits by its power, and injures instead of promoting the development of the public wealth. We have recovered equally from the doc- trine put forth by M. Say and his disciples, that government is an vleer on the body politic ; and M. de Tocqueville has long since cured us of our admiration for the self-government of the Americans. It is to the excellence of the administration that we may attribute a share of the prosperity of France, and of the greatness of Prussia ; it is owing to the power of that element that France has been able to resist, without too great a shock, tviro invasions and three changes of dynasty; it is owing to the wisdom of its administration that Prussia has been able to artfully console its subjects for the absence of the constitutional guarantees promised in 1813, and to replace in some sort by administrative guarantees the political rights which it has to this day refused. And not only has governmental administration become, for half a century, the most important of arts, but at the same time, and thanks to the labors of the administra- tors and economists of all nations, it has become a science of the first rank, of which politi- cal economy, statistics, agriculture, technology, are, so to speak, so many fragments. So great a change in the administration has necessarily modified the condition of the employes of the state. Under the ancient regime, they were clerks— that is to say, men in a subaltern position, enjoying no higher rank in public estimation than that which now attaches to the principal employes of our heavier financial houses. Strangers to the pub- lic, the public knew nothing of them. But at this day their functions have greatly risen in importance.; they are no longer mere agents of the treasury, they are its administrators ; inser- viunt, nan serviunt. Their function is as important and as honorable as that of the officer who defends his country, or of the magistrate who executes the laws. The administration has become a magistracy, which, in the importance of its functions, in the magnitude of the interests involved, in the influence of its decisions, is in nowise inferior to the civil magis- tracy. The resemblance is so much the more striking as the sphere of its action is the more closely approached. Since the administration has passed from the realm of caprice to that of the law and the ordinances, it has become in reality a tribunal whose function is the more elevated because, in the questions to be decided, the state is at once a judge and a party, and consequently the administrator must possess an impartiality^ and a capacity of the high- est rank, in order not to be wanting either to his function of a judge or to the duties of his office, and in order to infringe neither upon the public interest which he defends nor the pri- vate interest which he decides upon. The administration being once raised to the rank of the civil magistracy, the necessity of giving to it the same guarantees has been perceived. Oiie step further, and it will appear equally indispensable to exact of the men who devote themselves to these honorable func- tions knowledge as extensive and as various as we require of our future magistrates.* * See some excellent remarks upon this subject in Emile dsGirardin: DeVInitructionPubliqwen France, p. 40,5. 184 CIVIL SERTICE OF THE UNITED STATES. Under the restoration, the principles of the old rep;iine were too often followed in respect to administrative officers, in disposing of places with the greatest ineonsiderateness, and in superseding an officer, as one would have done a clerk, toward whom, besides paying his salary, no sort of obligation existed. Since the revolution of July, this state of things has been reformed ; the higher offices are bestowed, it is true, quite as badly as under the resto- ration, and electoral influence has succeeded to the patronage of the court and the congrega- tion* without the country having gained anything; but at least these offices, once bestowed, are not withdrawn at the pleasure of ministerial caprice, and in fact, if not in law, adminis- trative functions have become unremovable. This is true especially of the inferior employ- ments, and we have no longer the sad example of those removals for opinion's sake so fre- quent under the restoration — removals frequently provoked by base denunciations. The administration of office is now a stable profession — a service of the state — not very brilliant, it is true, with small rewards, where advancement is slow, difficult, capricious, but a service to which one may devote himself at least without misgivings, without fear of seeing his future career broken up with each succeeding day. However limited may be the administrative career, and however necessary it may be in entering upon it to renounce the hope of one day attaining a great fortune or a superior posi- tion, nevertheless this stability of employment, the first consideration which surrounds public functions, and a lingering aristocratic prejudice against trade — a prejudice from which our middle classes are not wholly free — all these motives, and others which it would be too tedious to enumerate, have sufficed to turn in this direction all the youth of the middle classes ; for every place in the ministry of finance there are now twenty candidates, and the title of supernumerary asiArant is more warmly contested than that of an overseer. In presence of this crowd of solicitors, drawing in their train friends, relatives, deputies, what should be the duty of a government which is more solicitous of the welfare of its admin- istration than of the personal satisfaction of the intriguers who surround it ? Evidently it should be to exact from the candidates presenting themselves conditions of capacity, and, since the number of aspirants is such that it is free to choose, to take only the most instruc- ted, the best qualified by their attainments and their moral character to discharge the duties to which they are destined, and to honor the body to which they belong. Is it thus that the affair is managed, and does the administration exact from the men whom it admits to its communion sufficient guarantees of capacity and of fitness ? No ; and while the army, the artillery, the engineer corpi, the navy, the highways, the mines, the woods and waters, have all of them special schools and studies, while the public instruction has its examinations, the normal school, and the competitive admission, while the magistracy is guarded by the guarantee (a slight one, it is true) of the licentiate's diploma, yet the other branches of the government, on the contrary, and those not the least important, the exchequer office, the bureau of direct and indirect taxes, the land-registry office, the customs, the post office, have no other condition of admissibility except a trifling novitiate, since the appoint- ment goes by favor, and, once admitted, it is through favor alone that one looks for his title and his promotion ; finally — and this is the most singular of all — while a novitiate is required in order to obtain the place of a subaltern in the treasury service, it is not at all necessary in order to become a counsellor of finance, sub-prefect, prefect, referee, or coun- sellor-referee The capacity required is in the inverse ratio of the importance of the office, and its respon- sibility. How strange that the law should exact conditions of capacity for a lawyer, for an attorney, for a notary, in order that the private interests of citizens should not fall into unsafe hands, and should exact no guarantee whatever that the public interests should not he endangered by inexperienced or unskilful administrators. Still more, and as if it were not already dangerous enough to subject the choice of public functionaries to the risks of chance, the government augments the chances of inexperience and incapacity by requiring no special studies of its officers after they have entered the ser- vice of the state. There is not even one public institution by whose instructions the well- disposed might profit, who desire to be anything more than mere routine officers. One chair of administrative law in each faculty, a chair in which the administrative disputes are exposed rather than the system of administration; a few chairs of political economy scattered over Paris and giving rare instructions — such are all the resources afi'orded by a great nation to those who devote themselves to public employments. So that it is no exaggeration to say that, from the counsellor of state down to the humblest functionary, there cannot be found 10 persons who, in their youth, have made a special study of administrative functions. All that our functionaries know they have learned by experience, or by individual labor per- formed after their entrance upon public affairs. The consequences of such a defect of public education are easily seen. The employes of the state are divided between the men of routine, who, by dint of continual practice in the bureaus, acquire a mechanical knowledge of the received forms, of the laws and ordinances most frequently employed, without ever elevating their minds to a solitary idea of reform or of progress, and another small class of superior men who owe their education to themselves alone. But the intelligence of these last is but a useless, and frequently even dangerous element ; for they are not comprehended either by their official superiors or subordinates, and when they have in their minds an idea of reform, *A political association in the days of tlie restoration. — TRANSLATOR. CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 185 they are sustaiDed neither hy the administration (at least if the reform he a financial one) nor by public opinion, directed by journalists to whom the first elements of political educa- tion are frequently wanting, and who have no experience in affairs, nor, finally, by the rep- resentatives of the country, who are neither better instructed nor more enlightened than the rest of the nation, being frequently ignorant of the simplest principles of political science. The disastrous consequences of such an order of things are apparent at a glance. It breeds rashness in designs, timidity in execution. In this common ignorance, all men walk on tiptoe and hesitate as in the dark. The administration holds fast to the existing order of things; every change appals it, since it is utterly unable to calculate its bearing, audit recoils, from sheer ignorance and inexperience, before innovations the most useful and fre- ijueutly the most necessary. _ How diflferent would be the case if a thorough political instruction, if special studies of prin- ciples, were to give to the administration that superiority of intelligence which now forms the sole title to the respect and obedience of nations. A wise administration, having confidence in its power, sustaibed by public esteem, recruited from among the most enlightened men pf each generation, would give to our government that point of stability — that anchor — which is wanting to it in the flux and reflux of parties, of opinions, and of events. Chapter 2. — On political and administrative instruction in Germany. While we are still occupied with asking ourselves if the system of administrative educa- tion and probation for ofiicial functions is useful and necessary, and more than one even of the more enlightened minds recoil before the boldness of such a reform, because we have upon that subject only confused and imperfect ideas, the different governments of Germany, which are certainly far enough removed from democracy or revolution, have entered freely upon this course, with that profusion of regulations, ordinances, and laws which has always distinguished the administrations beyond the Rhine. Far from being alarmed at a system of competition, the German governments have favored it to such a degree that it has become almost the only method of admission to public functions, whatever may be their nature and their character. «*»»■"» The most successful government in Germany, that of Prussia, has taken in the confede- ration that foremost rank to which neither its population, nor its wealth, nor its history would have entitled it ; and when we look for the secret of its power, we find that its two grand supports are the university on the one side, and the administrative service on the other. The superiority of its- system of education attracts to Prussia from all parts of Ger- many the flower of its industrious youth, and the administration, open to industry and to capacity, summons to public functions every man who has the ambition to serve liis country. At the same time, Prussia, in its essays towarS administrative organization, seems to me inferior to 'W>irtemberg,'a country which is a model in respect of administration. This inferiority is attributable to two causes. In the first place, the system of competition has been more freely applied in Wurtemberg than in Prussia, where the noblesse and the army are frequently invested with peculiar privileges. In the second place, the curriculum of studies required has not been determined with sufficient exactness. It has been thought unnecessary to found separate faculties of administration, and they have contented them- selves with establishing in the faculty of philosophy a branch of instruction upon adminis- trative affairs, as a complement of the juridical course of study required of the future function- aries. Too much influence has thus been left to the legal spirit. It has not been suflSciently recognized that administration is a new science, sui generis, although closely related to juris- prudence, and that it is needful to develop the administrative spirit, as in the other faculties are created the esprit de corps of the physician, the lawyer, and the theologian. In Wiirtem- berg, on the contrary, this necessity has been thoroughly felt. A special faculty has been created, and the examinations have been better calculated than those of Prussia to prepare candidates for the various public services. * » » » In Wiirtemberg, up to the year 1817, at which time a special faculty was established, the administration was recruited in a very similar manner to our own. In order to enter the pubhc service, it was requisite to begin by being admitted in the capacity of supernumerary (incipient) in the bureau of some superior oflicer. For such an admission, no condition was required, either of age, of fortune, or of education, but the will of the chief of the bureau (principal) was the law. During this probation, which frequently lasted many years, the occupations of the candidates were purely mechanical, involving certain despatches, certain copies of letters, and the like. As to the instruction of the supernumerary, nobody looked after that ; and the period of youth, that precious season in which the intellect and the capa- city are formed, passed away in this degrading occupation. Some reflective, laborious minds drew instruction more or less solid from this commerce with affairs ; but, if I may say so, these men shone out as a light in the midst of darkness, and, without reforming the administra- tion, only rendered more visible and more deplorable the Ignorance of those who surrounded them. This routine was no less prejudicial to the sovereigns than to their subjects, for in this 18(5 CIVIIi SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. matter the interest of the people is often the same as that of the treasury. Listen to a com- plaint made in 1776, by the landgrave Louis, of Hesse Darmstadt: From the first day of our accession to the government, we saw with regret that the administration of our revenues, the care of the well-being and prosperity of our subjects, in a word, the whole administrative organ- ization of the country, was very different from what we had a right to expect, from the number of laws and ordinances on that subject, the multitude of our e[nploy6s, and the excellent example given by neighbor- ing countries. Our astonishment, but not our chagrin, was diminished when we found that the care of our revenues, as of the interests of our subjects, was in the hands of men who had devoted themselves to office only because they were too ignorant, too poor, or in too little favor to enter into any other public service. These persons have treated our domain and our subjects as an anima vilis at whose expense and risk they have acquired their experience. * * * These dull spirits have never conceived any of those liberal ideas which a zeal for the government, or a desire to rival countries whose administration is superior to our own, would produce. On the contrary, we have seen with profound regret, that even those whose intelli- gence or experience acquired abroad placed them in a condition to introduce order and intelligence into, any part of the administration, were blamed through the ignorance of others, envied, ^reviled, spit upon, perse- cuted, crushed, until they were discouraged and compelled to renounce those improvements and attempts at reform whose realization has been postponed by ill-will, and which, moreover, soon fall into the hands of igno- rant and presumptuous subalterns. Such was the situation of the Hessian administration ; such, also, was that of Wiirtem- berg toward the close of the last century. * * * In 1816, in consequence of the reiterated complaints of the two chambers, the government (of WUrtemberg) perceived the necessity of seriously occupying itself with the education of its functionaries ; moreover, as the separation of the administi'ation from the courts of justice was about to be consummated, it began to be comprehended that it was necessary to exact from future officers of the admin- istration knowledge of a special character, which was not communicated by the faculty of law. The reigning sovereign, one of the wisest princes whom Germany ever possessed, yielded to the desire of his subjects and established a faculty of administration at Tubingen, the only university in the kingdom. His Majesty, (as is recited in the act of 29th December, 1817, founding this institution,) convinced that it is necessary to enable all those who are destined to the service of the state to acquire a scientific education, has determined to establish a faculty of administration in the University of Tubingen. And, moreover, in order to place this department of instruction on an equality with oth- ers, it is ordained : 1. That hereafter, in awarding such ofSces as require administrative knowledge, particu- lar regard shall be had to persons who have pursued studies connected with government in the university, and who shall have passed the examinations of the faculty ; and these per- sons shall be regularly preferred to those who have not acquired these special studies. 2. The students of administrative science shall pursue such a course of jurisprudence as may be most essential to them ; as, for example, the philosophy of positive law ; constitu- tional law; the private law of Wiirtemberg; administrative law, and the encyclopaedia; and the law students shall, on their part, pursue the most important portion of the adminis- trative course, such as the encyclopsedia of political science, and the practice of the admin- istrative service. 3. To encourage more especially those who devote themselves to administrative studies, there shall be bestowed in the two next succeeding years from four to six purses of 150 florins each. Although the ordinance of 1817 has not produced all the results which might have been anticipated, yet, says M. Schiitz, from whom I borrow these details, it is beyond question that these 20 years, during which more than 400 candidates for administrative office have pursued their studies at the university, have produced remarkable results, and the examinations for the public service have constantly demonstrated the superiority of the ieandidates possessing theoretical knowledge over the candidates who had only practical knowledge. The year 1837 introduced a new period, and Wiirtemberg entered into the true pathway to success ; from that day the results have been continually more and more satisfactory. Two most important measures were introduced. First, the course of instruction was enlarged. The existing chairs were; 1. Political economy. 2. Agriculture and the allied sciences. 3. Technology. 4. Administrative law and administrative practice. To these were now added two new chairs : one for the practice of administrative science, or rather a chair of administrative law applied ; the other tor political history and statistics. Second, the system of examination was transferred to the departments of the interior and of finance. The following are the principal dispositions of this ordinance of 22d February, 1837, con- cerning examinations : 1. For the department of the interior a distinction is made between the candidates who are destined for superior employments and those who are destined for the inferior ; hence there is a superior and an interior examination established. Each of these examinations consists of a double test— the one written, the other oral. The CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 187 written test is an open competition between all the candidates. Assembled under the eye of the commission, they are required to prepare a composition upon a given subiect, without any other assistance than the official collections. Those who are declared inadmissible can be entered as candidates only in the following year. The oral test is an individual examina- tion, and lollows the written one. The inferior examination takes place before the Kreis Regierung, (the Kreis corresponds to om department,) a. commission of officers in which the professors of the university do not participate. The candidates who are found capable can be employed as inferior administra- tors, directors in schools, prisons, orphan or insane asylums, and as assistant inspectors. There IS required of these candidates: ■ ] . A knowledge of the administration of communes and of districts. ^. A knowledge of the distribution of taxes, of accounts, and of the laws relating thereto. .i. A knowledge of the private laws of Wurtemberg. especially in all that relates to con- tracts, as well as to the civil procedure. • 1; '^^ immediate solution of questions relative to the above-mentioned subiects, and espe- cially to the most difficult calculations. The superior examination is required of all candidates who desire to obtain other employ- ments from the ministry of the government. Each candidate is required to be at least 21 years of age, and to have undergone, at least '''^^6 years antecedently, his preparatory academical examination. This latter condition is the first important reform which the ordinance introduced. Pre- viously, any one might enter into the public service without the exaction of this certificate oi attainments. Hence ensued the inconvenience of those premature supernumeraries which Drought into the discharge of public functions many young persons having scarcely the first elements of a liberal education. The superior examination for government service is composed of two tests, separated by an interval of one year ; in the first, theoretical knowledge is required ; in the second, prac- tical knowledge. It is thus necessary to prove successively, a thorough acquaintance with the laws and ordinances of the country, and a certain practical capacity. It is required that the claims of science and of the administration should be satisfied, the one after the other. The first examination (the theoretical) takes place before a commission composed wholly of university professors; the jury of examination consists entirely of the professors of the administrative faculty, of two or three professors of the faculty of law, and of a counsellor chosen for that purpose. . This examination being required as well of the students of admin- istrative science as of the practical students— that is to say, of those who have entered the government bureaus by simple supernumerary service— it results that it is next to impossible now to pass that examination without havijig previously acquired the university studies, and that, consequently, in fact if not in law, the university is the only preparatory school for the future administrators. It is to be added that the government, in order to encourage univer- sal studies, has decreed that the students of administrative science alone should have the right of exemption from military service as candidates for the civil service of the state. The second examination, separated from the first by a long interval, is essentially practi- cal ; and as it concerns the interests of the administration, and those who are examined are no longer students, but functionaries, the examination takes place before a commission, pre- sided over by the chief of the department, and composed of all the members of the council. This commission assembles at Stuttgart twice eveiy year. The following are the subjects upon which the two examinations turn : J . The public law of Wurtemberg, considered by itself and in its relations with the pub- lic law of Germany. Candidates arc to be interrogated specially upon the laws relative to the organization and administration of the communes, the district, the public domain, and the estates of the noblesse. 2. Private law, both the common and that of Wurtemberg. The examination turns par- ticularly upon matters, a knowledge of which closely concerns administrators, such as obli- gations, hypothefations, servitude, conditions of holding property, &c. 3. The canon law of Catholics and Protestants. Whatever relates to benefices, patron- age, titles, the administration of church revenues, and whatever concerns the church and the state. 4. The elements of civil procedure, of law, and of criminal procedure. 5. National economy. 6 Administration. 7. The system of duties and accounts. 8. A summary knowledge of commerce and of agriculture. After the first examination the candidates, in order to acquire practical knowledge, are subjected, in quality of counsellor-referee of the administration of the second class, to a supernumerary position or probation of one year, eight months of which are employed in a district ofSce, and four months in a ministerial bureau. In the district offices they are exer- cised in the different branches of the administration, by having to treat the less important questions that arise, and they are familiariaed with the practice by causing them to assist in all the deliberations and in all administrative measures. In the bureaus they are employed as copyists, revisers, and auditors. 188 CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. The heads of bureaus and the district oflScers are required to devote special attention to the conduct of the probationers, and, upon the expiration of the term, to address to the min- istry a report upon the zeal, the capacity, and the morality of the candidate, a report which remains in the hands of the ministry, and constitutes the commencement of the record of the future administrative officer. The candidate vrho has successfully passed this second exam- ination is nominated a counsellor-referee of the first class, and placed upon a stipend. He becomes thenceforth an integral part of the administration. The theoretical examination, the novitiate, the practical exainination, such are the three guarantees which the state exacts from its functionaries. The first guarantee is, that the candidate has received an adequate special education ; the second is the test of the moral fit- ness and administrative capacity of the probationer ; and, finally, the practical examination secures to the government the certainty of not being deceived by the indulgence or conniv- ance of the superior employes, and at the same time enables it to class, according to their different degrees of capacity, those functionaries who have already passed the probationary stage. These three tests, which are in practical use throughout almost all Germany, and form the condition of admission into the entire civil service of Prussia, as well for the admin- istration of justice as of the civil service, form the vital portion of the whole system. * * I return to Wiirtemberg : The examination for the treasury service much resembles the examination for the department of the interior. The principles are the same ; the only differ- ence consists in the object of the examination. Thus, there are for the treasury, as for the interior department, two classes of employes — one inferior, the other superior. Candidates arrive at the first by a special examination, which does not suppose an early education of the highest order ; they arrive at the second by a course of university studies, followed by a double examination and a probationary period. The inferior examination, which conducts to the positions of inspector and comptroller of customs, of finances, &c., turns upon the following points: 1. General knowledge of the principles of financial administration. 3. Financial accounts, and the laws relative thereto. 3. Principles of civil law, especially in what concerns contracts, and a summary knowledge of the civil procedure. 4. Practical acquaintance with accounts, and with the various administrative acts, such as the process-verbal, &c. This examination is held at Stuttgart, once every year, before a commission composed of the principal members of the overseers of the treasury and the customs. As to the superior examination which qualifies for the administrative grades above to that of comptroller, the special classes of knowledge required for the two tests, theoretical and practical, are the following : . 1. The public law of Wiirtemburg, especially in all that relates to the organization and administration of districts and communes, the law of public domains, and the estates of the noblesse. 2. The private law of Wiirtemberg. The examination will lay especial stress upon such matters as concern the administration, contracts, mortgages, prescription, servitude, the property of the common people, tithes, * [ This order must be produced on the day of examination. ] Rules of examination. — Each candidate receives the following code of instructions: 1. Every candidate is required to present himself punctually at the time specified in his order. 2. The examination will commence every morning at and close at 5 p. m. An interval of about an hour will be allowed in the middle of the day. 3. Each candidate is required to sign his name every morning, before proceeding to his examination, in a book kept for that purpose. _ 4 Candidates will be permitted to leave the examination room for a short time, after having given up each paper, before proceeding to the next ; but no candidate can be allowed to quit the room until he has given up the paper on which he is engaged. 5. No candidate will, on any account, be permitted to exceed the time allowed for each paper. Candidates are warned to pay attention to any instructions on this subject which may appear on the papers given to them. 6. Candidates are required to write their answers on the paper which will be given them, and to write their names at the top of every sheet of paper which they use. 7 Any candidate who is dissatisfied with the pens, ink, or paper supplied to him, is requested to apply to one of the examiners ; but those who are accustomed to use any par- ticular kind of pen are recommended to bring it with them. 8. Copy of notice given to candidates : "Cases having occurred in which candidates under examination have been detected in attempting to use books and manuscripts which they had brought with them for their assist- ance, the civil service commissioners think it right to give notice that they will regard any offence of this description, committed either in the examination room or elsewhere, during the hours of examination, as affecting the moral character of the candidate, and as rendering it necessary that his certificate should be refused. "Any candidate copying from the papers of another, or permitting his own papers to be copied, or receiving or giving assistance of any description, will expose himself to the same penalty." 9. Each candidate is informed by letter from this oflSce of the results of his examination as soon as his case is disposed of. 10. The commissioners usually return the baptismal certificates, &c., of candidates who have failed in their examinations and apply for those documents ; but it must be understood that no candidate is, under any circumstances, entitled to claim the return of any certificate deposited by him in their office, and that official forms are not in any case parted with. Limit of age.t — The following particulars show the evidence of age required from candi- dates : 1. Every candidate born in England or Wales after the 30th of June, 1837, should produce a certificate from the registrar general of births, marriages, and deaths, or his provincial officers. These certificates may be obtained at Somerset House, or from the superintendent registrar of the district in which the birth took place. 11. Every candidate not producing the above certificate must prove his age by statutory declaration, and should also, if possible, produce a baptismal certificate, or an official extract from a non-parochial register, deposited at Somerset House, under the act 3 and 4 Vict., cap. 92. This regulation applies — 1. To all candidates not born in England or Wales. 2. To candidates born in England or Wales on or before the 30th of June, 1837. 3.' To candidates who, though born in England or Wales after the 3Gth of June, 1837, cannot produce the registrar general's certificate. * If the examination is not competitive these words are omitted in the order. t These subjects vary according to the office for which the candidate is nominated. (See List of Depart- "'+ For limit of age prescribed for admission into each department, see " Under Government." 208 CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. The civil service commissioners reserve to themselves the right of deciding, in each case, upon the sufficiency of the evidence produced, but they subjoin the following general rules for the guidance of candidates : (a) The declaration should specify precisely the date and place of birth, and should, if possible, be made by the father or mother of the candidate. If made by any other person it should state the circumstances which enable the declarant to speak to the fact If an entry in a Bible or other family record be referred to, the Bible or other record must be produced at the time of making the declaration, and must be mentioned in the declaration as having been so produced. (6) If the candidate was born in England or Wales after the 30th of June, 1837, the decla- ration must contain a statement that after due inquiry no entry has been found in the books of the registrar general, or a separate declaration containing that statement must be made. (c) If no extract from a parochial or non-parochial register is produced, the declaration must contain a statement that after careful inquiry no such record nas been found, and that none is believed to exist, or a separate declaration containing that statement must be made. (d) Statutory declarations must be exactly in the form prescribed by the act of 5 and 6 William IV, c. 62. The eighteenth section of that act is as follows : " And whereas it may be necessaiy and proper in many cases, not herein specified, to require confirmation of written instruments or allegations, or proof of debts, or of the execution of deeds or other matters : Be it therefore further enacted. That it shall and may be lawful for any justice of the peace, notary public, or other officer now by law authorized to administer an oath, to take and receive the declaration of any person voluntarily making the same before him, in the form in the schedule to this act annexed ; and if any declaration so made shall be false or untrue in any material particular, the person wilfully making such false dejclara- tion shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor." The prescribed form is the following : "I, A. B., of , do solemnly and sincerely declare, &c., » * » and I make this solemn declaration conscientiously believing the same to be true, and by virtue of the pro- visions of an act made and passed in the sixth year of the reign of his late majesty, entitled ' An act to repeal an act of the present session of Parliament, for the more effectual abolition of oaths and affirmations taken and made in the various departments of the state, and to sub- stitute declarations in lieu thereof, and for the more entire suppression of voluntary and extra judicial oaths and affidavits, and to make other provisions for the abolition of unneces- ary oaths.' " Instructions. — Candidates resident in the metropolis, or its vicinity, receive their order and instructions on their personal attendance on days specified in letters sent to them ; but com petitors resident in the country receive the loUowing letter, enclosing their order and instruc- tions through the post : CiviT, Service Commission, Dean's Yard, fVestminster, S. W. Sir : In consequence of a communication which has been received, acquainting the civil service commissioners that you have been nominated to compete for , I am to enclose an order for your examination, with other papers, and at the same time to request your atten- tion to the following particulars : 1 . The paper marked ' ' Form A ' ' should be filled up by you, and sent to this office by return of post, in the enclosed envelope, together with the other half of this sheet. 2. The evidence of age required by the enclosed instructions should be sent at your earliest ' convenience, as also the certificate as to youi' health, filled up and signed by a duly qualified medical practitioner. I am, sir, your obedient servant. \^This 'portion of the form to be torn off, signed, and sent with " Form A.""] Received : 1 . An order of examination dated for the * day of . * 2. "Form A." 3. Instructions as to evidence required. 4. A form of medical certificate. (Signature.) * The date to be filled up by the candidate. CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 209 Antecedents.— Candidates are required to insert in the following form particulars of their age, education, and previous employment. Form A. [To be filled up by the candidate himself. ] It is important that this form should contain a full account of the employment of your time since leaving school, whether passed in business, or however otherwise occupied. Christian name and surname (in full) Usual signature, and date Usual address [If two addresses, state also that to which you wish the result of your examination to be sent.] Day and year of birth ._ ... Age on last birthday . Place of birth , Father's name . , Father's profession or trade 1 _ [If deceased, give the last residence, profession, &c.] [Mention the school or schools at which you were educated, legiate, national, British, &c. Mention the length of your stay in each, and the name of the master of the school last attended.] [Mention the names and addresses of two responsible persons who are well acquainted with you in private life. ] [Grive the name and address of the medical practitioner who has [If SO, state when, aud for wliat situation.] First situation. Name and address of employer, &c Business, &c., of employer Position held by you Salary or wages Length of stay (giving dates) Cause of leaving Occupation in interval between first and second situation . Second situation. 1. Name and address of employer, &c 2. Business, &c., of employer 3. Position held by you 4. Salary or wages 5. Length of stay (giving dates) 6. Cause of leaving - --• Occupation in interval between second and third situation. H. Kep. Com. 47 14 From •to- From ■to- 210 CIVIL SERVICE OP THE UNITED STATES. Form A— Continued. Third situation. 1. Name and address of employer, &c 2. Business, &c. , of employer 3. Position held by you 4. Salary 'or wages 5. Length of stay (giving dates) 6. Cause of leaving Occupation in interval between third and fourth situation Fourth situation, 1. Name and address of employer, &c 2. Business, &c. , of employer 3. Position held by you 4. Salary or wages 5. Length of stay (giving dates) 6. Cause of leaving Occupation in interval between fourth and fifth situation - Fifth situation. 1. Name and address of employer, &c 2. Business, &c., of employer 3. Position held by you 4. Salary or wages 5. Length of stay (giving dates) 6. Cause of leaving From •to- From ■to- From ■to- Character. — The following letter and list of questions is sent to each person whose name and address is given by the candidate as having employed him subsequent to his leaving school ; a similar form is sent, omitting the fourth question, to the referees, whose names and addresses are given by the candidate as responsible persons well acquainted with him in private life : Civil Service Commission, S. W. Sir : Mr. , a candidate for the junior situation of , having stated that I am directed by the civil service commissioners to request he was employed by ■ that you will oblige them by filling up and returning to me, in the enclosed envelope, the "statement " hereto annexed. The postage need not be paid. I am to add that your answer will, if you desire it, be regarded as confidential, and that the word "confidential" should in that case be written on the envelope. The favor of an early answer is requested. I am, sir, your obedient servant. This portion of the form to be torn off, filled up, and relumed in the envelope sent therewith. ] Statement respecting ■ -, a candidate for the junior situation of - QUESTIONS. 1. Are you related to the candidate 1 If so, what is the relationship ? 2. Are you well acquainted with the candidate ? 3. From what circumstances does your knowledge of him arise? 4. Will you have the goodness to mention the dates of his entering and quitting your employment, and his reasons for leaving ? 5. How long have you known him 1 6. Is he strictly honest and sober, intelligent and diligent ? 7. Do you believe him to be free from pecuniary embarrassments ? 8. What do you know of his education and acquirements ? 9. Has he ever been in the service of the government i. and if so, in what situation ? 10. What has been the state of his health since you have known him? IL Are you aware of any circumstance tending to disqualify him for the situation which he now seeks ? [Signature.] [Address. ] . [Date.] , . CIVIL SEEVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 211 Unsvccessful candidates. In cases where the commissiouers are obliged to refuse their certificate, the candidates receive the following circular, apprising them in which of the prescribed subjects they have failed : Civil Service Commission, Westminster, S. W. Sir : I am directed by the civil service commissioners to acquaint you that the results of your recent examination have not been such as to justify them in granting their certificate of qualification. The subject in which you failed specified below, but it is desirable you should under- stand that if you are again nominated to the same or a different situation, you will be exam- ined in all the prescribed subjects, and will not receive your certificate unless you pass to the satisfaction of the commissioners in all. I am, sir, your obedient servant. The commissioners consider that the only serious evil to be apprehended from this course of proceeding is, that the information of details of failure may lead to the second nomination of those who have failed, and that a system of cramming in respect of the particular defi- ciency may be resorted to. In such cases, however, this evil is obviated by an examination carefully adapted to test the reality of such knowledge. Any candidate, therefore, expecting a second nomination, should strenuously apply himself to the thorough mastery of the sub- ject or subjects in which he previously failed. guide to the civil service. ]. History and proceedings of the civil service commission. — For many years the unsatis factory condition of the permanent civil service had attracted considerable attention, as well out of Parliament as in, until, in 1853, a commission was appointed with a view to the im- provement and reorganization of that body. In November of the same year Sir Stafford Northcote and Sir Charles Trevelyan addressed a report to the lords of the treasury, stating their opinion that " the right of competing for appointment in the civil service should be open to all persons of a given age, subject only to the necessity of giving satisfactory refer- ences to persons able to speak to their moral conduct and character." Her Majesty's speech at the opening of Parliament in 1854 contained the following passage : ' ' The establishment required for the conduct of the civil service, and the arrangements bearing upon its condition, have recently been under review, and I shall direct a plan to be laid before you which will have for its object to improve the system of admission, and thereby to increase the efficiency of t.he service. " No such plan was laid before Parliament, but on the 21st May, 1 855, her Majesty issued an order in council, appointing Sir E. Ryan, J. Gr. Shaw Lefevre, esq., C. \B., an , E. Eomily, esq., commissioners for conducting the examination of young men proposed to be appointed to any of the junior situations In the civil establishments, and authorizing them to give certificates of qualification before such young men entered on their duties. After due consultation with the heads of the several departments of the civil service, a scheme of examinations was prepared, and the first examination took place on the 30th June, 1855, since which time examinations have been held nearly every week. The principle of examination has not only been twice affirmed by resolutions of the House of Commons, but has been more formally sanctioned by two acts of Parliament. The " Act for the better government of India," (1859,) by its thirty-second section, recognizes the sys- tem of open competition, which had previously been established for appointments in the Indian civil service, and provides for the conduct of the examinations by the civil service commissioners, enacting that without their certificate no candidate shall be admitted to ser- vice in India. The superannuation act, passed in the same year, provides that, with certain exceptions, no person appointed after its date shall, for its purposes, be considered as serv- ing in the permanent civil service of the state, unless admitted with a certificate from the civil service commissioners. In February, 1860, a select committee was appointed by the House of Commons " to inquire into the present mode of nominating and examining candi- dates for junior appointments in the civil service, with a view to ascertaining whether greater facility may not be afforded for the admission of properly qualified persons." In the report of this committee, dated 9th July following, the competitive principle is very strongly affirmed, and private patronage condemned. The committee do not, however, propose any sweeping change, but think that "an important step in advance will have been taken if, for the system now generally prevailing of simple nomination, there be substituted one of Urn 212 CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. ited, but of real, competition;" and they recommend, accordingly, "that from henceforth every vacancy occumng among clerks in the civil service be competed for by not less than three candidates, to be nominated as at present, each of whom, in the first instance, shall have passed the preliminary test examination, except in the case of a single vacancy which shall not be competed for by less than five. The committee also recommend that several vacancies should be competed for at once, and that the present objectionable course of the commissioners, who inquire into the moral and physical qualifications of the candidates after examination, should be immediately altered. They further observe that " success in obtain- ing qualified candidates for the civil service must depend quite as much on the prospects and opportunities of promotion subsequently held out to the clerk in his official career, as on the immediate pecuniary advantages offered, or the judicious selection of young men in the first instance." Ten reports have already been presented by the commissioners ; from the latest of which, dated 12th June, 1865, it appears that the total number of nominations since the commence- ment of their proceedings in May, 1855, amounts to 29,763. The number of competitors for the superior situations in 1864 was 790 for 251 places, out of which 517 received nominations. Of the remaining 273, 241 fell below the standard of competence ; 19 failed in respect of age ; 5 in respect of health ; and 8 in respect of character. For the inferior offices — letter-carriers, &c. — out of 2,384, 1,931 certificates were granted. 2. Mode of examination. — The mode in which the examinations are conducted in London is usually as follows : The candidates meet at the office of the civil service commission, Dean's Yard, or else at Great George street, Westminster. The arithmetic paper is given on the first morning, and the time allowed is about three hours ; the afternoon is generally occu- pied with six or more long sums in compound addition (to be cast up without an en'or,) with dictation, exercises in orthography, and composition. From many classes of candidates, as will be seen further on, no other test of proficiency is required. Others, whose examinations include a greater variety of subjects, are engaged for two or three days according to circumstances. On Wednesday morning the history paper is given, and in the afternoon the pr6cis ; on Thursday, geography and composition ; and on Friday, languages and mathematics. This order depends, however, entirely upon the pleasure of the examiners, and may be changed at any time. The examination in vol- untary subjects for honorary certificates never takes place until after the candidates have received notice that they have passed in the required subjects. To insure uniformity of standard, the provincial examinations are all under the control ol the central commission. The necessary papers are issued from the metropolitan office, to which the candidates' answers, with specimens of handwriting, and certificates, are returned for inspection, the commissioners deciding absolutely upon the documents then laid before them. There is in "pass" examinations no fixed minimum, nor are marks assigned. The can- didates are reported upon by epithets applied to the work they have done, the use of which is so far constant as to supply a fixed test. The commissioners, not the examiners, decide in aU cases whether the candidate has passed or not. In competitive examinations marks are employed ; and there are no viva voce questions, except in those cases where a conversational knowledge of a modern language is specified. Candidates to be examined in London are generally required to attend at Dean's Yard oil some day preceding that fixed for their examination, when they fill up a form containing particulars as to age, education, former employment, &.c., and also give references as to character. Each then receives instruction as to the evidence of age and health required in his particular case ; and, from the information thus given, the secretary writes to his referees, and also to any recent employer ; to the education department, if he has been a pupil teacher ; or to any of the government offices in which he has been employed. If he has served in the army or navy, or mercantile marine, he is required to produce his discharge. In all cases the commissioners refer to his former situation as to his general character ; but whatever the inquiries may be, they do not delay the examination, though no certificate is granted unless the result of the inquiries is satisfactory. As a general rule every paper is looked over twice, each of the two permanent examiners going over the other's work. In some cases, where it is perfectly clear to one of them, this is not necessary ; both, however, make themselves jointly responsible for all that they do. They next report to the commissioners, who revise the papers and marks, and pronounce their decision ; the successful candidates being selected as the result of such revision. Their decision is then announced to the treasury or other department, when the successful candi- dates are written to and requested to attend at the treasury or other office (as the case may be) on a day named, to choose their place, if there is a choice. The commissioners some- times write to the candidates within about eight days after the close of the examination, though very often a fortnight elapses, sending them a list of marks, informing them of the place they each obtained in the competition ; and, of course, whether successful or the con- trary. The form of proceeding is pretty much the same in the case of "pass" examinations. The practice of renominating unsuccessful candidates within a short time after their failure having led to abuses, the lords of the treasury have fixed three months as the shortest period after which they will grant a second nomination, and in the admiralty and war office an CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 213 did^^''^ °^ six months is required. A third chance is rarely offered to the unsuccessful oan- Iri a_ competitive examination each candidate is required to obtain a certain amount of marks m all the prescribed subjects. 3. Preliminary examinations.— %hoxt\j after the publication of the report of the House oi Commons Committee of 1860, the whole character of the examinations was changed by the establishment of a preliminary or test examination, which all candidates are required to pass before going up for any competition. The subjects in this "little go'' are generally limited to handwriting, orthography, arithmetic, and English composition, with Latin and book- keeping, where the departmental regulations require a knowledge of these subjects. The names ot the successful candidates are returned to the treasury, where they are entered in the qualihed ' list, from which all competitors for vacancies are chosen. In the year 1864, ot the candidates nominated for preliminary examination, 204 passed the test and 160 failed. _ In the preliminary examination, handwriting and arithmetic are the most important sub- (a)i?a«rfM)ri«i»i^.— Good writing consists in the "clear formation of the letters of the alphabet ;'" it should be " rapid, neat, and of that even stroke which allows of legible copifes to be taken by pressing." With a moderate degree of perseverance and industry, this kind of handwriting is attainable by almost every educated person, and yet a slight acquaintance with official hfe shows that this most useful accomplishment is somewhat exceptional. Com- plaints are constantly made by the commissioners regarding the very unsatisfactory condi tion of the handwriting that comes before them. Greatstressshouldbelaidupon this subject' No_ particular style is required, provided the writing possesses the main characteristic of legi-. (6) Spelling.— ITaa ability of the candidates in this most necessary branch of education is tested by their writing from dictation a passage of average difficulty. One of the examin- ers first reads aloud some passage from a book or extract from a newspaper, that the candi- dates may catch its general scope ; he then reads it move deliberately, so that it may be written down ; and lastly, he goes over it once more, that candidates may have an opportu- nity of correcting their errors and inserting the stops. ' When an additional test of orthography is required, (as it is in all but the foreign office,) the somewhat objectionable plan is adopted of requiring the candidate to correct the erroneous spelling in a printed paper altered for the purpose. Earl Russell and Mr. Hammond, under- secretary in the foreign office, recommended as the best way of overcoming the difficulties of this " bad spelling paper," "to learn your line by heart, and shut your paper up and write from your head, not from the paper." There is no rule as to the number of faults in spelling that will "pluck" a man, as they are of such different quantity. " Some of them," says one of the examiners, " are really almost such that one of them would prove very great igno- rance in a man, while others are so slight that you hardly know how to compare one with the other." No candidate has ever been rejected for less than eight or ten distinct eiTorsin spell- ing ; and there was a well-known case in which a candidate was not rejected until after much consideration, although his orthographical blunders amounted to tliirty-one. The weight given to spelling is very great in competitive and pass examinations. The column in the reports of the competitive examinations headed " General Intelligence, "has reference solely to the intelligence shown in the dictation and in correcting the orthography paper, including also the copying paper, where that is used. (c) Arithmetic. — The examination under this head includes two sets of papers — the element- ary, given to tidewaiters, weighers, doorkeepers, messengers, &c., and to candidates for temporary employment and in certain offices ; the higher, commencing with reduction and ending with 'decimal fractions, given to candidates for permanent clerkships. The "test" does not extend the limits previously assigned, but the examiners require "the correct exe- cution of a certain proportion of the sums set, especially in the addition of money." The difficulty of the long addition sums may be best overcome by dividing them into portions of five or six lines each, and then adding these partial totals. The number of questions set in the " test' ' paper is usually under forty. (d) Composition. — The aptness of a candidate in English composition is not in general tested by requiring him to compose a formal theme or essay ; but some familiar subject is selected as the topic on which he is to write. The subjects usually bear upon the events of the day or of recent occurrence, as "the Fenian insurrection," "the volunteer review," "the advantages and disadvantages derived from works of fiction," or some book or place with which the candidate may happen to be familiar. The commissioners " have found but few instances in which a candidate has shown great facility in composing even an ordinary letter." In assigning marks under this head, they have regard only to the exercise, strictly so called, and not at all to the style in which the questions are answered in the other papers on geography, history, or any other subject. An important change was made in 1863 by the war office in the mode of admission to tha department. Candidates who pass the test examination are appointed "temporary " clerks and in order to become " established " clerks they have to compete — five for a single vacancy and four each if several vacancies are to be filled up. Those who fail to pass the test exam ination cannot be nominated again until after the expiration of six months, and upon a 214 CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. second failure they are struck off the list. No candidate who fails in three competitive examinations will be sent up again. 4. Final or competitive examination. — Examination by competition is now almost entirely the plan adopted through which a government situation can be obtained. The mere pass is rarely resorted to, except in examinations for attach^ships and offices in the consulate. The system of competition has been twice affirmed by resolutions of the House of Commons : Resolution of 2ith April, 1856. — "An address to thank her Majesty for having caused to be laid before this house the report of the civil service commissioners ; to state humbly to her Majesty that the house has observed with great satisfaction the zeal and prudence with which the commission has proceeded in applying a remedy to evils of a serious character, the previous existence of which has now been placed beyond dispute; and also the degree of progress which has been made, with the sanction of the heads of various departments of the states towards the establishment of a system of competition among candidates for admission to the civil service ; to assure her Majesty of the steady support of this house in the prose- cution of the salutary measures which she has been graciously pleased to adopt; and humbly to make known to her Majesty that if she shall think fit further to extend them, and to make trial in the civil service of the method of open competition as a condition of entrance, this house will cheerfully provide for any charges which the adoption of that system may entail." (Lord Goderich.) Resolution of lith July, 1857. — ' ' That in the opinion of this house the experience acquired since the issuing of the order in council of the 21st day of May, 1855, is in favor of the adoption of the principle of competition as a condition of entrance to the civil service ; and that the application of that principle ought to be extended, in conformity with the resolution of the house agreed to on the 24th day of April, 1856." (Lord Goderich.) The usual plan was (and to a great extent still is) to nominate three persons to one vacancy, when the candidate who obtains the greatest number of marks in the examination is appointed. But it was soon found that this was a very uncertain mode of filling up vacancies, and to some extent unfair to the competitors. In their third report, the civil service commissioners entered into the question at some length : ' ' With regard to the cases in which three candidates have been examined for one situation, we must notice an unsatisfactory result which is likely to arise, and which in fact has arisen, from the number of candidates who are to compete together being so frequently limited to three. In such cases it may and does happen, from time to time, that one or two of the competing candidates fail to reach the positive minimum which would entitle them to a certificate, so that the actual competition is either reduced to two, or virtually ends in a simple pass examination. Thus, out of 22 competitions for situations in the customs, there were ten cases in which only two, and eight in which only one of the candidates examined were capable of passing. In the inland revenue also, in 16 competitions, there were two in which two, and ten in which only one, of the candidates examined could have passed, while in others three capable candidates competed for two situations, and four for three situations. "In noticing these anomalies, we must admit that under any conceivable arrangement there will still remain differences in the average merits of one set of competitors and another set, and candidates may gain or lose by being accidentally placed in a weak or strong body of competitors ; but, at all events, this evil would be vay much diminished by having one large instead of several small competitions." They took up the subject again in the fourth report, and, to enforce their views, quoted two recent competitions for junior situations, of the same nature and in the same office, in which the marks given were as follows : FIRST COMPETITION. Total marks. Candidate No. 1 3,685 No. 2 2,530 No. 3 1,365 SECOND COMPETITION. Total marks. Candidate No. 1 1,355 No. 2 1,256 No.3 865 " It will be perceived that No. 2 in the first competition had much higher marks than No. 1 in the second, and that even No. 3 in the first examination just surpassed No. 1 in the second, although the subjects of examination and the examination papers were the same in both, and the examination took place simultaneously." The practical conclusion to which the commissioners arrived was, that the number of can- didates should be increased, so as to bear a larger proportion to the vacancies, three to one being- insufficient. As yet they have not succeeded, to any great extent, in altering the number of competitors; but large competitions are more frequent and with the most satis- factory results. It is evident that the chance of obtaining the best men must be greater in one large competition than in several small ones, even when the same number of prizes and competitors is maintained. Thus, if 60 men go in to compete for 20 situations, the 20 suc- cessful competitors in one contest of the whole number would be almost certainly superior to the 20 victors in 20 separate competitions of three each, because the second and even the third man in one of the small competitions would occasionally be found superior to the first man in another. CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 215 In consequence of the proved failure of the competitive system when thus worked, the House of Commons committee of J860 recommended (as we have mentioned before) that no candidate should be allowed to compete for any vacancy, unless he had passed a preliminary "test" examination. This at once excluded the incompetent, put the competitors more on a level, and also increased the severity of the examinations. The following table will show the progress made by the competitive system during the last seven yeai"s : 1858. 1859. 1860. 1861. 1862. 1863. 1864. Number of examinations 122 230 745 647 96 286 1,260 1,107 80 236 688 603 94 266 812 715 118 289 994 864 133 278 920 813 131 251 859 784 The most important competitive examination that has taken place since the establishment of the commission was that for eight vacancies in the office of the secretary of state for India. It was thrown open to all comers ; and, out of 789 applicants, no less than 339 actually pre- sented themselves for examination at Willis's rooms, on the 18th January, 1859. The examination lasted three days, six hours each day, interrupted only by a break for refresh- ment; and, on the 11th February the names of the successful competitors were declared. The third and fourth and the seventh and eighth were bracketed as equal ; but as the eighth had failed in history and the ninth in handwriting, the tenth received the required certificate. Seven of the successful candidates offered themselves for a voluntary examination in extra subjects, and obtained honorary additions to their certificates for proficiency in Greek, Latin, German, French, political economy, Euclid, algebra, &c. The total of marks was 1,550, but the highest only reached 1 , 130, while the lowest was 84. Of the successful competitors, one was a sub-editor of a newspaper, one a school-assistant, two were schoolmasters, and three clerks. The object of the final examination is to ascertain whether the candidate has received a liberal education, and, with this view, he will have papers set before him on the following subjects : (a) Arithmetic. — In addition to the arithmetic paper given in the "preliminary," the can- didate is now required to solve a number of miscellaneous questions or problems, which occasionally tax his ingenuity very sorely. C6) History and geography. — In pass examinations an amount of knowledge iu these sub^ jects, rarely exceeding what may be acquired at good schools, has been received as sufficient. In competitions a much more extensive acquaintance with them is required. (c) Bookkeeping.— The specimens given further on will enable a candidate to form some idea of what will be required of him, though the nature of some of the questions will make an experienced and practical bookkeeper smile. The paper given in the final examination is generally more difficult than that in the preliminary, and sometimes consists of problems (d) English composition.— If the candidate passes this in the " preliminary," he will prob- ably not be called upon for another essay. (e) Latin and modern languages.— The candidate is required to translate mto English, except where the department specially requires in addition a version from English into other languages. Latin and modern languages are mostly ranked among the voluntary subjects, except in the record office and a few others, where they are absolutely required. (r) Euclid and algebra.— In Euclid a knowledge of the first three books would suffice for an ordinary examination ; but the addition of the fourth and sixth, with some practice in working problems, would not be too much for a stiff competition. The algebra papers are usually " tough customers," and require a thorough knowledge of quadratic equations and of progression, arithmetical and geometrical. , . , ^ (e) Precis.— In some offices, especially in the foreign and record offices, very great weight is attached to precis writing. Mr. Hammond considers it "the only test ot a candidate's ability " The exercises given in the following pages will show the nature of the examina- tion to be passed, and in what manner the candidate may best prepare himself for it. It is one of those studies, however, that can hardly be followed successiully without a tutor. 216 CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. [From the London Times, May 18, 1868.] INDIA CIVIL SERVICE. The following are the successful candidates at the recent open competition for the civil service of India, provided they pass a medical examination to be held in London in the course of this week : Numbers. In order of merit. In examin- ation. Name. Total num- ber of marks. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 32 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 207 46 154 157 182 217 127 293 83 103 190 161 167 79 252 128 135 117 234 221 187 118 70 248 282 276 37 15 172 ;215 1230 I 20 I 211 '263 5 188 206 208 140 35 175 96 163 56 133 113 42 227 151 201 Bowie, Eobert Wylie Beaven, Alfred Beaven Ibbetson, Denzil Charles Jelf Jenkyns, William Clarke, Eobert . . , Campbell, John Colin Deas, Joseph Bucklaud, Charles Edward Morrison, William Hudson Burgess, George Douglas . Channing, Francis Chorley Thomson, John Brown Fisher, Frederic Henry , Wallace, James Eedfern, Thomas Eobert Thomas, Henry Dealtry Graves, Arnold Felix Bullock, Frederick Shore , Dames, Mansel Longworth Horan, Thomas Eivaz, George Wil mot , James, Stephen Harvey Weiclemann, George Lever Henderson, Henry Philipse , Monteath, James , Bourdillon, James Brown, Arthur Ormsby Paul, Alfred Wallis Baines, Jervoise Athelstaue Abbott, Leonard Charles Bird, George Emilius Macaulay, Colman Patrick Louis Marsden, Delabene Weston Cornish, Eobert Skrine, Francis Henry Bennet. . . Meiklejohn, David Ogilvy Cuningham, William John Ommanney, Henry Travers Elliot, Frederick Augustus Hugh Batty, Herbert M'CuUum, Edwin Brown, Eobert Shelton MacCartie, Charles Falkiner Acworth, Henry Arbuthnot Oliver, Arthur Knapp Underwood, Walter Gregory Frost, Charles Evitt Jacob, Philip Fitz Gerald, James Eichard Horsley , William Heirry 523 151 129 989 978 976 878 865 838 825 820 788 738 722 694 631 666 660 642 608 600 596 590 584 554 544 528 521 520 494 494 486 486 476 464 457 454 434 427 414 405 401 392 385 379 373 365 338 331 325 The number of candidates examined was 268. A table showing the marks obtained in each subject is being printed, and a copy will be sent to each candidate in a few days. CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 217 A BILL to regulate the civil service of the United States and promote the efficiency thereof. Be it enacted ly the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That from and after the passage of this act ithere shall be created a new department of the government of the United States, to be called the Department of the Civil Service ; that the head of said depart- ment shall be the Vice-President of the Uniled States,' or in case of a vacancy in said office, the President of the Senate for the time being, who shall be a member and president of the board of commissioners hereinafter created, and shall perform all the duties pertaining thereto. Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That hereafter all appointments of civil officers in the several departments of the service of the United States, except postmasters and such officers as are by law required to be appointed by the President by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall be made from those persons who shall have been found best qualified for the performance of the duties of the offices to which such appointments are to be made, in [an] open and competitive examination*, to be comlucted as herein prescribed. Sec. 3, And be it further enacted,[Tha,t there shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, a board of four commissioners, who shall hold their offices for the term of five years, to be called the civil service examination board, among whose duties shall be the following : First. To prescribe the qualifications requisite for an appointment into each branch and grade of the civil service of the United State's, having regard to the fitness of each candidate in respect to age, health, character, knowledge, and ability for the branch of service into which he seeks to enter. Second. To provide for the examination* and periods and conditions of pro- bation of all persons eligible under this act who may present themselves for admission into the civil service. ' Third. To establish rules governing the applications of such persons, the times and places of their examinations, the subjects upon which such examina- tions shall be had, with other incidents thereof, and the mode of conducting the same, and the manner of keeping and preserving the records thereof, and of perpetuating the evidence of such applications, qualifications, examinations, probations, and their result, as they shall think expedient. Such rules shall be so framed as to keep the branches of the civil service and the different grades of each branch, as also the records applicable to each branch, distinct and sepa- rate. The said board shall divide the country into territorial districts for the purpose of holding examinations of applicants resident therein and others, and shall designate some convenient and accessible place in each district where examinations shall be held. " Fourth. To examine personally, or by persons by them specially designated, the applicants for appointment into the civil service of the United States. ~ Fifth . To make report of all rules and regulations established by them, and of a summary of their proceedings, including an abstract of their examinations for the different branches of the service, annually, to Congress at the opening of each session. Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That all appointments to the civil service provided for in this act shall be made from those who have passed the required examinations and probations in the following order and manner : First. The applicant who stands highest in order of merit on the list of those who have passed the examination and probation for any particular branch and grade of the civil service shall have the preference in appointment to that branch and grade^'and so on, in the order of precedence in examinations and merit during probation to the minimum degree of merit fixed by the board for such grade. H. Kep. Com. 47 15 218 CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. Second. Whenever any vacancy shall occur in any grade of the civil service above the lowest, in any branch, the senior in the next lower grade may be appointed to fill the same, or a new examination for that particular vacancy may be ordered, under the direction of the department, of those in the next lower grade, and the person found best qualified shall be entitled to the appointment to fill such vacaacy : Prouided, That no person now in office shall be promoted or transferred from a lower to a higher grade, unless he shall have passed at least one examination under this act. Third. The right of seuiority shall be determined by the rank of merit assigned by the board upon the examinations, having regard also to seniority in service; but it shall at all timas be in the power of the heads of departments to order new examinations, which shall be conducted by the board, upon due notice, and according to fixed rules, and which shall determine seniority with regard to the persons ordered to be examined, or in the particular branch and grade of the service to which such examinations shall apply. Fourth. Said board shall have power to establish rules for such special ex- aminations, and also rules by which any persons exhibiting particular merit in any branch of the civil service may be advanced one or more points in their respective grades ; and one-fourth of the promotions may be made on account of merit, irrespective of seniority in service, such merit to be ascertained by special examinations, or by advancement for meritorious services and special fitness for the particular branch of service, according to rules to be established as aforesaid. Sec. 5. And be it further enacted. That said board shall also have power to prescribe a fee, not exceeding five dollars, to be paid by each applicant for examination, and also a fee, not exceeding ten dollars, to be paid by each per- son who shall receive a certificate of recommendation for appointment or for pro- motion, or of seniority, which fees shall be first paid to the collector of internal revenue in the district where the applicant or officer resides or may be examined, to be accounted for and paid into the treasury of the United States by such collector ; and the certificates of payment of fees to collectors shall be forwarded quarterly by the commissioners to the Treasury Department. /Seo. 6. And he it further enacted, That said board shall have power to pre- scribe, by general rules, whiit misconduct or inefficiency shall be sufficient for the^removal or suspension of all officers who come within the provisions of this actj.,and also to establish rules for the manner of preferring charges for such misconduct or inefficiency, and for the trial of the accused, and for determining his position pending such trial. Sec. 7. A.nd be it further enacted, That any one of said commissioners may conduct or superintend any examinations, and the board may call to their assist- ance in such examinations such men of learning and high character as they may think fit, or, in their discretion, such officers in the civil, military, or naval service of the United States, as may be designated from time to time, on appli- cation of the board, as assistant* to said board, by the President or heads of departments ; and in special cases, to be fixed by rules or by resolutions of the board, they may delegate examinations to such persons, to be attended and pre- sided over by one member of said board, or by some persons specially desig- nated to preside. Sec. 8. And he it further enacted. That the said board may also, upon rea- sonable notice to the person accused, hear and determine any case of alleged misconduct or inefficiency, under the general rules herein provided for, and in such case shall report to the head of the proper department their finding in the matter, and may recommend the suspension or dismissal from office of any per- son found guilty of such misconduct or inefficiency ; and such person shall be forthwith suspended or dismissed "by the Tiead of such department pursuant to such recommendation, and from the filing of such report shall receive no com- CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES, 219 pensation for official s.ervice except from and after the expiration of any term of suspension recommended by such repoyt. Sec. 9. And he it further enacted, (That the salary of each of said commis- sioners, and the additional salary of the Vice-President for performing the duties required of him by this act, shall be five tliousand dollars a year, and the said board may appoint a clerk at a salary of two thousand five hundred dollars a year, and a messenger at a salary of nine hundred dollars a year, and these sums and the necessary travelling expenses of the commissioners, clerk, and messenger, to be accounted for in detail and verified by afiidavit, shall be paid from any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated. The neces- sary expenses of any person employed by said commissioners, as assistants, to be accounted for and verified in like manner, and certified by theboard, shall also be paid in like manner. Sec. 10. And, he it Jurther enacted, That any officer in the civil service of the United States, at the date of the passage of this act, other than those excepted in the [first] second section of this act, may be required by the head of the department in which he serves to appear before said board, and if found not qualified for the place he occupies he shall be reported for dismissal, and be dismissed in the manner hereinbefore provided, and the vacancy shall be filled in manner aforesaid from those who may be found qualified for such grade of ofl^ce after such examination. (Sr,"- 11. And he it further enacted, That all citizens of the United States shall be eligible to examination and appointment under the provisions of this act, and the heads of the several departments may, in their discretion, designate the offices in the several branches of the civil -service the duties of which may be performed by females as well as males, and for all such offices females as well as males shall be eligible, and may make application therefor and be exam- ined, recommended, appointed, tried, suspended, and dismissed, in manner afore- said: and the names of those recommended by the examiners shall be placed upon the lists for appointment and promotion in the order of their merit and se- niority, and without distinction, other than as aforesaid, from those of male applicants or officers. ^ Sec. 12. And he it further enacted, That the President, and also the Senate, may require any person applying for or recommended for any office which requires confirmation by the Senate to appear before said board and be examined as to his qualifications, either before or after being commissioned ; and the result of such examination shall be reported to the President and to the Senate. Sec. 13. And he it further enacted. That until the confirmation by the Senate of the commissioners authorized to be appointed by this act, the head of said department is hereby authorized to appoint persons to perform the duties of commissioners temporarily, with the same powers and at the same rate of com- pensation as hereinbefore provided. ^iv/i svi'.'*: '-m r»>V2 mwjf^^Mm. TM.' i?t/ ^m ■■!V.y