well knew that your charge was false: but knowing this you repeat it again, to deceive your constituents once more by a dishonest pretence which every man of ordinary self-respect would be ashamed of.
You had charged that “not one item of proof has been produced to show that the service is better now that it was prior to the enactment of the civil service law, and that on the contrary the proof is all the other way.” And what have you to say when you are reminded of the fact, which even you have not the hardihood to deny, that since the Hayes administration every President, Republican as well as Democrat, emphatically testified in message after message to the beneficent effects of the civil service law; that one head of Department after another, however prejudiced against the system when he entered upon his duties, changed his opinions in its favor, and that, as it statistically proven, “in the branches of the service under the civil service law more work was done by fewer persons and for less money, while in the branches not under the civil service law the old needless multiplication of offices went on, with an increasing wastefulness of expenditure?” You simply reiterate your original false allegation, and then try to support it with the statement that “the per capita cost of carrying on the government is much greater now than at any former period in our history.” This I am aware, is one of your stock arguments which you advance on every possible occasion and seem to be especially proud of.
Do you really mean to make your constituents believe that, inasmuch as since the enactment of the civil service law in 1883 the government has expended constantly increasing amounts of money for pensions, for rivers and harbors, for the new navy, for public buildings and various other purposes, and the incidental cost of administration, this increase is chargeable to the effects of the civil service law? Do you really consider the people of New Hampshire so imbecile that they should not see through so shallow a trick? Do you not offer them a mortal insult by presenting to them such nonsense as argument? And if your constituents were capable of suffering themselves to be deceived by such unspeakable absurdities, or to accept the insult without resentment, would such an attempt at deception under any circumstances be the part of an honest man? Is there really no blush rising to your cheeks when you look at your performance?
These are the three falsehoods which, when writing my last letter, I selected for exposure from a larger number. You have reiterated them, in the face of established facts. At the same time you have informed the public that you wish to withdraw from this controversy “content to let the future settle the dispute.” As to the rest of your letter I am willing to let you go, for I cannot deny that my critics, as represented by the Milwaukee Sentinel, are in the main right. A Senator of the United States who does not know, or who pretends not to know, the difference between a revenue tariff with incidental protection, and a protective tariff with incidental revenue; who regards, or pretends to regard, a recommendation slipped once into a party platform, like the recommendation of penny postage, as of equal moral authority with a solemn pledge that has been prominent in every national platform for a quarter of a century, like the pledge of civil service reform; who quotes Washington's declaration that he would not confide “an office of consequence” to and adversary, as equivalent to a declaration that he would make the whole service party spoil; who taunts me and other anti-protectionists who last year contributed to President McKinley's election in order to save the country from free coinage and bankruptcy, with having thereby become faithless to their principles as to the tariff, and so on—such a Senator is either too ignorant or too disingenuous a person for a useful debate on subjects requiring intelligent and candid treatment. As to that part of your letter I will, therefore, leave you to that judgment of posterity which you invoke.
But as to the falsehoods you have uttered with regard to the civil service law I cannot permit you to escape as easily. The enemies of civil service reform are at present gathering for a general assault upon the merit system. Their campaign has already begun all over the country, and their principal weapon consists in the unscrupulous misrepresentation of facts. This must and will be met. Among the falsifiers you occupy a conspicuous place, owing partly to your official station, partly to the unblushing perseverance in publicly reiterating allegations which you know to be untrue. I therefore give you fair notice that I shall cling to you with repeated and unsparing exposures of your wanton attempts to deceive, until, either by positive retraction, or at least by silence, you will have admitted the untruthfulness of your utterances. Neither will you have reason to complain of being singled out for such drastic discipline; for others in prominent position who have likewise offended, will in the same manner be held to account. It is a disagreeable duty, but it will be faithfully performed.
