The ideal, or even my own ideal, I shall probably not
attain. Retrospect will be a safer basis of judgment than
promises. We shall not, however, I am sure, be able to put our
civil service upon a nonpartisan basis until we have secured an
incumbency that fair-minded men of the opposition will approve for
impartiality and integrity. As the number of such in the civil
list is increased removals from office will diminish.
While a Treasury surplus is not the greatest evil, it is a serious
evil. Our revenue should be ample to meet the ordinary annual
demands upon our Treasury, with a sufficient margin for those
extraordinary but scarcely less imperative demands which arise now
and then. Expenditure should always be made with economy and only
upon public necessity. Wastefulness, profligacy, or favoritism in
public expenditures is criminal. But there is nothing in the
condition of our country or of our people to suggest that anything
presently necessary to the public prosperity, security, or honor
should be unduly postponed.
It will be the duty of Congress wisely to forecast and estimate
these extraordinary demands, and, having added them to our
ordinary expenditures, to so adjust our revenue laws that no
considerable annual surplus will remain. We will fortunately be
able to apply to the redemption of the public debt any small and
unforeseen excess of revenue.
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