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thoroughness and despatch. Nor am I doing him injustice in saying that he defends his course upon the exact grounds upon which professional spoilsmen in his position have always defended theirs: that the service was improved by the changes made—they always say that—and that the harmony of the party and the interests of the Administration required those changes—which they always say, too. In all this Mr. Quincy and the spoilsmen agree. For when Mr. Quincy speaks of not "disrupting the party" and of "preserving the influence of the Administration with Congress," it means, stripped of euphonious circumlocution, simply this, that he took consulships from Republicans and gave them to Democrats to hold the party together by feeding it with patronage, and to win for the Administration the votes of members of Congress by giving them consulships for their friends and supporters. This is clear.
There was a time when in England prominent men openly avowed the doctrine that corruption was an indispensable agency in constitutional government—that without corruption constitutional government would not work—and when, with little exaggeration, the prime minister, or his agent, was described as walking about in the House of Commons with his pockets full of banknotes to be distributed among members for the purpose of "preventing the disruption of the party," and of "preserving the influence of the Administration" with Parliament—in other words, of buying votes. When we read of this our moral sense is greatly shocked, and we are loath to admit that such a shameful state of demoralization could find a valid excuse in the loose notions and habits of the time.
Well, what is the difference between this and Mr. Quincy walking about among Senators and Representatives with consulships in his pockets to distribute them for the purpose of preventing "the disruption of the party," and of preserving "the influence of the Administration with Congress"? The Banknotes, to be sure, were downright money; but are not consulships money's worth to members of Congress? In either case—win-
