Lippincott'S Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science, Volume 26 December, 1880. by Various None (smart ebook reader .txt) 📕

Associations In Its Churches,  And Few Of Its Temples Have Been Permitted

To Record The Names Of Famous Occupants During A Series Of Years. Our

Whole Country,  Indeed,  Is A Land Of Many Denominations And A Somewhat

Wandering Population; And Older Cities Than Washington Have Found One

Church Famous For One Event In Its History,  And Another For Another,

Rather Than,  In any Single Building,  A Series Of Notable Occurrences

Running Through The Centuries. The Nearest Approach To The Record Of A

Succession Of Worthies Occupying The Same Church-Seats Year After Year

Is To Be Found In The Chronicles Of Our Oldest College-Chapels,  As,  For

Instance,  At Dartmouth,  Where The Building Containing The Still-Used

Chapel Dates From 1786. But Though Poverty And Custom Unite In Making

Our Colleges Conservative,  Their Growth In Numbers Demands,  From Time To

Time,  New And More Generous Accommodations For Public Worship; And So

The Little Buildings Of An Earlier Day Are Either Torn Down Or Kept For

Other And More Ignoble Uses,  Like Holden Chapel At Harvard. This Quaint

Little Structure Was Built In 1744,  And Is Now Used For

Recitation-Rooms,  But At One Period In Its Career It Served As The

Workshop Of The College Carpenter.

[Illustration: Ruins Of The Old Church-Tower,  Jamestown,  Virginia.]

In The Years Since Our Grandfathers Built Their Places Of Worship We

Have Seen Strange Changes In american Church Buildings--Changes In

Material,  Location And Adaptation To Ritual Uses. We Have Had A Revival

Of Pagan Temple-Building In Wood And Stucco; We Have Seen Gothic

Cathedrals Copied For The Simplest Protestant Uses,  Until Humorists Have

Suggested That Congregations Might Find It Cheaper To Change Their

Religion Than Their Unsuitable New Churches; We Have Ranged From Four

Plain Brick Walls To Vast And Costly Piles Of Marble Or Greenstone; We

Have Constructed Great Audience-Rooms For Sunday School Uses Alone,  And

Have Equipped The Sanctuary With All Culinary Attachments; We Have Built

Parish-Houses Whose Comfort The Best-Kept Mediaeval Monk Might Envy,  And

We Have Put Up Evangelistic Tabernacles Only To Find The Most Noted

Evangelists Preferring To Work In Regular Church Edifices Rather Than In

Places Of Easy Resort By The Thoughtless Crowd Of Wonder-Seekers. But

Not All These Doings Have Been Foolish Or Mistaken: Some Of Them Have

Been Most Hopeful Signs,  And The Next Century Will Find Excellent Work

In The Church-Building Of Our Day. The Gothic And Queen Anne Revivals,

At Their Best,  Have Promoted Even More Than The Old-Time Honesty In The

Use Of Sound And Sincere Building-Material; And Not A Few Of Our Newer

Churches Prove That Our Ecclesiastical Architects Have Something More To

Show Than Experiments In Fanciful "Revivals" That Are Such Only In Name.

We Shall Continue To Do Well So Long As We Worthily Perpetuate The Best

Material Lesson Taught By Our Grandfathers' Temples--The Lesson Of

Downright Honesty Of Construction And Of A Union Between The Spirit Of

Worship And Its Local Habitation.

Charles F. Richardson.

Will Democracy Tolerate A Permanent Class Of National Office-Holders?

It Is No Doubt A Public Misfortune That So Much Of That Thoughtful

Patriotism Which,  Both On Account Of Its Culture And Its Independence,

Must Always Be Valuable To The Country,  Should Have Been Wasted,  For

Some Time Past,  Upon What Are Apparently Narrow And Unpractical,  If Not

Radically Unsound,  Propositions Of Reform In The Civil Service. There Is

Unquestionably Need Of Reform In That Direction: It Would Be Too Much To

Presume That In The Generally Imperfect State Of Man His Methods Of

Civil Government Would Attain Perfection; But It Must Be Questioned

Whether The Subject Has Been Approached From The Right Direction And

Upon The Side Of The Popular Sympathy And Understanding. At This Time

Propositions Of Civil-Service Reform Have Not Even The Recognition,  Much

Less The Comprehension,  Of The Mass Of The People. Their Importance,

Their Limitations,  Their Possibilities,  Have Never Been Demonstrated: No

Commanding Intellectual Authority Has Ever Taken Up The Subject And

Worked It Out Before The Eyes Of The People As A Problem Of Our National

Politics. It Remains A Question Of The Closet,  A Merely Speculative

Proposition As To The Science Of Government.

What,  Then,  Are The Metes And Bounds Of This Reform? How Much Is

Demanded? How Much Is Practicable?

Not Attempting A Full Answer To All Of These Questions,  And Intending No

Dogmatic Treatment Of Any,  Let Us Give Them A Brief Consideration From

The Point Of View Afforded By The Democratic System Upon Which The Whole

Political Fabric Of The United States Is Established. We Are To Look At

_Our_ Civil-Service Reform From That Side. Whatever In It May Be

Feasible,  That Much Must Be A Work In accord With The Popular Feeling.

It May Be Set Down At The Outset,  As The First Principle Of The Problem,

That Any Practicable Plan Of Organizing The Public Service Of The United

States Must Not Only Be Founded Upon The General Consent Of The People,

But Must Also Have,  In Its Actual Operation,  Their Continual,  Easy And

Direct Participation. Any Scheme,  No Matter By What Thoughtful Patriot

Suggested,  No Matter Upon What Model Shaped,  No Matter From What

Experience Of Other Countries Deduced,  Which Does Not Possess These

Essential Features Can Never Be Worth The Serious Attention Of Any One

Who Expects To Accomplish Practical And Enduring Results.

(Possibly This May Seem Dogmatic,  To Begin With; But If We Agree To

Treat The Question As One In democratic Politics,  The Principle Stated

Becomes Perfectly Apparent.)

It Must Be Fair,  Then,  And For The Purposes Of This Article Not

Premature,  To Point Out That The Measure Which Is Especially Known As

"Civil-Service Reform," And Which Has Been Occasionally Recognized In

The Party Platforms Along With Other Generalities,  Is One Whose Essence

Is _The Creation Of A Permanent Office-Holding Class_. Substantially,

This Is What It Amounts To. A Man Looking Forward To A Place In The

Public Service Is To Regard It As A Life Occupation,  The Same As If He

Should Study For A Professional Career Or Learn A Mechanical Trade. Once

In Office,  After A "Competitive Examination" Or Otherwise,  He Will

Expect To Stay In: He Will Hold,  As The Federal Judges Do,  By A

Life-Tenure,  "During Good Behavior." This Is Now Substantially The

System Of Great Britain,  Which,  In The Judgment Of Mr. Dorman B. Eaton,

Is So Much Better Than Our Own As To Actually Reduce The Rate Of

Criminality In That Country,  And Which,  He Declares,  Only Political

Baseness Can Prevent Us From Imitating. A Change Of Administration

There,  Mr. Eaton Adds,  Only Affects A Few Scores Of Persons Occupying

The Highest Positions: The Great Mass Of The Officials Live And Die In

Their Places,  Indifferent To The Fluctuation Of Parliamentary

Majorities Or The Rise And Fall Of Ministries.

We Must Ask Ourselves Does This System Accord With American Democracy?

A Little More Than Half A Century Has Passed Since John Quincy Adams,

Unquestionably The Best Trained And Most Experienced American

Administrator Who Ever Sat In The Presidency,  Undertook To Establish In

The United States Almost Precisely The Same System As That Which Great

Britain Now Has. Admission To The Places Was Not,  It Is True,  By Means

Of Competitive Examination,  But The Feature--The Essential Feature--Of

Permanent Tenure Was Present In His Plan. Mr. Adams Took The Government

From Mr. Monroe Without Considering Any Change Needful: His Cabinet

Advisers Even Included Three Of Those Who Had Been In The Cabinet Of His

Predecessor,  And These He Retained To The End,  Though At Least One Of

The Three,  He Thought,  Had Ceased To Be Either Friendly Or Faithful To

Him. Retaining The Old Officers,  And Reappointing Them If Their

Commissions Expired,  Selecting New Ones,  In The Comparatively Rare Cases

Of Death,  Resignation Or Ascertained Delinquency,  Upon Considerations

Chiefly Relating To Their Personal Capabilities For The Vacant Places,

Mr. Adams Was Patiently And Faithfully Engaged During The Four Years Of

His Presidency In establishing Almost The Precise Reform Of The National

Service Which Has Been In Recent Times So Strenuously Urged Upon Us As

The One Great Need Of The Nation--The Administrative Purification Which,

If Effectually Performed,  Would Prove That Our System Of Government Was

Fit To Continue In existence. Mr. Adams'S Plan Did,  Indeed,  Seem

Excellent. It Commanded The Respect Of Honest But Busy Citizens Absorbed

In Their Private Affairs And Desirous That The Government Might Be

Fixed,  Once For All,  In Settled Grooves,  So That Its Functions Would

Proceed Like The Steady Progress Of The Seasons. It Was An Attempt To

Run The Government,  As Has Been Sometimes Said,  "On Business

Principles." The President Was To Proceed,  And Did Proceed,  As If He Had

In Charge Some Great Estate Which He Was To Manage And Direct As A

Faithful And Exact Trustee. This,  No One Can Deny,  Had The Superficial

Look Of Most Admirable Administration.

But President Adams Had Left Out Of Account Largely What We Are

Compelled To Sedulously Consider--Public Opinion. He Had Acquired Most

Of His Experience Abroad,  And His Principal Service At Home,  As

Secretary Of State,  Had Been In a Remarkably Quiet Time,  When Party

Movements Were Neither Ebbing Nor Flowing,  So That He Had Forgotten How

Strong And Vigorous The Democratic Feeling Was Amongst The Population Of

These States. This Is A Forgetfulness To Which All Men Are Liable Who

Long Occupy Official Position,  And Who Seldom Have To Submit Themselves

To That Severe And Rude Competitive Examination Which The Plan Of

Popular Elections Establishes. Unfortunately For Him,  He Was Not

Responsible To A Court Of Chancery For The Management Of His Trust,  But

To A Tribunal Composed Of A Multitude Of Judges. His Accounts Were To Be

Passed Upon Not By One Learned And Conservative Auditor Guided By

Familiar Precedents And Rules Of Law,  But A Great,  Tumultuous Popular

Assembly,  Which Would Approve Or Disapprove By A Majority Vote. When,

Therefore,  It Appeared To The People That He Was Forming A Body Of

Permanent Office-Holders--Was Recruiting A Civil Army To Occupy In

Perpetuity The Offices Which They,  The Mass,  Had Created And Were Taxed

To Pay For--The Fierce,  And In Many Respects Scandalous,  Partisan

Assault Which Jackson Represented,  If He Did Not Direct,  Gathered

Overwhelming Force. It Seemed To The Popular View That A Narrow,  An

Exclusive,  An Aristocratic System Was Being Formed. The President

Appeared To Be,  While Honestly And Carefully Preserving Their Trust From

Waste