They neither expected nor desired from public officers any
partisan service. They meant that public officers should owe their
whole service to the Government and to the people. They meant that
the officer should be secure in his tenure as long as his personal
character remained untarnished and the performance of his duties
satisfactory. They held that appointments to office were not to be
made nor expected merely as rewards for partisan services, nor
merely on the nomination of members of Congress, as being entitled
in any respect to the control of such appointments.
The fact that both the great political parties of the country, in
declaring their principles prior to the election, gave a prominent
place to the subject of reform of our civil service, recognizing
and strongly urging its necessity, in terms almost identical in
their specific import with those I have here employed, must be
accepted as a conclusive argument in behalf of these measures. It
must be regarded as the expression of the united voice and will of
the whole country upon this subject, and both political parties
are virtually pledged to give it their unreserved support.
The President of the United States of necessity owes his election
to office to the suffrage and zealous labors of a political party,
the members of which cherish with ardor and regard as of essential
importance the principles of their party organization; but he
should strive to be always mindful of the fact that he serves his
party best who serves the country best.
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